BUDANOV: A YEAR LATER.

What ever happened with the trial of Colonel Yury Budanov? On February 4, the newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta reported: “Almost a year has passed since the moment when, in Rostov-on-Don, there began the very noisy trial of Colonel Yury Budanov, charged with murdering an 18-year-old young Chechen woman in the settlement of Tangi-Chu. The sessions of the trial of the commander of the 160th Guards Tank Regiment continued for more than five months–from February 28 [2001] until July 9. Then, following a decision by the court, the proceedings were interrupted in order to get an additional psychiatric examination of Budanov from the Serbsky Institute…. The psychiatric exam has now been completed, and its results have been sent to the North Caucasus Military Court… but the trial has, as of now, not been resumed.”