The “people’s republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk (“DPR, LPR”) have announced their intentions to stage local elections, outside Ukraine’s constitutional and legal framework, on their respective territories. This move continues the hollowing out of the September 2014 Minsk agreement by decisions of Moscow, Donetsk and... MORE

A law banning foreign and international non-governmental organizations (NGO) as “undesirable” in Russia was approved by both houses of parliament and signed by President Vladimir Putin last May. A specific list of “undesirables” is currently being prepared in Moscow, and it may include The Jamestown... MORE

The Belarusian parliament endorsed a new date for the upcoming presidential elections: October 11. It is unlikely that shifting elections from November (as originally planned) to October will make a difference either in terms of negative trends in the economy or in terms of the... MORE

On June 22, the vice president of the International Circassian Association (ICA), Adam Bogus, announced that he was suspending his membership in the organization until its next leadership elections. Bogus, who is from Adygea, also refused to take part in an ICA conference that was... MORE

Although not commonly associated with the Cossacks, the city of Kazan (in the ethnic republic of Tatarstan, historically a Muslim region) played host, in mid-June, to a meeting of the regional coordination center for Cossack revival. The meeting was attended by the Cossack Party of... MORE

The protests in Yerevan against rising electricity prices have sparked a debate over the motives, expectations, and impact of this public outcry (see EDM, June 27). Energy shortfalls and crises have long been a sensitive subject for Armenia due to the painful experiences of energy... MORE

The Bolshevik government achieved two goals by dividing up the territory of Central Asia into various national republics—it undermined the Pan-Turkic aspirations of the jadids, and it helped break the anti-Soviet basmachi movement by refocusing the attention of the local population on national construction, according... MORE

Moscow still fails to properly calibrate the relationship between threat assessment and modeling a military to match, with complementary defense industry support. Recent statements from the top brass suggest that a reassessment of Russia’s perceived threat environment is well underway, while the idea of promoting... MORE

On June 27, the Circassian organization Adyge Khase held a conference in Karachaevo-Cherkessia. Participants accused the republic’s authorities of neglecting Circassian villages and putting pressure on Circassian businesses, calling for an extraordinary conference of the Circassian people. Circassians in Karachaevo-Cherkessia accuse the republican authorities of... MORE

On June 22, the World Bank approved $12 million in additional financing for Tajikistan for a project creating temporary employment in rural districts (clearing irrigation and drainage canals). This financing is a specific effort to assist the country in tackling the impact of falling remittances... MORE