An expected price increase of gasoline by Mongolian distributors presents new challenges for the coalition government and worries for the public and businesses. As informed by Mongolian fuel importers, Rosneft, the largest Russian oil company, has begun to charge extra for the popular gasoline brand... MORE

On November 6, two unknown perpetrators threw two bottles with a flammable substance into the Lithuanian embassy compound in Minsk. The Investigating Committee of Belarus launched a criminal investigation; the Belarusian ambassador to Vilnius was handed a note of protest; and the Lithuanian ambassador to... MORE

On November 8, ethnic Nogai in Dagestan held a rally calling on President Vladimir Putin to consider creating a Nogai autonomous republic within Russia. The new republic would presumably include parts of Dagestan, Chechnya and Stavropolregion where Nogais have resided traditionally. The activists declared: “Only... MORE

The Russian natural gas monopoly Gazprom outlined ambitious and costly plans to develop new production and exports hubs in the country’s Far East. Meanwhile, the gas giant has also apparently begun reassessing its ties with Central Asia.On October 29, President Vladimir Putin told Gazprom CEO... MORE

As Russia refuses to cut gas prices for Ukraine and proceeds with its South Stream pipeline project—aimed at diminishing Gazprom’s dependence on Ukrainian gas pipelines (see EDM, November 16)—Ukraine has announced plans to further cut Russian gas imports. Even more notably, Ukraine began buying gas... MORE

A proposal to drop any reference to nationality in the names of the non-Russian republics of the Russian Federation has deeply divided Tatarstan, the largest and most influential of these republics, almost precisely along ethnic lines. The Tatars are outraged about this attack on their... MORE

It has been 460 years since the first Muslim groups were incorporated into the Russian state (www.prlib.ru/history/pages/item.aspx?itemid=268), yet Moscow has not advanced at all toward better understanding the Islamic world. Starting with the capture of Kazan in 1552 and until the Soviets took power in... MORE

A near catatonic trance descended upon the Russian media in the aftermath of President Vladimir Putin sacking his controversial Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov on November 6, with a preoccupation on issues of corruption and speculation on the fallen minister’s private life. However, a number of... MORE

On November 12, Georgia’s Deputy Minister of Culture Yuri Metchitov, serving in the “Georgian Dream”–led new government, declared that Georgia should change the name of the Museum of the Soviet Occupation, opened in Tbilisi in 2006. As Metchitov stated, the museum draws the irritation of... MORE

Most of the non-Russian countries in the post-Soviet space have pursued foreign policies directed at defending their interests “in the framework of a limited geographic region,” two Russian analysts say. But under President Mikhail Saakashvili, Georgia has been an exception, regularly seeking to promote itself... MORE