The Federal Security Service (FSB) this week described the latest killing of a person from Dagestan in its usual manner. According to an official report, a man fired two shots and threw a grenade at the police in the vicinity of the village of Padinskoe... MORE

Ukraine is asking Western governments and international organizations to designate the Moscow-backed Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics” (“DPR” and “LPR,” in Ukraine’s east) as terrorist organizations. Their political leaderships and their military units would be liable for designation as terrorist. President Petro Poroshenko, the Ukrainian... MORE

Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov posted a photograph of the dead leader of the North Caucasus insurgency, Doku Umarov, on his personal Instagram page, while the militants provided their official version of the death of Umarov, who headed the insurgency from 2006 to 2013. Kadyrov deleted... MORE

In the aftermath of the Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 tragedy, the Russian proxy war against Ukraine may evolve in one of three ways. It could become even more irregular, leading to protracted fighting and, eventually, even a frozen conflict. Second, a “surprise” rapid escalation of... MORE

The Malaysian passenger jet Flight MH17, which crashed on July 17, killing 298 people, was apparently shot down over the territory of the Ukrainian region of Donbas, controlled by pro-Russia and Moscow-backed separatists. Russian authorities have gone into their traditional mode of rejecting any possible... MORE

In his July 11 video blog address to the nation, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev offered a number of video sequences portraying the day-to-day activities of his government. One of these clips included a Cabinet discussion debating Russia’s potential responses to Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia... MORE

The head of the Circassian organization Adyge Khase in Karachaevo-Cherkessia accused Russian authorities of having a policy of double standards in regard to assisting compatriots abroad. According to Muhamed Cherkesov, only about 30 Circassian refugees from Syria have been allowed to settle in Karachaevo-Cherkessia, while... MORE

German diplomacy went into high gear after the shooting down of an international airliner by Russia’s proxy forces in Ukraine’s east on July 17. The terrorist act with the use of a Russian-supplied surface-to-air missile system killed all 298 people from 11 countries aboard the... MORE

During July 11–16, Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled around Latin America. Apart from attending the BRICS (loose political-economic grouping of rising developing countries Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit in Fortaleza, Brazil, Putin visited Cuba, Nicaragua and Argentina, he watched the World Cup... MORE

Russia’s growing international isolation over its policy toward Ukraine and reaction to the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 may prove to be an unexpected test for the highly ambitious plan to rearm the Russian military to 70 percent new or modern equipment by 2020.... MORE