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Nezavisimaya Gazeta [Independent Newspaper] has a website that includes a<br />

“Severniy Kavkaz: Khronika Konflikta” [The North Caucasus: Chronicle of the<br />

Conflict] section that is good for current events in the area. The Infocentre site<br />

is apparently operated by the Ministry for Press, Television, Radio<br />

Broadcasting, and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation. It contains<br />

a “Chronicle of the Day” section that explains in great detail (with photos) the<br />

day’s events in Chechnya, and it is recommended as an excellent site for<br />

understanding the Russian perception of the war.<br />

Another Russian site dedicated to the war is Chechnya.ru. According to<br />

the newspaper Kommersant [Business], the site was created on 14 December<br />

2001 by the Moscow-backed Chechen government and the Kremlin-connected<br />

strana.ru website. Presidential aide Sergey Yastrzhembsky noted that the site<br />

would provide positive information on Chechnya to the Russian populace.<br />

Sponsors of the site include three websites—utro.ru (an Internet newspaper<br />

founded by RosBiznesKonsalting), gamma.ru (Gamma Internet Service<br />

Provider), and porta.ru (Webcom Company affiliated with the porta.ru e-<br />

commerce site). The site has eleven sections: The Latest News, Maps of the<br />

Republic, The War in Chechnya, The Genocide of the Population, Opinion,<br />

Community, Anti-Terrorism, Services, Our Neighbors, Our Colleagues, and<br />

Our Sponsors. 354 The website kavkaz.strana.ru is a pro-Moscow Chechen<br />

government (recognized by Moscow) website.<br />

The story was quite different on the Chechen side of the conflict where<br />

several websites are directed either specifically at the war in Chechnya or<br />

anywhere Jihad is taking place. These sites included, but were not limited to,<br />

chechentimes.com, kavkaz.org, and amina.com. The website qoqaz.net,<br />

another and perhaps the most popular site for showing atrocities, was renamed<br />

at some point between September 2000 and April of 2002. It is now called<br />

Assam Publications. The website has links to “azzam.com” and a section on<br />

Jihad in general that includes news, fatwa, photos, videos, and so on. Other<br />

links include “jihad in Chechnya” and “jihad in Afghanistan.” Features of a<br />

download from 16 April 2002 included “Women of Afghanistan”—a section on<br />

the Chechen view of the suffering of the women of Afghanistan under the new<br />

US-propped regime and “Children of Iraq”—an exclusive feature on the<br />

children of Iraq who were being slaughtered by American terrorists, according<br />

to the website. Thus the website clearly has an anti-Russian and anti-Western<br />

tone.<br />

354 “Assessment of Chechnya.ru,” downloaded from the FBIS website on 8 January<br />

2002.<br />

192

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