On April 18, against the backdrop of the ongoing territorial dispute between Chechnya and Ingushetia, about 300 law enforcement agents from the Chechen Republic entered the village of Arshty in Ingushetia’s Sunzha district. The incursion took the tensions between Ingushetia and Chechnya to a whole... MORE

The latest stream of news from Belarus has three refrains—modernization, integration into the Eurasian Economic Community (EEC), and reinvigoration of ties with the European Union. All three are contained in President Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s annual report to the National Assembly delivered on April 19 (https://www.sb.by/post/146628/). Lukashenka... MORE

The launch of a Talysh-language radio station based in the Armenian-occupied territories but directed at the members of that ethnic minority elsewhere in Azerbaijan is part of the latest chapter in the long and dangerous history of efforts by Azerbaijan’s three neighbors—Armenia, Iran and the... MORE

For several months after Uzbekistan’s de facto exit from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) (see EDM, July 18, 2012)—formalized during the organization’s December 2012 summit in Moscow—Western analysts have speculated about the future shape of Tashkent’s military and security ties. But now, Uzbekistan has... MORE

“Tens of thousands of people attending [this] demonstration show that rumors of our death have been exaggerated,” the former speaker of the Georgian parliament David Bakradze declared at the April 19 rally of the presidential party United National Movement (UNM), paraphrasing Mark Twain. This was... MORE

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Gazprom are announcing colossal plans to expand the capacities of existing gas export pipelines and build new ones, all in Europe beyond Russia’s territory (see EDM, April 5, 19).Gazprom already co-owns and controls export pipeline capacities amounting to some 110... MORE

The news that the Boston terrorists are ethnic Chechens who have lived in the United States for many years may be shocking for many Americans, but in Russia it does not seem that surprising. How Tamerlan Tsarnaev had become so alienated from the country that... MORE

The focus of the media on the suspected Boston bombers, the Tsarnaev brothers is fully justified, but understanding the wider context of the crime may be just as helpful (https://www.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/223152/). Whatever the brothers’ personal experience was, if it is confirmed in the end that they... MORE

On April 17, the Kazakhstani government withdrew a proposed bill supporting the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan (ISAF) from the Majilis, but the foreign ministry was quick to explain that Kazakhstan had no plans to reduce its support for international efforts to stabilize Afghanistan.... MORE

There has been no breakthrough. Neither Alyaksandr Lukashenka nor (at least) his foreign minister has received an invitation to the September 2013 summit of the European Union’s Eastern Partnership (EaP) in Vilnius. Yet, it exceedingly looks like Minsk’s lasting efforts to unfreeze its relationships with... MORE