The United Nations General Assembly will hear today (September 28) the long-promised address by President Vladimir Putin, which is unlikely to contain any shocking surprises. The main content of his initiative on bringing the devastating civil war in Syria to an end has already been... MORE

President Vladimir Putin is heading to New York to address the United Nations with a strong hand, while his United States counterpart, Barack Obama, seems weak and indecisive. According to Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov, the summit with Obama on September 28 will be dominated... MORE

The Russian media ramped up coverage of Syria after reports emerged that the Russian military is actively taking part in the conflict on the side of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. To distract Russian citizens from domestic issues and justify intervention in the conflict, the authorities... MORE

Politicians in the North Caucasus are increasingly calling on the government to step up efforts against the so-called Islamic State (IS) and take action against Russian citizens who support it. Meanwhile, the militants who became affiliated with the IS in the North Caucasus one year... MORE

Speaking this week (September 15) in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, at a summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO)—the Russian-dominated regional defense alliance—President Vladimir Putin detailed his understanding of regional and global security threats. The CSTO summit was notably held in former Soviet Central Asia, in... MORE

As the Islamic State sought to expand geographically in the months following the declaration of the caliphate in June 2014, Libya initially appeared to be the organization’s most promising frontier outside of Syria and Iraq. Libya’s civil conflict—which has pitted the Libya Dawn military coalition,... MORE

On June 16, the Kurdish militia group People’s Protection Units (Yekîneyên Parastina Gel‎—YPG) and its Free Syrian Army (FSA) allies captured the Islamic State-controlled Syrian town of Tal Abyad on the Turkish border (YPG Rojava, June 16). In addition, in May, a surprise offensive by... MORE

In December 2014, a video testament emerged in which 19-year-old Sultan Berzel, from the Netherlands’ southern city of Maastricht, called on Muslims to make hijra (a religious migration) to the self-proclaimed Islamic State group. He delivered his message in a quiet voice and with a... MORE

Moscow has attached credibility to reports that it reserves the right to commence military operations in Syria, following growing evidence that it has increased the supplies of military hardware and enhanced the numbers of military advisors working in-country (see EDM, September 4, 10). This was... MORE

On September 10, Maksim Shevchenko, a member of the Council for Human Rights under the President of the Russian Federation, unexpectedly announced that the Council would ask President Vladimir Putin to allow the repatriation of Circassian Syrians to the North Caucasus. In an interview with... MORE