On May 21, Circassian communities worldwide commemorated the 150th anniversary of the end of the Russian-Circassian war. According to some accounts, the war lasted for a hundred years—from 1763, when Russian armies invaded Eastern Kabarda, to 1864 when the Russian military paraded at the place... MORE

Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in March was an overture to the broader “Novorossiya” project, announced by President Vladimir Putin on April 17. This covers eight Ukrainian provinces that Russia aims to carve out of Ukraine, whether through “federalization” or some form of Russian... MORE

Viewed from Moldova, the Kremlin’s assault on Ukraine (like the earlier one on Georgia) aims to prevent the country permanently from joining Europe and the West writ large. To defeat those aspirations, Russia acts to destabilize Ukraine’s Western-oriented government and to break up the country’s... MORE

The swift and overwhelming victory of Petro Poroshenko in the May 25 Ukrainian presidential elections (ITAR-TASS, May 25) raises questions about the new president’s security policy. In fact, he now faces multiple national security challenges:•    Insurgency in the east supported by Russia and some local... MORE

On May 19, speaking on a talk show aired on Noroc TV, Moldova’s Prime Minister Iurie Leanca made a number of revelations about what he referred to as the current cooling state of diplomatic relations between Moldova and Russia. In particular, Leanca highlighted a canceled... MORE

Russia is an extremely diverse country, but unlike in the United States, legislation is uniform across its entire territory. In the Russian Federation, the distinct features of regions and ethnic differences are often ignored. Nevertheless, Moscow treats different regions quite differently in terms of its... MORE

Amongst the many complexities of integrating Crimea into Russia, problems regarding the currency and the scheduling of local elections remain at the top. On May 14, the lower house of the Russian parliament (the State Duma) adopted a resolution officially scheduling the local legislative elections... MORE

As the Crimean Tatars commemorated the 70th anniversary of their deportation from Crimea on May 18, many wondered what the Tatars’ next moves under the Russian occupation will be. Having already deported ethnic groups en masse—the Karachays in November 1943, the Chechens and Ingush in... MORE

Ukraine’s wealthiest industrialist, Donetsk-based Renat Akhmetov, on May 20, urged the workers of Donbas to protest against “those who call themselves some kind of people’s republic of Donetsk [secessionist leaders].” In a televised address via the Ukrayina channel, Akhmetov declared that the region’s population “can... MORE

Western sanctions against Russia may not appear as strong or as sweeping as many expected, but their targeted effect is becoming visible in major Russian industries and critical ongoing projects, such as the South Stream gas pipeline, Yamal liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, and the... MORE