It's something of a truism by now that blogs help decentralize opinion making and news dissemination.  A colleague brought to my attention a new joint effort by the BBC's Russian-language service and the online news portal Caucasian Knot (Кавказский Узел). The purpose of this new initiative is to have people living in Russia's North Caucasus region tell us about life there. Too often our views of places like these are shaped/coloured  by the opinions and observations of outsiders; this has always bothered me, even when they have been well-meaning outsiders. The new joint blogging initiative is a fun read. One post by Murad Magomadov is on the custody case of Ruslan Baisarov's child with Kristina Obrakaite (I never claimed that all topics were earth-shatteringly important!). It is still engrossing because he writes about Chechen customary laws regarding child custody. Magomadov also has a great post on the hunt for prestigious number plates in Grozny, like 666 or number-plates with the letters KRA which are a tribute to the hallowed name of Ramzan Kadyrov (Chechen President). Another post by Ruslan Tarkiev is a fascinating glimpse into the perceived spread of Wahabi Islam in Dagestan. The blogger is troubled by the rapid change in style of clothing, the rise of intolerance towards women dressed "inappropriately" and the fact that few seem to be questioning this visible change in Dagestanis' way of life. The comments he gets in response are as enlightening, with some Russians writing that orthodox Christianity is becoming an increasingly visible feature of life in European Russia as well. Some really thought-provoking material here. On the other hand, Fatima Plieva posts about her native Ingushetia and writes with some frustration on Russian stereotypes about North Caucasian women; she wants people to know that while some norms may differ from the average Muscovite's, women in North Caucasus are not like their "Arab counterparts".I would recommend this site for a view from the periphery, as it were. These are, naturally, opinion blogs and not necessarily news sites, but it's a breath of fresh air to read about the North Caucasus in relation to something other than its troubled history and politics. And even when posts are about politics, it is a pleasant change to read the views of people who are part of its 'everyday' and are witness to its many transformations on a routine basis.The best thing about the internet is that the 'centre' and the 'periphery' have become unstable categories and that we don't have to rely on Moscow to tell us about Chechnya anymore. S.R