Are weakening.

Remarks about Chechens even from liberal politicians smell of racism. Mr. Luzhkov called for the re-registration of people who arrived in Moscow from other places "with special attention to Chechens." This could make life in the capital even more risky and insecure and more pitiable for Russian Muslims and Caucasians, who even to this day have often felt the heavy hand of the police. Mr. Vachagaev says that more than 500 Chechens have already been arrested in Moscow "simply on the basis of their nationality."

He also fears spontaneous acts of revenge that the police will not prevent. "A group planned to storm our office on Tuesday," says the envoy. "When I asked the authorities for protection, they said they would send a second policeman."

And all this before the election campaign in Russia has barely begun.

Photo: a line of people facing a bus, hands up - "Where else are you from?"

25.09.99. South of Russia: Still disorder

The bombs in Moscow have stirred Russia's instinct to use force on its troubled southern borders and involve nearby countries in them.

Never worry about evidence. Move to fight. This, at first glance, seems to be Russia's reaction to the flood of bombs in Moscow and in cities and territories on Russia's rebellious southern fringe, which has cost about 300 lives in the last month. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is urging "the harshest measures" against the perpetrators—terrorists from Chechnya, as he says.

• bombings
• preparation for war
• seeking help on the diplomatic front
• accusations against Georgia and Azerbaijan
• support for separatists in Abkhazia and refusal to withdraw bases
• bombings of Georgian border villages
• Islamic rebellions in Central Asia and Russian intervention

...The shadow of the old Warsaw Pact? Unlikely. Russian leaders are ready to ensure full readiness to make a bad situation even worse.

"L'Express", Paris

23.09.99. Under cover: The perverted and corrupt Tsar

["Grab the looted!", xenophobia and the need for mythology]

Police raids, conducted mainly against residents of Caucasian origin, have led to more than 11,000 arrests. An article in the daily "Novaya Gazeta," inspired (or "of the inspired" - grammatically impossible to determine), according to multiple signs, by the FSB (ex-KGB), even hints at airborne sabotage groups whose members, Ukrainians and Russians, are allegedly paid $50,000 by the leader of the Chechen war, Shamil Basayev, to sow terror in the country's large cities. This is his sore spot, because, for the most part, the latter does not hesitate to widely and loudly take credit for his ostentatious actions. But Basayev strongly denies any involvement in this terrorist wave. Just like one of the leaders of the Islamists of Dagestan, Sirazhdin Ramazanov, who accuses: "These terrorist acts are connected with an unprecedented battle for power unfolding in Moscow." While the war spreads in the North Caucasus with daily bombings of Chechnya, the most generally accepted thesis attributes responsibility for the terrorist attacks to the current government, or at least to certain Machiavellis from the presidential circle, who would be the "commanditistes" (no Russian equivalent - an investor in a limited partnership).

• bad pre-election prospects and the country's financial situation

14.10.99. Caucasus: big Russian maneuvers. Chechnya: Moscow's ambitions (Sylvain Pasquier)

• deployment of preparations for war and the danger from Russia for all countries.
• Russia's incitement of separatists in Transcaucasia.
• Russian military bases in