On March 2, a court in the southern Dagestani city of Derbent ruled that the criminal case against the city’s mayor, Imam Yaraliev, was illegal. Prosecutors appealed the court’s decision, accusing the mayor of abuse of power. A criminal investigation was launched against Yaraliev on... MORE

When, in December 1918, the Red Army captured Minsk and the short-lived (established on March 25, 1918) Belarusian People’s Republic (BPR) ceased to exist, multiple nationalist activists fled Belarus and found refuge in several European countries, including Germany. After Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist (Nazi) Party... MORE

On February 25, Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev made a televised address to the nation to announce an early presidential election that will take place on April 26. The head of state used his right to call an early election granted to him by article 41(3-1)... MORE

Istanbul has experienced another series of murders of Chechens who fled to Turkey from persecution back home during the second Russian-Chechen war. After the start of that war in the fall of 1999, thousands of Chechens flocked to Turkey seeking political asylum. According to unofficial... MORE

Moldova has a new government, the Alliance for a European Moldova (AEM), since February 28, after elections and an agitated interregnum. It is a minority coalition and, moreover, an internally divided one, requiring cooperation with the Communist Party’s “constructive opposition” (see EDM, March 5). The... MORE

From time to time, Russia is forced to reveal information about the real situation involving the jihadist movement in the Russian capital. Authorities are not keen on providing figures on how many Moscow residents are Muslims to avoid traumatizing the Russian Orthodox residents. According to... MORE

Boris Nemtsov (55), former governor of Nizny Novgorod, former deputy Duma speaker, deputy prime minister under President Boris Yeltsin and, more recently, an opposition leader and vocal critic of President Vladimir Putin, was gunned down last Friday night, February 27, in downtown Moscow, just a... MORE

Moldova’s new government, the Alliance for a European Moldova (AEM), is a reformatted version of the Alliance for European Integration (AEI) that came to power in Moldova in 2009. Its revised title conveys an emphasis on internal transformation, instead of premature ambitions for membership in... MORE

Following yet another protracted political crisis, the Moldovan parliament has voted to approve a minority government, the Alliance for a European Moldova (AEM), on February 18, thanks to the Communist Party’s support. The AEM government needed 51 votes for approval. It could only muster 39... MORE

On February 16, the Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan addressed a letter to the speaker of the National Assembly, Galust Sahakyan, informing him about an executive decision to recall the Armenia-Turkey Protocols from the parliament. Signed in Zurich, in 2009, under the mediation of the United... MORE