The North Caucasus republic of Karachaevo-Cherkessia has been buffeted by instability this week. Over three successive days, a group of several hundred distraught relatives and friends of seven people who disappeared earlier this month and are believed to have been murdered held demonstrations in Cherkessk,... MORE

Two events -- the upcoming U.S. presidential election and Russian President Vladimir Putin's recent announcement of his controversial "reform measures" -- appear to have intensified discussions about the current state and possible evolution of Russian-American relations. One group of politicians and pundits in Moscow and... MORE

Russian President Vladimir Putin had a busy international schedule in mid-October, meeting in Moscow with Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin and Brazilian Vice-President Jose Alenkar, followed by a full-scale official visit to China, and then staying for several days in Central Asia with a dense... MORE

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov has announced a series of military personnel cuts that will affect the entire Russian armed forces, not merely the many layers of bureaucrats within the central directorates and main commands in Moscow. The nature of these cuts, which should be... MORE

The idea that Russian President Vladimir Putin should stay on beyond his second and last constitutionally mandated term was given fresh expression yesterday (October 19) by Pavel Borodin, state secretary of the still largely notional Russia-Belarus Union. Borodin, the former Kremlin property department chief who... MORE

More than one month has now passed since the tragedy in the North Ossetian town of Beslan, but what really happened there is still subject to debate. When the hostages crisis ended with hundreds dead, Russian authorities tried their best to assure the outside world... MORE

On October 14, fresh on the heels of the racially motivated murder of a Vietnamese student in St. Petersburg, four men beat and stabbed two citizens of Uzbekistan in the suburban Moscow town of Dolgoprudny. One of the victims, identified by regional prosecutors as Ihtier... MORE

The murder of a Vietnamese student in St. Petersburg has once again underscored the growing problem of racist violence in Russia. Eyewitnesses report that on the evening of October 13, a group of 15-18 young men with shaven heads and black clothes and boots attacked... MORE

There are growing indications that the Kremlin's centralization measures may soon move well beyond what it has thus far made public, including the plan to make the country's governors presidential appointees. In addition, a leading newspaper has reported what it claims lies behind these measures:... MORE

Russia's reputation as a reliable security partner is currently growing within Central Asia, despite numerous efforts by Western countries to engage the region. Triggered in part by events such as the Beslan tragedy and an impetus toward closer cooperation between the Central Asian states and... MORE