This is the second night when nothing's happening - and I can't sleep. I keep checking the online paper, till 5 am yesterday, and it's 4:30 am now - but there are no updates. What's it like for the relatives outside; what's it like for the people inside; are they still without food; and other thoughts that are too scary to touch.

A very subjective observation, possibly wrong and definitely irrelevant:

The Chechens are so "unlucky" - those dimwits do a theater siege in 2002, and everyone in the States is preoccupied with the D.C. sniper; they do a school siege now, and everyone in the States is focused on the Republican Convention. No luck in getting the world's attention. Plus now it seems like they've succeeded in disgusting everyone (including Saudi Arabia) - can't be something they were hoping for. With Moscow it was slightly different - Moscow has more billionaires than NYC (33, I guess, while in NYC there are 31) and even most Russians kind of hate Moscow - it's a different planet, people are too rude there, etc. So there was more room for sympathy in 2002, despite everything, despite common sense. Now, it's the kids, in a tiny, God-forgotten place. Couldn't be worse.

I wonder how some of those heartless, brainless, xenophobic Russians are perceiving it all: some people here are so allergic to everyone from the Caucasus, the blacks, as they call them, the black-assed. And on TV, you see those dark-haired Osetian people, speaking Russian but with that heavy, peculiar accent, all too familiar, and then there are the names, the names of the 25 people who've been released, for example: most of the names are Muslim, even though the majority of Osetians are Christian (history is such a mess). So I'm wondering - do those neo-Nazi-minded people feel any pity. Which way are they trying to bend now. Do they even notice.