Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili, in office since November 2013, has heralded a resurgence in politically-motivated prosecutions against officials of the previous government and current opposition party, the United National Movement (UNM) (see EDM, November 22, 2013; January 7, 2014). Recent developments in several high-profile... MORE

Although demonstrators still occupy the Maidan in central Kyiv and none of Ukraine’s fundamental issues that precipitated the crisis in late 2013 have been resolved, it is clear that the Russian “transfusion” of support for Ukrainian bonds and lower natural gas prices has given President... MORE

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych made a sensational U-turn last year, choosing Russian economic assistance over an association and free-trade deal with the European Union. The decision, which triggered the most massive anti-government protests since 2004, was dictated by a dismal state of the Ukrainian economy... MORE

On December 13, authorities in Krasnodar region briefly detained a dozen Circassian activists in a surprise police raid. Eleven persons from Adygea, Karachaevo-Cherkessia and Kabardino-Balkaria were taken to the city of Krasnodar for questioning, including Ibragim Yaganov, Amin Zekhov, Ruslan Kesh and other well-known leaders... MORE

Georgia’s Prosecutor-in-Chief Otar Partskhaladze had to resign on December 30, 2013, following disclosures that, in 2001–2002, he had served a sentence of one year and three months in a prison in Augsburg, Germany, for robbery and resisting the German police (Rezonansi cited by Interpressnews, December... MORE

Russian officials have repeatedly complained over the last 12 months that analysts in both Russia and the West will link, appropriately or not, everything that takes place in Russia before February 2014 with the Sochi Olympiad. There may be some justification for such complaints regarding... MORE

Russia’s Navy entered 2014 with some small signs of progress, while the Ministry of Defense faces significant challenges centered on the development of the Bulava sea-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) for a new generation of submarines. The Navy also operates under the condition of raising the... MORE

Since the December 1991 implosion of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), mineral extraction issues have risen to the forefront of post-Soviet Caucasian and Central Asian states, as newly independent countries have raced to exploit reserves previously underdeveloped by the Soviet administration in Moscow.... MORE

Following the publication of the “Kazakhstan-2050” strategy late in 2012, Central Asia’s biggest country carried out a series of structural reforms in 2013 aimed at modernizing its economic and social systems and optimizing its public finances. On January 16, President Nursultan Nazarbayev announced the creation... MORE

Two explosions shook the city of Volgograd in Russia’s Volga region on December 29 and December 30, killing 34 people and injuring more than 70. The first attack hit the city railway station while the second hit a city trolleybus (https://www.interfax.ru/russia/news/349933). As one attack followed... MORE