"And where is the presidential palace?" I ask in surprise, recognizing and not recognizing the city center.

Two years ago, the palace, the former party regional committee building, though ruined, still stood. I remember, before my eyes, a Chechen sniper's bullet knocked down the Russian flag, which another idiot had ordered to be hoisted over the roof, losing dozens of lives in the process (whose glory haunted him? Marshal Zhukov's or his horse's?).

"A deep-penetration bomb hit here... It penetrated everything—down to the basement... Then everything else was torn down," Lecha explains.

I look away... Though I should look, look and look...

Besides the shadows of former buildings, the city is full of the shadows of former people.

They are gone. And will never return.

"Chechnya has lost about one hundred twenty thousand people," says Movladi Udugov.

Most of them are civilians.

Militant losses total about five thousand people.

The exact losses of Russian troops are unknown to anyone. Or rather, no one wants to count them. No need... No need... No point... What, does Russia have few people?...

I wonder if Andrei Sidorov's name is on these lists, his remains having been found by his father, Sidorov Vasily Efimovich, two days before our arrival? Found in a field with the help of Chechens?

What did he ask of us, here in Grozny, on Volnaya Street, where soldiers' mothers lament their losses and cling to hopes?

He asked for help in quickly obtaining a death certificate for his son from Ivan Rybkin's commission, which is officially authorized to search for our prisoners:

"I wrote a statement... They told me to come to the commission... They will discuss it... But I'm afraid it will start a bureaucratic merry-go-round..." sighs Vasily Efimovich, the father of a known soldier—among so many unknown soldiers who remained lying in the fields near Grozny.

Oh, these Russian commissions...

Soldiers' mothers have no hope in them.

They said that commission kept them for an hour — but never even received them. There was no time, you see...

Their only hope is themselves. Themselves, the Chechens, Major Izmailov, the readers of "Novaya Gazeta" who collect money for them (I brought the latest sum collected by readers, and they all kept repeating: "Thank you, thank you everyone...", and honestly, I felt awkward about this gratitude).

No, we have wonderful people. The government—is not human.

One lost person is not yet a cause for concern for an official. We always talk about millions, millions...

I saw how the authorities of Chechnya and Ingushetia search for our lost and missing. I also saw mothers united by grief—both Russian and Chechen. Finally, I met Yuri Anisimovich Shmatov, the only, I repeat, THE ONLY regional leader who personally came to retrieve his Pskov boy.

"Will our Stavropol [governor] not come? It's close here..." asks a soldier's mother.

"They all say there's no money for it..." sighs another.

And again, we cannot raise our eyes in shame for those who could and should have been here, with the mothers. Should have... Should...

Just like Yuri Anisimovich, just like Akhiyad Turaev and Sharip Okunchaev, representatives of the Pskov Chechen diaspora, who spent a month and a half searching for the Russian boy Lesha Anisimov (and the diaspora is only about a thousand people).

Our peoples are divided into people and bosses.

I met with people. I did not meet with the bosses who officially represent Russia in Chechnya. The day before my departure from Moscow, Mr. Osipov from the presidential administration called me and informed me that Mr. Chernyshev, who was officially entrusted with the search for prisoners, had no time for me. He was carrying out an urgent assignment from Mr. Rybkin.

What kind of urgency was it, if both the Russian and Chechen sides knew why—and with what—I was coming? Movladi Udugov, the vice-premier, found time. Our bosses are always too busy...

And I travelled with a list of individuals of Chechen nationality currently held in Russian MVD prisons and pre-trial detention centers. This list contains 462 names.

I asked the Chechen side to verify the list: after all, a year ago Aslan Maskhadov told me that Chechnya did not need "Saratov criminals of Chechen nationality." I think little has changed since then.