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MOSCOW (Bloomberg) -- Georgia may be forced into default because the country cannot pay its foreign debts, Prime-Tass reported, citing National Bank of Georgia President Irakli Managadze. Georgia had $1.7 billion in foreign debt at the end of 2002, according to the Central Bank's annual report posted its web site.

Chechnya Land Mine Kills Nine Russian Soldiers Fri August 22, 2003 04:12 AM ET MOSCOW (Reuters) - Nine Russian soldiers were killed when a land mine exploded near a column of Russian military trucks in rebel Chechnya, Russian news agencies said on Friday, quoting military sources. A military officer at army headquarters in Chechnya was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying two other soldiers were injured by the blast that hit the convoy on Thursday near the regional capital of Grozny. "Two unidentified men wearing military camouflage exploded a land mine placed in a light car," the officer said....

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) - All of Georgia was without power for the entire day on Monday, and officials in the impoverished former Soviet republic were struggling to determine the cause of the blackout. Electricity went off at 7 a.m. in the entire country of 4.4 million people and was not fully restored until about 10 p.m. Periodic blackouts are common here - and rolling blackouts are regularly implemented to conserve power - but it was the first time in two years that the whole country was affected at once. ``We are trying to figure out what's happening,'' said Medeya Kakhadze,...

A remote mine allegedly triggered by Chechen rebels killed five Russian soldiers Friday while troops were conducting a search operation in the breakaway republic, the Interior Ministry said Friday. The radio-controlled mine was detonated in the Vedeno region of southern Chechnya when an armored personnel carrier full of Interior Minister troops rolled over the explosive device. The soldiers were killed immediately by the force of the blast, the ministry said. Five others were wounded. The Interior Ministry said it had stepped up control of its operations in Chechnya. Meanwhile in the Chechen capital Grozny, local police said that a small...

VLADIKAVKAZ - Twenty five separatist rebels were killed in a widespread Russian military operation in southern Chechnya, a spokesman for Russia's armed forces said Thursday. Preliminary estimates indicated that 25 insurgents were killed during a string of reconnaissance and search operations over the past 24 hours in Chechnya's Itum-Kale and Shatoi districts and the Argun Gorge, Col. Ilya Shabalkin told the Interfax news agency. Meanwhile, 10 Russian servicemen were killed in the same period in clashes with Chechen rebels and mine explosions, an official in the Moscow-backed administration said on condition of anonymity. Four soldiers were killed and another injured...

Chechnya Shows Signs of 'Palestinization' By VANCE SERCHUK FORWARD CORRESPONDENT WASHINGTON — In the wake of this month's devastating suicide bombing of a hospital near Chechnya, diplomatic analysts have increasingly been speaking of the "Palestinization" of the Chechen conflict.In recent weeks, suicide bombings have suddenly become the most visible, if not dominant, métier of the Chechen resistance. Since mid-May, there have been eight successful or attempted suicide bombings in Russia. They have been responsible for more than 150 deaths — despite the fact that this kind of terrorism was virtually nonexistent in the Chechen conflict before last year. The sudden...

UK charity teaching Chechens to make bombs, say Russians -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MOSCOW, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Russia's FSB domestic security service on Thursday accused a British anti-landmine charity of teaching Chechen rebels explosives techniques and of spying on Moscow's military. The allegations, which came two days after a bomb killed eight people in a Moscow underpass, were denied by the Halo Trust mine clearance agency, which dubbed them a smear campaign. Some officials have blamed the Moscow bomb on Chechen rebels. The FSB, a successor body to the Soviet-era KGB, said in a statement: "The FSB has reliable information about the...

Anniversary brings pressure for release of Dutch aid worker By Ian Bickerton, Amsterdam and Reuters ends Published: August 12 2003 22:06 | Last Updated: August 12 2003 22:06 The US and European Union on Tuesday stepped up diplomatic efforts to secure the release of a Dutch aid worker kidnapped in the Russian republic of Dagestan a year ago. Arjan Erkel, a 33-year-old volunteer working for Médecins Sans Frontières, the international charity, was abducted by three armed men in Makhatchkala, the capital of Dagestan, bordering Chechnya, on August 12 last year. The Dutch ambassador in Moscow has written to Russian President...

We should not be surprised when rewarding suicide bombers causes this plague to spread. ........................................ On August 1, Russia suffered its eighth suicide bombing in less than three months. This time the target was a hospital; 50 patients and hospital staffers were killed. The previous attacks, whose targets included a religious ceremony and a rock concert, killed over 100 people. All were perpetrated by Chechens. What makes this sudden spate of attacks surprising is that though Russians and Chechens have fought two wars in the last decade, with the current one now in its fourth year, suicide attacks have until...

Russian Toll in Chechnya Put at 12,000 Agence France Presse MOSCOW, 9 August 2003 — More than 12,000 Russian soldiers have died in the nearly four-year war in separatist Chechnya, almost triple the officially disclosed figure, the Soldiers’ Mothers Committee rights group said yesterday. Valentina Malnikova, a representative of the respected group, told Moscow Echo radio that the figures included soldiers who died on their way to a hospital or from injuries at a later date — deaths that are not officially registered by the authorities. The estimate suggests that on an average, nearly nine Russian soldiers have died daily...

