The Malaysian passenger jet Flight MH17, which crashed on July 17, killing 298 people, was apparently shot down over the territory of the Ukrainian region of Donbas, controlled by pro-Russia and Moscow-backed separatists. Russian authorities have gone into their traditional mode of rejecting any possible... MORE

The head of the Circassian organization Adyge Khase in Karachaevo-Cherkessia accused Russian authorities of having a policy of double standards in regard to assisting compatriots abroad. According to Muhamed Cherkesov, only about 30 Circassian refugees from Syria have been allowed to settle in Karachaevo-Cherkessia, while... MORE

German diplomacy went into high gear after the shooting down of an international airliner by Russia’s proxy forces in Ukraine’s east on July 17. The terrorist act with the use of a Russian-supplied surface-to-air missile system killed all 298 people from 11 countries aboard the... MORE

The “commander-in-chief” of the “Novorossiya” defense forces (the Russia-supported separatists fighting in eastern Ukraine), Igor Girkin (a.k.a. Strelkov), told journalists recently that prior to March 31, 2013, he had been a colonel in the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). By his admission, he had participated... MORE

Russia is facing a new problem and this concerns the new front that the Chechens have launched outside the North Caucasus. As a result of the brutal suppression of the Chechen armed resistance, only three small groups are left in the republic: the group led... MORE

The Trilateral Contact Group is the latest of several international forums that have emerged in response to Russia’s war against Ukraine (see accompanying article). Established in June, the Contact Group brings together representatives of Ukraine, Russia, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE),... MORE

Yesterday’s terrorist attack that downed the Malaysian Airlines plane, killing approximately 300 passengers, occurred in an area held by pro-Russia fighters on the Ukrainian side of the Russia-Ukraine border. This act illustrates the magnitude of risks ensuing from Russia’s deliberate destruction of border controls in... MORE

As thousands of refugees from Ukraine’s far-eastern Donbas region continue to pour into Russia’s Rostov Oblast (see EDM, June 30), the need for humanitarian aid is intense. One social group in the Russian Federation, the Cossacks, has become particularly active in delivering aid to the... MORE

The continuing tensions in Ukraine have resulted in over 21,000 refugees from eastern Ukraine receiving temporary shelter in Russia, according to Russia’s Ministry for Emergency Situations. The Central, Southern and North Caucasian federal districts received the majority of the refugees from Ukraine (gazeta.ru, July 12).... MORE

Declared by an unlawful “referendum” on May 11, the Moscow-backed “Donetsk People’s Republic” (DPR; along with the “Luhansk People’s Republic”—LPR) has existed thus far as scattered dots on the map in Ukraine’s east. Initially, those dots included administrative and law-enforcement buildings throughout the Donetsk province.... MORE