The book contains 26 chapters, each focused on a definite period of Aslan Maskhadov's life. The book is so far available in Norwegian only, but talks are under way about translating it into both Russian and English. Anzor Maskhadov hopes that the Russian and English editions will be published by the end of August 2010.

Anzor Maskhadov spoke about his work in an exclusive interview to The Caucasian Knot. The interview is available in English on WaYNaKH Online:

http://www.waynakh.com/eng/2010/06/the-son-of-aslan-maskhadov-published-the-book-my-father-the-chechen-president/

Lack of hard evidence, boilerplate answers from Russian envoys and poor follow-up have seen EU-Russia human rights talks add up to little more than diplomats getting to know each other. EU delegates at the 11th EU-Russia "human rights consultations," held in Brussels on 28 April 2010, gave the Russian side a list of needling questions about 31 individual cases, including big names such as oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and anti-fraud lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, as well as several hardly-known victims. The union did not receive any real answers to its queries in April and it does not expect to receive any at the 12th round of talks under the upcoming Belgian EU presidency. "We have never learned anything we did not know already," an EU contact said.

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As the Moscow bombings remind, the simmering insurgency and brutal crackdown in the Caucasus have left a landscape of damaged women, some all too ready to spread their pain to Russia's heartland.

The last time Patimat Magomedova saw her daughter, she was puttering around the house, manicuring her nails and using henna to dye her hair bright red. Maryam Sharipova, 27, had traveled a thousand miles to Moscow and climbed onto a crowded subway train at rush hour with an explosives-packed belt strapped around her waist. She was accompanied by a 17-year-old girl, also from Dagestan, who blew herself up at another station.

In the Russian news media, the women were immediately dubbed "black widows." Their assault on the subway was taken as proof that the country had been shuttled back to the fearsome days when hollow-eyed female militants stalked Moscow and other cities far from the wars where their men fought Russian forces. The subway bombings also sent ripples of unease across the turbulent, mostly Muslim republics strung along Russia's southern edge.

But it came as slim surprise that women were ready to die. This is a landscape of damaged women, grieving losses they dare not dwell upon. The closer you get to the fighting in the Caucasus, the murkier it appears. The violence in Dagestan, Chechnya, and Ingushetia is not easy to classify -- it is a mix of rebels who want independence, Islamist extremists bent on waging jihad, local clan and gang warfare and sectarian strife.

And as the fighting intensifies, it is the men who disappear. Masked agents pound on the door and cart them off for questioning. They come back beaten, or not at all. Sometimes the men are rebels; other times, their affiliations are bafflingly vague. It is the women who are left behind, their status and material comforts tangled up in the choices of their fathers, sons and husbands.

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/apr/13/world/la-fg-women-bombers13-2010apr13

Magomed Khazbiev fears for his life. Khazbiev's brothers have protected him after an armed assault on the family's house in August 2008. Two of Khazbiev's close colleagues have been murdered: In late August 2008, opposition leader Magomed Yevloyev was killed by Ingush police on his return to the republic; in October 2009, another Ingush opposition leader, Maksharip Aushev, was gunned down in nearby Kabardino-Balkaria.

Musa Pliev, lawyer representing the Khazbiev family, said Magomed Khazbiev has always stood for human rights. Mr Pliev vowed to defend the family from arbitrary justice. On 11 March 2010, a heavy police detachment carried out a search of Khazbiev's home in Nazran. Earlier, he was questioned in connection with the beating of Kaloy Akhilgov. The authorities claim that Magomed Khazbiev was behind the beating.

http://www.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/167284/

First Caucasian Channel is the first Caucasian TV channel broadcasting in Russian independent from the Kremlin or its proxies. The channel had an agreement that it was to be relayed via Eutelsat's satellite W7. Yet after signing a deal with Russia's Intersputnik, Eutelsat, the main European satellite provider, reneged on its agreement with the First Caucasian Channel.

A court case is pending in Paris and a campaign to support the First Caucasian Channel is gathering pace in Europe. Meanwhile, the channel remains unavailable on Eutelsat, being relayed over the internet only. The case raises serious questions about the commitment of some European companies to respect media pluralism and European principles in their deals with authoritarian regimes.

On 17 March 2010, Ekaterina Kotrikadze, editor-in-chief of the First Caucasian Channel, the Russian filmamaker Andrei Nekrasov, and other Russian journalists will hold a debate about the case of the First Caucasian Channel, moderated by MEP Heidi Hautala, Chairperson of the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Human Rights, at the European Parliament in Brussels.

http://www.heidihautala.fi/2010/03/russia-georgia-media-freedom-debate-and-film-screening/

A unified Circassian republic is no threat to the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation, a leading Circassian organization says. However, Moscow’s maintenance or even exacerbation of Soviet-imposed divisions could well present the country with serious problems, according to a leading Russian analyst of the North Caucasus.

In November 2009, an extraordinary congress of the Circassian people in Karachayevo-Cherkessia adopted a resolution for unification, which Russian officials rejected out of hand. Vladimir Ustinov, presidential plenipotentiary in the Southern Federal District, said the unification of the Circassians would lead to “the dismemberment of the region.”

Mukhammed Cherkessov, head of the Adyge Khase organization, stressed that “none of the Cherkess, Kabards, and Adygeys want to leave Russia.” Circassians want to become more integrated in Russia and want ethnic Russians living among them to “remain living on the territory of the republic as a stabilizing factor.”

Caucasus analyst Sergey Markedonov suggests that the Circassian “problem” may now get worse: “The harsh technocratic decisions taken by a narrow group of people without discussion or an appreciation of human psychology and ethno-cultural factors can lead not to the desired stabilization but rather toward entirely different outcomes.”

http://windowoneurasia.blogspot.com/2010/01/window-on-eurasia-unified-circassia.html

The incidence of terrorist attacks in Dagestan has spiked in the new year, with only a month to go until the term of Dagestan’s incumbent president Mukhu Aliyev expires. On 8 January 2010, Russia’s leadership demanded tangible results in the counter-terrorism operation in the North Caucasus. Since then, five militants have been killed, including one said to be an important leader in the Dagestan insurgency. But is this really likely to slow the Islamist insurgency? And will the appointment of a new president further fan the flames in the republic?

http://russiaprofile.com/page.php?pageid=Politics&articleid=a1263322702

http://rt.com/Politics/2010-01-19/north-caucasus-federal-district.html

As Russian tanks rumbled into Georgia in August 2008, a post-Cold War turning point was at hand. George W Bush’s national security team considered launching air strikes to halt the invasion, according to Ronald D Asmus’s absorbing account of the five-day clash in the Caucasus, “A Little War That Shook the World.”

Four days after the war started on 7 August 2008, Bush cut off the discussion. A top-level White House meeting produced “a clear sense around the table that almost any military steps could lead to a confrontation with Moscow,” Asmus writes. In the end, neither the administration nor NATO could do much to save Georgia.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=anp.wBWKJBGY