President Vladimir Putin has been organizing so many military exercises in so many parts of the Russian Federation (see EDM, March 19)—a process that has required Moscow to shift units from one area to another—that it is virtually impossible to say just where he intends... MORE

Belarus has once again entered rough economic waters. In 2015, economic growth will likely be absent (Naviny.by, February 5). In January 2015, industrial output equaled just 93.8 percent of that in January 2014. All processing industries shrank except for chemicals, oil refining, potassium and pharmaceuticals.... MORE

The postponed Russia-Belarus-Kazakhstan summit took place last Friday (March 20) in Astana, but the program was cut so short that the only point for staging the event appeared to be to confirm President Vladimir Putin’s return to business as usual (Kommersant, March 21). Presidents Nursultan... MORE

A well-known Russian expert on the North Caucasus, Konstantin Kazenin, has warned that the paramilitary groups of North Caucasus leaders may end up destabilizing the Russian Federation. According to Kazenin, several leaders from the North Caucasus have created essentially private armies, which defend their patrons... MORE

As the militants of the armed Islamic resistance in the North Caucasus began taking oaths of allegiance to the so-called Islamic State (see EDM, January 30), the Russian authorities began looking for ways to confront them. On March 11, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev... MORE

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s unexplained ten-day disappearance from public view naturally drew much attention from Moscow-watchers as his regime is rumored to be in the midst of power struggles between various clans and factions. Putin’s former economic advisor, Andrei Illarionov, even suggested the possibility that... MORE

The March 10–14 visit by Azerbaijani Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov to Croatia and Slovenia attracted little attention in the local media. However, various background developments in the wake of these meetings—held to discuss the potential directions of bilateral military cooperation (Mod.gov.az, March 11)—suggest that the... MORE

On March 4, Gogi Topadze, the leader of the Party of Industrialists and one of the key members of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) coalition, delivered another diatribe against Georgia’ hopes for North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) membership. Topadze stated that Georgia’s NATO membership was... MORE

Chechen involvement in the murder of the prominent Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, on February 27, was considered one of the most probable versions of what happened from the outset of the official investigation. However, the arrest of Chechen suspects by the Russian Drug Control... MORE

This week (March 16–21), the Russian military began massive, “sudden” military exercises (“vnezapnaya proverka”). The authorities initially announced that the “sudden exercises” are intended to check out the battle readiness of Russia’s Northern Fleet and the possibility of reinforcing it with forces from other military... MORE