On February 19, the governor of North Ossetia–Alania, Tamerlan Aguzarov, suddenly died at a Moscow hospital from complications of pneumonia. The 52-year-old governor was in office for a little more than eight months and, according to some reports, was fighting cancer. Aguzarov was also known... MORE

It is the dubious ceasefire in Syria that keeps Russia in the focus of global media attention these days, as if the outcome of this catastrophic civil war actually depends upon Russian bombs falling here or there. President Vladimir Putin has not committed to anything... MORE

On February 8, Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili personally announced the conclusion of the tender for the construction of the Anaklia deep-water port on Georgia’s Black Sea coast. His remarks were broadcast live on all national TV channels. The prime minister stated that Anaklia Development... MORE

In Kyiv, on February 22–23, with a working visit, German Minister of Foreign Affairs Frank-Walter Steinmeier portrayed the “Normandy” group’s upcoming March 3 meeting in Paris as a make-or-break event, designed to overcome the diplomatic deadlock over “the Ukraine crisis.” The diplomatic process is stuck... MORE

 The Russian opposition promised to deliver a groundbreaking report on Chechnya by Ilya Yashin, the deputy chairman of the Svoboda-Parnas party, long before February 23. On February 7, Yashin surprised the Chechen authorities after he asserted that he had visited the republic’s capital and published... MORE

Most Western reporting on the aftermath of North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests in January–February 2016 has focused on China. However, Russia, too, has important interests at stake in Korea and is a charter member of the Six-Party Talks on the Democratic People’s Republic of... MORE

War-torn Syria is days away from the start of a negotiated partial ceasefire, which is supposed to temporarily end fighting between rebel groups and government forces supported by Russian supplies and bombing sorties. The ceasefire, agreed to by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his... MORE

Negotiations in the Minsk Contact Group on political issues are so configured as to push Ukraine into recognizing the Moscow-controlled Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics” (DPR, LPR), first de facto and then de jure, through local elections and a “special status.” For its part, Ukraine... MORE

Dagestan’s governor, Ramazan Abdulatipov, held a surprise meeting with Chechen activists who support restoring the Aukhov district in the republic. The issue dates back to 1944, when the Soviet government ordered the mass deportation of all Chechens to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. In 1957, after Joseph... MORE

On February 22, which was a public holiday in Russia, President Vladimir Putin went on national television with a newsflash to announce that, after a phone call with the United States’ President Barack Obama, a US-Russian agreement was secured to declare a ceasefire in the... MORE