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Locals report they saw Dagestani Isa Makasharipov among commanders of the Chechen unit acting on the territory of the Tsuntinsky district in Dagestan. Makasharipov was one of Shamil Basayev's closest mates.

In the evening of December 8, 2003 in the Leninsky district of Grozny, officers of one of the Chechen security agencies made an armed attack on a temporary accommodation center of forced migrants.

From early in the morning all access routes to Soglasiya Square in Nazran were blocked by police units that let no cars through. In 1993, thousands of people attended rallies there because of the Ingush-North Osetian disputes over the Prigorodny district and the republic's separation from Chechnya.

The round table "Peace Process: Myth or Reality" was held by the Chechen intelligentsia in Grozny on December 19. The aim of the event organized by the Lam cultural center was to discuss changes in the political situation in the aftermath of the presidential and State Duma elections in Chechnya.

Director of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Nikolay Patrushev stated it.

Although the war action made everyone suffer, the most vulnerable section of the population - children - appear to be the hardest hit.

According to the Interior Ministry, unknown individuals fired automatic weapons at the policemen in the Zavodskoy district of the city at 7:05 p.m. Moscow time last Sunday. An Interior Ministry operations major and his partner, a sergeant of the police force, were killed on duty.

The hostage, Oksana Bolshakova, was released in the course of the militia operation in the village of Shaami-Yurt. The woman was kidnapped in February 2003 in Budyonnovsk , Stavropol Territory and then taken to Kizlyar, Dagestan.

According to chairman of the Chechen International Human Rights Committee Aslanbek Abdurzakov, in difficult periods of the Georgian-Russian relations, the theme of the Pankisi Gorge always emerges as one of the means to either destabilize a situation in Georgia or put pressure upon it.

Results of the action are unknown yet. On December 22, at daybreak, federal forces resumed their search for rebels.

On December 11, 2003, some information agencies reported that two teenagers, residents of the village of Prigorodnoye, were killed while placing a landmine. Members of the Human Rights Center "Memorial" have conducted their own investigation and ascertained the real circumstances of the young boys' death, which completely contradict the version of the regional operations headquarters.

"The West is flirting with Putin and this of course is linked to its need for Russia's energy resources," Akhmed Zakayev said. "This is clearly pragmatism but in this case it is criminal pragmatism, in fact a form of racism. Chechnya is part of Europe but where else in Europe would the West allow such human rights abuses to go on for such a long time?"

In the village of Goy-Chu (former Komsomolskoye), which was completely destroyed during the second Chechen war, 68% of respondents said they had to "share" their compensatory money with functionaries, and 33.5% gave them a half of the sum they received.

The program is carried out by the Czech charitable organization "Man in Trouble".

The first republican meeting of Chechen non-government organizations (NGOs) took place in Grozny on December 10.