Chechnya - The week in brief: 07 - 13 May 2007

May 7 - The British daily Independent reported that more than 100 members of Britain's political and cultural elite have sent an opet letter to President Putin urging him to use his final year as president to restore "peace and justice" to Chechnya.

May 8 - A group of people, mainly migrants from the North Caucasus region, was taken into custody on suspicion of planning a bomb explosion on Moscow's Profsoyuznaya Street. On May 10 the FSB announced that it had foiled the operation of a "terrorist group", while the Za Prava Cheloveka (For Human Rights) NGO that one of the detainees had been badly beaten at a police station.

May 8 - The restored Dynamo stadium was opened in Grozny, with covered terraces for 10,000 spectators.

May 9 - A military parade to commemorate Victory Day was held at Grozny's Dynamo stadium, with both Chechen and Russian forces taking part.

May 9 - The third anniversary of the assassination of former Moscow-backed Chechen President Akhmat Kadyrov at Grozny's Dynamo stadium.

May 10 - Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov signed a decree on measures to counteract terrorism in the Chechen Republic, and became chairman of the Antiterrorist Commission of the Chechen Republic.

May 10 - The European Court of Human Rights condemned Russia for the abduction and murder of Shamil Akhmadov, a Chechen resident who was arrested during a large-scale special operation in the city of Argun in March 2001.

May 12 - The 10th anniversary of the signing in Moscow by Russian President Boris Yeltsin and President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Aslan Maskhadov of the "Agreement on peace and the principles of mutual relations".

May 12 - In a statement about the May 9-10 reports concerning the prevention of a major terrorist attack in Moscow, Chechen ombudsman Nurdi Nukhazhiev protested strongly against the categorization of citizens as "terrorists" or as belonging to the "terrorist underground" on the basis of their ethnicity and without the application of the principle of presumption of innocence.

May 13 - The Moscow-backed Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov met with Kabardino-Balkarian President Arsen Kanokov in Nalchik. It was Kadyrov's first visit to the neighbouring republic in his new capacity as President.