On February 22, authorities in Adygea stated that the republic was prepared to receive more Circassian refugees from Syria. Republican official Fatima Paranuk stated that the authorities had compiled a list of vacant houses and land strips that can be handed over to the incoming... MORE

The end of a full year after Vladimir Putin was elected president on March 4, 2012, coincided very closely with the 60th anniversary of Josef Stalin’s death, which greatly shocked the traumatized Soviet society of 1953 but never became sufficient closure to the era of... MORE

The February 26–27 round of the nuclear negotiations involving Iran and the P5+1 group (all five permanent UN Security Council members and Germany) in Almaty went as well as might have reasonably been expected. Nobody expected a breakthrough and none occurred. Yet, the sides met... MORE

Independent Belarusian analysts continue to mull over the results of the December 2012 national survey by the Independent Institute for Socio-Economic and Political Studies (see EDM, February 1). According to Alexei Turovsky from the Agency of Political Expertise, the support base of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka... MORE

Following the Kumyks, who held a rally in the city of Pyatigorsk on February 10 (https://www.chernovik.net/content/lenta-novostey/v-pyatigorske-proshyol-sezd-kumykskogo-naroda), Chechen residents of Dagestan have also come out into the streets to protest. The organizers of a rally held on February 23 to mark the 69th anniversary of the... MORE

The Russian government pledged to manage $3.3 trillion worth of its state-controlled assets more efficiently, including through the continued privatization of state-owned companies. However, the authorities have to prove that the latest privatization efforts could fare better than earlier attempts to sell off state-owned assets.On... MORE

Kazakhstan is well known for the successful transformation of its economy following the country’s independence more than twenty years ago. Its leadership has consistently set ambitious goals to solidify the gains and diversify the economy to meet the challenges of the 21st century. The year... MORE

On February 14, Russian Deputy General Prosecutor Ivan Sydoruk publicly admitted that Dagestan ranked first in the Russian Federation in terms of the number of crimes committed. That same day, Dagestan’s acting president, Ramazan Abdulatipov, presided over a Dagestani government meeting on the issues of... MORE

Russia is always extremely secretive about everything and defense in particular, especially so under former KGB agent President Vladimir Putin. The Russian constitution, adopted in 1993, did include a clause that the nation must have a military doctrine that must be a public document. To... MORE

In the last two and a half years, Turkey’s progress toward European Union membership has been frozen. After successfully closing one of the 35 “chapters” in the EU accession process, no other chapter has been opened; France and Greek Cyprus have been actively blocking some... MORE