The Chechen militant assault on Grozny on December 4 (TASS, December 5) is bound to have an impact on the neighboring republics. What the impact will be and how the other republics will try to prevent similar attacks by the Caucasus Emirate is an important... MORE

The Ukrainian crisis started late last year, when then–Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych suddenly refused to sign the long-planned association agreement with the European Union and ordered the brutal dispersal of student protesters in downtown Kyiv. The chain of events that followed led to the popular... MORE

A tactical shift is noticeable in Russia’s policy toward Ukraine. The Kremlin has adjusted its rhetoric, and Russian diplomacy its terminology. They seem to suggest that Russia is restraining its territorial and political objectives in Ukraine. In parallel, Russia is suspending offensive military actions by... MORE

Russia seems about to suspend the military phase of its multi-dimensional assault on Ukraine. The Kremlin’s “Novorossiya” project (see EDM, May 27) is shelved until further notice. Instead, Moscow is switching to what Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov has termed “a post-war phase, so to... MORE

Implications related to the signing of the Russo-Abkhazian Agreement on Alliance and Strategic Partnership, on November 24, have been reverberating across the region, and have had profound effects on Armenia. For one thing, the agreement again stimulated a discussion about the possible restoration of the... MORE

The attack by militants in Grozny on December 4 was surprisingly large in scale. The last time Chechen militants launched such a large-scale offensive in Grozny was in October 2010, when three rebels attempted to seize the republican parliament building (NTV.ru, October 19, 2010). Although... MORE

In the spacious, though somewhat faded and dimly lit lavishness of the Soviet-built official air terminal of Vnukovo-2, on the afternoon of December 6, President Vladimir Putin met for two hours with his French counterpart, Francois Hollande. This previously unannounced meeting was, according to the... MORE

The conflict that arose after Russia’s temporary ban on imports from 23 Belarusian meat processors and on Belarusian food transit to Kazakhstan (see EDM, December 3) has not been resolved yet. During the first week of December, Belarusian officials at all levels of government expressed... MORE

On November 26, a counter-terrorist operation regime was lifted in Untsukul district, located in the mountains of Dagestan. Introduced back in March, the regime was lifted, but the Gimry tunnel remains closed for through traffic. The Gimry tunnel connects the mountainous districts of the republic... MORE

On November 29, a television station styling itself “the National Television of Talyshton” (“Tolyshystoni Millaiiya Vindasado”—TMV) began broadcasting in Azerbaijan under the direction of Talysh poet Zabig Madozh. One year ago, Madozh launched a YouTube video service in the Talysh language, and he insists that... MORE