Viktor Yushchenko, the Ukrainian President, was in a fierce and defiant mood yesterday as he urged Nato to respond to the Russian invasion of Georgia by moving quickly to expand the frontiers of the alliance eastwards.

In his interview to Utro.ru website, a ringleader of “Vostok” (East) gang who had just been dismissed to “reserve” with preservation of “ranks and awards”, said that a number of young people, who leave for the mountains to the Mujahideen increasing in Chechnya and other parts of the Caucasus Emirate.

The fighting in South Ossetia and the subsequent invasion of Georgian territory by Russian troops have become the most widely-discussed topic in Chechnya. Unlike the early 1990s, when Chechnya unconditionally supported the Abkhazians and South Ossetians, the majority of Chechens are nowadays sympathetic to the Georgian side, even though the …