For the second time, the Chechen writer Kanta Imbragimov has been included in the list of official nominees for the Nobel Prize for Literature. Ibragimov has won prizes in Russia and the local government loves him. According to our correspondent Majnat Kurbanova, however, he has no talent. A tasty literary controversy

In December's parliamentary elections, Putin's "United Russia" party obtained 99.48% of votes in Chechnya. Sceptics attributed this result – a record for the whole Russia – to a massive use of administrative resources. However, the wonders of Chechen arithmetic do not stop here: President Kadyrov anticipated that Putin would get 150% of Chechen votes at March's presidential elections 

In his most recent televised address to the people, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said corruption in Chechnya was minimal. In reality, it is enough to spend a few days in the region to realise that corruption, like a spider web, envelops almost every sphere of life in Chechnya starting in primary school

In the age of the Russian Empire, people used to believe the tsar was good and the Boyars were the evil exploiters. In Stalin's times, many believed the leader was good and wise and that his corrupt underlings were responsible for cruelties he did not even know about. What about now? What legends circulate in Kadyrov's Chechnya?

Life in contemporary Chechnya cannot be subsumed under any one stereotype. The mix of Russian constitution, despotism, and sharia makes it virtually impossible to understand the rules of the game in this republic that is officially part of the Russian Federation. Stories from the “Kadyrov system” told by Majnat Kurbanova

Chechnya recently openly celebrated Chechen Language Day, but Russian is still the country's official language and fewer and fewer Chechens are fluent in their own mother-tongue 

Heavy sentences for the three Chechens accused of murdering Umar Israilov, former body guard of Ramzan Kadyrov, killed in Vienna in January 2009 after denouncing the Chechen leader to the Strasbourg Court

Nani was an elderly woman. Every day she sat alone in the yard under the shade of a walnut tree, spinning and singing songs about the cruelty of the Russian tsars. She believed that the salvation of the Chechen people was in corn, while its damnation in the tsars and their soldiers.The twentieth century, seen through the eyes of a Chechen woman

Ramzan Kadyrov recently inaugurated in Grozny his second term – no longer as president, but as Head of Chechnya. A journey into the extravagant life of a young “father of the nation”

Azim is 92. Due to the bombings during the Chechen wars of the nineties, he had to rebuild his white-stone house six times. His life reflects the destiny of the Chechen People through a century characterised by war, deportations and more wars

In Duba-Yurt, a Chechen village hard hit by the war that devastated the region in the 1990s, there lived an old man who grew tulips. A spark of colour and hope in dark times. A true story that almost seems like a fable

Umar Israilov, ex Chechen guerrilla fighter, denounced the Chechen leadership for torture at the European court of human rights. He was subsequently murdered, in January 2009 in Vienna, where he had been granted the status of political refugee. Right now in the Austrian capital the trial regarding his assassination is being held. The Chechen President Kadyrov has been called to testify

Eleven years after the second war with Russia, a series of violent attacks by the Chechen rebels reminds us that war is raging in the northern Caucasus

In the eighties Tamara was a teacher of Russian language and literature in Chechnya. Since the year 2000 she has had to cope with not only the disappearance of her husband but also breast cancer, an illness with a particularly high incidence in Chechnya after the recent wars

Milana used to breed nestlings. Then her village was bombed and she was forced to flee to Ingushetia with her nestlings. Had she let failures dishearten her, however, she would not have been a true Chechen businesswoman. Majnat Kurbanova tells her readers yet another true story from Chechnya

Lula is an actress to the bone, “flirtatious, fond of cosmetics, she pays attention to her gait and the tone of her voice”. A true life story from Chechnya, told by Mainat Kourbanova for the readers of Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso