Pretty shocking stuff, though hardly surprising given what we've seen of Beslan, the theater siege, and so on. The one thing that always gets me about Chechnya is that at one level, especially at the start of it in the early 90s (when I became aware of the separaratist movement there) I actaully *sympathize* with the goal of an independent Chechnya *in theory*. Afterall it is a genuine ethnic nation, invaded, occupied, ground down, and annexed by Mother Russia and has generally been pissed on from on high ever since.
Unfortunately the Chechens have adopted the poisonous cancer or Arab (well, Islamic) Nationalism as justification for their cause, so in weighing up what I view as two evils - occupation by Russia vs. establisment of a Jihadist state - the formed wins hands down.
I believe that in Russia as it is - essentially a semi-capitalist dictatorship masquerading as a democracy - it may well be neccessary in some cases to use armed resistance to be heard and to have any control over your destiny whatsoever. It is just that the Chechen tactics are the worst possible example of how to try to convince the world you are "freedom fighters"...
I mean *former* of course.
Problem is, slavery is what drove Russia into Chechenya. The Chechens were raiding Russian settlements to the north and in Ossetia and in Russian Georgia and selling the human cargo to Turkey, Persia and Khiva. It's the only real industry that shiete hole has.