Throughout 2012, Russian leaders refused to admit that there were any Chechens fighting on the side of the Syrian opposition. Ramzan Kadyrov tirelessly reassured the public that reports of Chechens being involved in the armed conflict in Syria were false (https://rusnovosti.ru/news/214102/). Kadyrov was apparently concerned... MORE

In a speech in Berlin this week (June 19), United States President Barack Obama called on Russia to jointly cut strategic nuclear weapons to 1,000 or fewer warheads for each. Under the 2010 “New START” or START III nuclear arms control treaty, both the US... MORE

It was not the first time Central Asia’s water disputes have taken a prominent place on the summit agenda of the presidents of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, Nursultan Nazarbayev and Islam Karimov, respectively. But the meeting in Tashkent on June 14–15 (see EDM, June 18) attached... MORE

On June 6, seven Georgian soldiers were killed in a truck bomb attack in Afghanistan (TV9; Rustavi 2, June 6). Just three weeks earlier, on May 13, three more Georgian soldiers died in another truck bomb (1TV; Maestro; TV9, May 13). These latest attacks bring... MORE

On May 28, the Caucasustimes.com website published the results of the survey in Karachaevo-Cherkessia that was conducted earlier in April. The poll revealed highly critical attitudes towards the regional and national authorities. Eighty-six percent of those polled agreed with the statement that socio-economic issues were... MORE

Croatia is set to join the European Union as a full member on July 1. This makes Croatia a more attractive object of Russian energy interests. The head of Zarubezhneft (Nikolai Brunich, who has in the meantime taken over as chief of Transneft) visited Zagreb... MORE

The 500,000 Circassians in the North Caucasus have long drawn strength and encouragement from the continuing vitality of the 5-million-strong Circassian diaspora in the countries of the Middle East. A major source of the diaspora’s strength in turn has been the participation of many of... MORE

On June 13–14, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev arrived in Tashkent for a summit with his Uzbekistani counterpart Islam Karimov. Although media coverage of this meeting differed in both countries, the summit witnessed the signing of a “strategic partnership” between Astana and Tashkent. Equally, despite the... MORE

Russia’s barbed-wire fence construction in Georgia beyond the occupation line (see EDM, June 3, 11–13, 17) has provided another demonstration of the shifting balance of power (“new geopolitical realities”) in this region. It drove home this point without resorting to outright military aggression; and it... MORE

When writing about xenophobia and racism, Western scholarly and media writing about Ukraine inevitably focuses on Western Ukraine and the rise of the Svoboda nationalist party. But in fact, Council of Europe reports, the United States’ diplomatic cables from Kyiv (released by Wikileaks), annual reports... MORE