Sheikh Ali Abu-Muhammad has been the amir (leader) of the Caucasus Emirate (CE) since March 2014 (Kavkazsky Uzel, December 28, 2014). Now, Abu-Muhammad, who is number 1,642 on the Russian Service for Financial Monitoring list of terrorists (Fedsfm.ru, accessed February 20), is trying to restore... MORE

*To read Part One, please click here. The capture of Debaltseve in Ukraine on Wednesday (Interfax, February 18) by Russian and proxy troops, following prolonged bombardment by their heavy missile systems, is not simply a prima facie breach of the February 12, 2015, “Minsk Two”... MORE

After weeks of intense battles, Russia-supported militants have captured Debaltseve, a strategically located town in eastern Ukraine (Interfax, February 18). In a telephone conversation with the author on February 19, the spokesman for the Ministry of Defense of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Eduard... MORE

The ceasefire agreement signed in Minsk last week (February 12) did not stop the fighting in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine (Donbas encompasses the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces). The Moscow-backed Donbas rebels concentrated their efforts on an offensive northeast of Donetsk in the so-called... MORE

On January 28, a village parish of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate) in Ternopil province published a letter to the Ukrainian Church’s primate, Metropolitan Onufriy. In the letter, the priests and lay activists strongly criticized recent controversial statements made by the... MORE

A commonly held view in Russia is that the government consists of “a good tsar and bad boyars.” That is, the population tends to have a positive attitude about whoever sits at the top of the ruling hierarchy; while most, or even all, of the... MORE

The Terek Cossack Military is facing a crisis as the Cossacks and the Russian authorities cannot find a candidate for the leadership position in the organization that would satisfy both sides. The initial plan to hold elections for the new ataman (Cossack chieftain) in February... MORE

On January 31, several thousand protesters gathered in downtown Tbilisi. They demanded that the government more actively pursue the prosecution of high-ranking members of the United National Movement (UNM) party for their alleged abuses of power during UNM’s tenure in government until 2012–2013. The rally... MORE

Since last November, the commanders of the North Caucasus jamaats, one after another, have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (see EDM, January 16). It is well known that the Caucasus Emirate replaced the idea of an independent Chechen... MORE

While attention in the Middle East has focused mainly on the Islamic State or on Israel’s relationship with the United States, Russia has been busy trying to advance its own position in the region, chiefly at the US’s expense. Over the course of January and... MORE