RUSSIA: Combat Tactics in Chechnya August 11, 2003: Over the weekend, the US and Britain placed Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev on their international terrorist blacklist. Basayev has taken credit for bombings and suicide attacks inside Russia and is believed to be working with al Qaeda. The Chechens are getting some weapons and money from outside sources, but most of what the rebels need comes from fellow Chechens (including criminal gangs). Buying, or stealing, weapons from Russian troops is common. August 10, 2003: In Chechnya, rebel action left eight soldiers dead. August 8, 2003: Russian forces in Ingushtia are searching the...

A Chechen separatist news agency said Saturday that Washington's designation of warlord Shamil Basayev as a terrorist amounted to its acceptance of part of the responsibility for atrocities in Chechnya. In a terse, irate statement published on the Kafkas.org web site, Agency Caucasus also ridiculed Washington's move to freeze any assets Basayev may have in the United States, saying the rebel fighter had no holdings in the country to begin with. Russia's enthusiastic praise of the U.S. action indicated its "happiness" that the United States was willing "to share the same responsibility for the Russian bloodshed and genocide in Chechnya,"...

Monday, Aug. 11, 2003. Page 2 Rebels Ridicule U.S. Move The Moscow Times A Chechen separatist news agency said Saturday that Washington's designation of warlord Shamil Basayev as a terrorist amounted to its acceptance of part of the responsibility for atrocities in Chechnya. In a terse, irate statement published on the Kafkas.org web site, Agency Caucasus also ridiculed Washington's move to freeze any assets Basayev may have in the United States, saying the rebel fighter had no holdings in the country to begin with. Russia's enthusiastic praise of the U.S. action indicated its "happiness" that the United States was willing...

<p>WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Colin Powell (search) on Friday designated Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev (search) a threat to the security of the United States and to U.S. citizens.</p> <p>Powell, in a notice in the Federal Register (search), said Basayev, 38, "has committed, or poses a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism" against U.S. interests.</p>

<p>Shamil Basayev received money for weapons and training from Osama bin Laden, the U.S. State Department alleges.</p> <p>WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Secretary of State Colin Powell designated the Chechen leader believed responsible for last year's hostage standoff in a Moscow theater as a threat to U.S. security Friday.</p>

After leading Chechen rebels in two wars, mounting one of Russia's bloodiest terrorist attacks and claiming credit for many others, Shamil Basayev continues to elude Russian forces and even losing a leg to a land mine didn't take him out of action for long. The warlord's grim, decade-long record of killing both civilians and soldiers speaks of a fanatical determination and Russia has long alleged that this ferocity is bolstered by aid from international terrorist networks including al-Qaida. Washington joined in on Friday, declaring Basayev a global terrorist and a threat to the United States and moved to freeze any...

MOSCOW, 9 August 2003 — More than 12,000 Russian soldiers have died in the nearly four-year war in separatist Chechnya, almost triple the officially disclosed figure, the Soldiers’ Mothers Committee rights group said yesterday. Valentina Malnikova, a representative of the respected group, told Moscow Echo radio that the figures included soldiers who died on their way to a hospital or from injuries at a later date — deaths that are not officially registered by the authorities. The estimate suggests that on an average, nearly nine Russian soldiers have died daily since President Vladimir Putin launched the self-declared “anti-terror” campaign while...

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia - Gunmen ambushed a Russian military convoy near the border with Chechnya, killing six soldiers and wounding seven, the Russian military said Friday. The military vehicle came under automatic gunfire Thursday evening near the village of Alkhasty in the Ingushetia region, which borders Chechnya to the west, a duty officer at the Northern Caucasus military command center said. The gunmen escaped back into the woods after the attack. Fighting from the nearly four-year-old war in Chechnya occasionally spills into Ingushetia, particularly near its border with Chechnya. On July 29, a land mine explosion shattered a military convoy in...

Zulikhan Yelikhadzhiyeva lived much of her short life surrounded by the horrors of the two wars in Chechnya, but she suffered comparatively little. She lived in a cloistered brick house in this small Chechen village, which has largely escaped war's worst ravages. She studied at the village's medical vocational school and interned at its local clinic. Advertisement Little seems to explain why a month ago, accompanied by another woman, she approached the entrance to a music festival in Moscow and blew herself up. The blast killed only her, but the other woman detonated her own suicide bomb moments later, killing...

03 August 2003 07:55 Russians report 51 rebels killed over past week in Chechnya Groznyy, 3 August: Federal forces destroyed 51 gunmen, arrested 13 members of illegal band formations, liquidated three major bases of gunmen and 52 caches of arms and armaments, and averted five terror acts in Chechnya over the past week, a source at the regional headquarters of the counterterrorist operation in the North Caucasus told ITAR-TASS today. According to the headquarters, the operatives liquidated 16 sub-machine-guns, 29 grenade launchers, 15 home-made explosive devices, over 200 mines and artillery shells, more than 28,000 cartridges to firearms and large...