The European Union and Moldova have set a fairly tight calendar for wrapping up their Association Agreement: signing it by August and ratifying it in the Moldovan parliament until November, when this parliament’s term expires. Moldova’s pro-Europe coalition government holds a narrow majority of 54... MORE

The European Union has accelerated the signing and ratification of the EU-Moldova association agreements, which were initialed at the Vilnius summit in November (see EDM, February 19). The EU and the Moldovan government want to reduce the risk of disruption by Russia and its sympathizers... MORE

Magomedali Magomedov, who was removed as Dagestan’s president in 2013, was the first leader of the republic who proposed starting negotiations with the Salafis. The dialogue process was aimed at Salafis who are not members of the armed resistance but sympathize with the insurgency and... MORE

Ekho Moskvy is Russia’s most popular political talk radio station and the most popular radio station in the city of Moscow, with an estimated daily national audience of some 7 million. The radio has been on the air since August 1990 and has always managed... MORE

On February 14, police in Tatarstan launched a criminal investigation into a video recording by the republic’s self-proclaimed insurgent leader, Emir Abdullah, who claimed responsibility for an attempted terrorist attack in the city of Nizhnekamsk last November (https://ntrtv.ru/index.php?newsid=19073).A masked man claiming to be Emir Abdullah... MORE

Russia’s successes in derailing the European Union’s association agreements with Armenia and with Ukraine have raised concerns about a possible repeat success for Russia in Moldova. Toward that goal, the Kremlin seems set to exploit Moldova’s parliamentary election campaign, which started in the second week... MORE

Federation as a possible way out of Ukraine’s political crisis is currently at the center of domestic political and expert discourse. But meanwhile, the new outburst of violence in the streets of Kyiv on February 18 may lead to an escalation of the crisis in... MORE

Absorbed with the drama on the Sochi ski tracks and hockey rinks, the Russians cannot fail to notice that the athletic superpower that is confidently leading in the Olympic medal count is actually Germany. Relations with this key partner used to be so important for... MORE

Not a single book about Belarus omits the issue of Belarusians’ deficiency in the area of national consolidation/identity and of perilously close (in a sense of undermining a separate identity) ties with Russia. Yet, recently, two national identity boosters have come along. First and foremost,... MORE

On February 14, Russian police arrested Asker Sokht, the head of the Circassian civil organization Adyge Khase, in the city of Krasnodar, the capital of the region hosting the Olympic Games in Sochi. Even though the official reasons for the arrest were unknown, observers noted... MORE