Hundreds of families in Chechnya have yet to bury relatives who disappeared in the two wars that devastated the region in Russia’s North Caucasus more than a decade ago. Ahead of the International Day of the Disappeared, marked on August 30, RFE/RL spoke to one couple still waiting for their son to be returned to them -- dead or alive.
Seventy years ago, the entire Chechen and Ingush peoples were deported to Central Asia on the orders of Josef Stalin. Two survivors recall the tragedy, in which at least a third of the population succumbed to cold, hunger, and Soviet bullets.
If the president of Ingushetia has his way, couples in the small North Caucasus republic may soon have to take an HIV test before being able to tie the knot.
