By Paul Goble Those who doubt the enormous power and continuing importance of international broadcasting to the post-Soviet countries should consider the case of five Tatar-language and two Mari-language schools in the Republic of Tatarstan, in the Russian Federation. Republic officials, under pressure from Moscow,... MORE

By Valery Dzutsev On June 8, over 3,000 Cossacks rallied in the city of Lermontov, Stavropol region. The so-called Terek Cossacks came from Dagestan, North Ossetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Chechnya and Stavropol region itself (https://www.kp.md/daily/26087/2991281/). The Terek Cossack website terkv.ru asserted that over 4,000 members of regional... MORE

By Margarita Assenova The Socialist-led government of Bulgaria caused public outrage with the election of controversial media mogul Delyan Peevski, a member of parliament (MP) from the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), as the new chairman of the State Agency for National... MORE

By Mairbek Vatchagaev Dagestan is the only region in Russia where Salafi Muslim teaching operates officially—under the guidance of the legal organization, the Association of Ahlu al Sunna. This is not because the authorities have a different attitude to Salafis in Dagestan, in comparison to... MORE

By Valery Dzutsev Based upon what has been learned about the personal profiles of the Boston terror attack suspects, the Tsarnaev brothers (see https://jamestownfoundation.blogspot.com/2013/04/a-preliminary-profile-of-boston-bombers.html), little suggests that they were linked to the insurgency movement in the North Caucasus or another jihadi movement. At the same... MORE

By Mairbek Vatchagaev In the aftermath of the tragic bombings at the Boston Marathon on April 15, United States authorities and law enforcement have been scrambling to identify and capture the perpetrators. On Friday, April 19, media reports revealed that ethnic Chechen brothers Tamerlan (26)... MORE

By Mairbek Vatchagaev The Tsarnaev brothers, Tamerlan, 26 years old, and 19-year-old Jokhar, have been accused of carrying out the bombing at the Boston Marathon on Monday, April 15. Tamerlan has died from injuries sustained from a shootout with police on Friday, April 19. While,... MORE

By Taras KuzioThe appointment of Leonid Kozhara as Ukraine’s foreign minister to replace Kostyantin Hryshchenko was expected (https://mfa.gov.ua/ua/about-mfa/minister/biography). Although Kozhara and Hryshchenko are from two different influential groups (oligarch Rinat Akhmetov and the gas lobby, respectively) in the Party of Regions, they are both handicapped... MORE

By Anar ValiyevOn December 10, media outlets reported that Russia will end its use of the Gabala Radar Station, located on Azerbaijan’s territory. The Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that following intensive negotiations over Gabala, the two sides were unable to reach an agreement... MORE

By Sergei BlagovIt took the Kremlin little more than six months to realize that its earlier move to form a new regional development agency required some second thoughts.On November 29, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin strongly criticized the Far Eastern development ministry, stating that its management... MORE