The Month in Brief - February 2006February 1
Human rights activists rallied in front of the headquarters of the Federal Security Service (FSB) in Lubyanka in Moscow to protest agains FSB's attacks on civil society in Russia.
February 2
Chechen resistance leader Abdul-Khalim Sadullayev made large-scale changes in his government, ordering all its members to move into the Chechen territory. Among other things, he removed First Vice-Premier Akhmed Zakayev from his post.
Two people died and two dozen others were injured when blasts ripped through three gambling houses in the North Ossetian capital of Vladikavkaz.
February 3
Stanislav Dmitriyevsky, editor-in-chief of the Pravozashchita newspaper and head of the Society of Russian-Chechen Friendship, received from the Nizhny Novgorod district court a 2-year suspended sentence with a 4-year probationary period for inciting ethnic and racial hatred after his paper published Chechen resistance leaders' peace appeals.
February 6-7
Ramzan Kadyrov, the acting Moscow-backed Chechen Premier, and then the republic's government effectively barred the Danish Refugee Council, the largest partner to the UN in Chechnya and the neigbouring republics, from working in Chechnya due to the scandal over the publication by a Danish newspaper of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.
February 8
Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev, who nearly a year ago replaced the late Aslan Maskhadov as President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, issued a series of decrees, including a decree appointing Apti Bisultanov his plenipotentiary to international organizations.
At least 13 members of the Chechen battalion Vostok of the Russian Defence Ministry died in a blast in their barracks in Kurchaloi. While Russian sources attributed the blast to a gas leak, Chechen guerrillas claimed responsibility for it and put the casualties several times higher.
February 10
Russian security forces clashed with guerrillas in the village of Tukuy-Mekteb in Russia's Stavropolsky Region. Several guerrillas, allegedly belonging to the Nogaysky Batallion, and several policemen were killed in the battle and round-up operation.
February 14
Former Russian Colonel Yuri Budanov, who is serving his 10-year sentence for the March 2000 killing of Chechen girl Elza Kungayeva, might be released early on good behaviour, a Russian prison official announced.
February 15
Chechnya's chief cardiologist Salavdi Murtazayev was killed when his car crashed with a Russian APC in Grozny.
February 16
Acting Moscow-backed Chechen Premier Ramzan Kadyrov asked all ministers to move their families to Chechnya in order to better understand and control the situation in the republic.
February 19
Women of the Voice of Beslan commitee ended their hungerstrike, which they started on February 9 in protest against the course of the investigation of the Beslan school siege.
February 20
Chechnya's Moscow-backed Parliament approved Nurdi Nukhazhiyev, head of the Directorate for Citizens' Constitutional Rights at the Moscow-backed Chechen President, as the Chechen Human Rights Commissioner.
February 22
Dmitry Kozak, Russian Presidential Envoy in the Southern Federal Region, asked Prosecutor General's Office to look into the Moscow-backed Chechen Vice-Premier Ramzan Kadyrov's ban on the presence of Danish NGOs in Chechnya.
February 23
Chechens in Chechnya as well as other parts of the world commemorated the 62th anniversary of their deportation to Central Asia and protested against the ongoing conflict in their homeland.
February 24
Speaking about Chechnya at a press conference in Moscow on her February 19-24 visit to Russia, Louise Arbour, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, expressed "very serious concerns regarding the integrity of certain institutions, especially in the area of law enforcement. Two phenomena are particularly disturbing: the use of torture to extract confessions and information, and the intimidation of those who make complaints against public officials."
February 25-26
Alvaro Gil-Robles, who will in late March resign as the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights, visited Chechnya, together with his successor, Thomas Hammarberg. He criticized abductions, impunity and lack of security and welcomed economic progress in Chechnya.
February 27
Magomed Chakhkiyev, Ingush MP and father-in-law of Ingushetiya's President Murat Zyazikov, was kidnapped from his car by unknown armed men in Nazran.
February 28
Alu Alkhanov, the Moscow-backed Chechen President, received a letter of resignation from Chechen Premier Sergei Abramov, who has been recovering from the wounds he sustained in a car accident in Moscow in November 2005.
Compiled by Prague Watchdog. Along with these monthly summaries, we also publish weekly summaries, distributing them on Mondays to the subscribers of our free weekly newsletter. (T/B)
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