On January 20, Abkhazia’s separatist government moved its so-called “border zone” with Russia almost seven miles (11 kilometers) deeper into Abkhazia. The measure is designed to widen the security area around the city of Sochi and tighten safety measures ahead of the Olympic Games (civil.ge,... MORE

For the past several days, those hostile to the Ukrainians protesting against President Viktor Yanukovich on Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in Kyiv spread rumors alleging the presence of Chechens in the ranks of the opposition (https://pravdatoday.info/content/zulihan-tut-nastoyashchaya-geopoliticheskaya-bitva-ishod-kotoroy-zatragivaet-i-nas).While this rumor might have been disregarded as a bad... MORE

Since the start of the year, the conflicting sides in the North Caucasus and media monitoring organizations have begun providing figures for the number of people killed and wounded in fighting between government forces and militants in 2013.Losses in the conflict between the Caucasus Emirate... MORE

The 2014 Winter Olympics, which are estimated to have cost the Russian taxpayer some $50 billion, will be officially declared open this week (February 7) in Sochi by President Vladimir Putin. The games are intended to magnify before the world Putin’s personal achievements and triumphs... MORE

Referendums are not always simply an instrument of democracy, but can be a manipulative tool of politics. Regardless of regime type, political leaders in the past have invoked the will of the people to legitimize and advance their own political agendas. In Gagauzia, an autonomous... MORE

On January 30, civil activists in Karachaevo-Cherkessia appealed to republican Interior Minister Kazimir Botashev, calling on him to provide answers about high-profile murders in the republic in recent years. “We know that the murderers in some of these crimes were found and punished,” the appeal... MORE

Gazelle, the new gas transit pipeline in the Czech Republic, completed in 2013, is conceived to function as a prolongation of the Gazprom-controlled Nord Stream and OPAL pipelines into continental Europe; albeit free of Gazprom’s control on the Czech Republic’s territory.The Gazelle pipeline is dedicated... MORE

Despite widespread fears and even hysteria among Russians, fertility rates—the number of children per lifetime per woman—are falling among the peoples of the North Caucasus and now approach those of the Russian Federation as a whole. That reality, one commentator says, has been largely ignored... MORE

According to Russia’s state-owned PRIME business news agency, European Union Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger has told journalists that the European Commission is set to reach an agreement with the Russian government on Gazprom’s access to the OPAL pipeline in Germany (PRIME, January 27). Russian President... MORE

President Vladimir Putin continues to support the creation of a modernized and combat-capable military by 2020. A significant element in such military modernization is the Navy, which also protects Russia’s interests in strategic areas from the Arctic to the Pacific Ocean; after more than two... MORE