Practically every month, Moscow boastfully announces it has killed a leader of one of the territorial branches of the Islamic underground armed resistance. However, the statistics regularly provided by Russian authorities concerning the insurgency raise doubts about the authenticity of these claims. Indeed, the number... MORE

Russian ties with Japan have clearly suffered serious damage due to Moscow’s aggression against Ukraine. Apparently, there will not be a visit by Russian President Putin to Japan anytime soon, despite previous wishes for such a trip by both sides (Asahi Shimbun AJW, September 24).... MORE

Addressing an international investment forum in Moscow yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin adopted an unusually restrained tone toward Ukraine. In effect, Putin seems to suggest a framework for political dialogue toward stabilizing Russia-Ukraine relations (kremlin.ru, Interfax, October 2). Putin’s salient propositions are: 1) “It is... MORE

Someone looking at a map of the Caucasus would be surprised to see that only three transportation links cut across the Main Caucasus Ridge connecting the North and South Caucasus. This was not always the case. Prior to the Russian conquest of the North Caucasus... MORE

The spirit of a new cold war seems to be dominating Russia. The Kremlin, outraged by the punitive sanctions imposed by the West in response to Russia’s incursions into Ukraine, is curtailing all available channels of communication with the outside world. This week, members of... MORE

Dagestan’s gross regional product is a little more than $2,000 per capita. By many economic indicators, Russian economists say, Dagestan is not only far behind many other Russian regions, but is at the level of some of the world’s poorest nations. Economic underdevelopment has been... MORE

The armistice, slowly taking hold in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk provinces (collectively known as the Donbas region), basically consigns parts of those territories to Russia’s military and political control, both directly and through local proxies. Facing Russia one-on-one, on the battlefield as well as in... MORE

As a result of the confluence of two developments, one welcome and encouraging and the other dangerous and worrisome, the airline that had maintained a route between Simerfopol (the capital of Crimea) and Turkey is ending that service. Andrey Sokolov, the Russian deputy minister for... MORE

Vostok 2014, the largest operational strategic military exercise in Russia this year, was recast by the Kremlin as its most grand-scale exercise since the Soviet era; involving upwards of 155,000 personnel. The assets and units taking part suggest that the hypothetical enemy or enemies were... MORE

Local Muslims in Russia’s Krasnodar region say the authorities there have imposed an unofficial ban on the construction of mosques. Multiple appeals by the Muslims there remain unanswered and the experts warn that the government’s attempt to contain the spread of Islam in the region... MORE