11.  Russia rushed reinforcements to its border with Chechnya Saturday, after several hundred gunmen occupied three villages on the Russian side of the border with the breakaway Caucasus region.

12.  Russian peacekeepers and U.N. observers are now stationed in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia.

13.  Russian troops marched into the breakaway region in late September after Chechen militants made a series of raids against villages in the neighboring Russian region of Dagestan.

14.  Russia supported the breakaway region of Abkhazia in a war with Georgia five years ago and won the right to keep troops stationed permanently in Georgia.

15.  The area borders the Russian breakaway region of Chechnya, and the U.S. government claims that fighters in both areas have al-Qaida links.

16.  The Chechen leaders appointed by Moscow are supposed to help the Kremlin tighten its grip on the breakaway region.

17.  The central question in Chechnya, as it was in Lithuania, is whether the breakaway region has a reasonable claim to self-determination.

18.  The dawn raid threatened to shatter the fragile peace process in the breakaway region.

19.  The deal could also be portrayed as a generous act to help Taiwan, which Beijing considers a breakaway region of China rather than a foreign country.

20.  The tiny Russian breakaway region of Chechnya confronts President Boris Yeltsin and his fellow reformers with a serious internal crisis.