On December 6, speaking at the conference, “Perspectives of Georgian-Abkhaz and Georgian-Ossetian relations under the new government,” held in Tbilisi, Georgia’s Minister of Reintegration Paata Zakareishvili stated that the country should expect first concrete results from its engagement with Abkhazian and Ossetian separatists within ten... MORE

On November 30, the deputy director of OJSC Northern Caucasus Resorts, Vladimir Yevdokimov, upbraided the Kabardino-Balkarian authorities for obstructing the company’s expansion plans in the republic. Earlier, several members of the republican legislature stated they would veto allocation of land to OJSC Northern Caucasus Resorts.... MORE

Mongolia grabbed the headlines on November 15–16 by the announcement that Japan and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) were engaging in direct senior-level talks in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar about the issue of North Korea’s abduction of Japanese nationals. The presence of... MORE

The World Congress of Tatars, an organization created 20 years ago to link Tatarstan with ethnic Tatars living outside the borders of that Middle Volga republic and one that has been closely tied to Kazan’s intellectual and political elite, has called for Tatarstan to seek... MORE

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent remarks about Russia’s efforts to “re-Sovietize” the countries of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics have apparently touched a nerve with the Kremlin. Secretary Clinton warned that the United States is well aware of Russia’s intentions to... MORE

On December 4, Kazakhstan’s parliament and the Kazakhstan Institute of Strategic Studies held a joint conference on the future of Central Asia–Afghanistan relations. This conference was attended by representatives of Russia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, including diplomats, researchers and political experts, as well as the deputy... MORE

For the first time since the end of the Soviet Union, Moscow has dispatched internal troops to a republic outside the North Caucasus to suppress what it calls “nationalist band formations” in Bashkortostan. Not only does that mean that there is a new “hot spot”... MORE

On November 28, the opposition Patrioty Rossii (Patriots of Russia) party’s faction in the North Ossetian parliament walked out of a parliamentary session to protest United Russia’s unwillingness to cooperate with the opposition. Earlier, the republican parliament had decided that a joint commission would distribute... MORE

The notion of “re-Sovietization” has been on the lips of many Russia-watchers, and now US State Secretary Hillary Clinton has spelled it out after a rather disappointing meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (Rossiiskaya Gazeta, December 7). Russian foreign policy slipped into confusion during... MORE

According to the newspaper Izvestia, Kyrgyzstan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs requested that Russia provide the small Central Asian republic with direct assistance in the form of arms and technical support. Kyrgyzstan’s internal affairs ministry, which controls the country’s police forces, seeks from Russia two helicopters,... MORE