The recent warning from the US State Department not to wear patriotic clothing outside of the “ring of steel” in Sochi proper might have been thought to forestall an attack from Islamists. But there are many other “non-traditional” threats to foreign visitors to the Winter... MORE

On January 28, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov submitted his resignation to President Viktor Yanukovych, while an extraordinary session of the parliament (Vekhovna Rada) repealed the “draconian laws of January 16,” which had triggered the outburst of radicalism, violent battles, and tense standoffs between protesters and... MORE

A Duma roundtable in November 2013 on the leadership of Russia’s Armed Forces since the dismissal of Anatoly Serdyukov as defense minister in November 2012 offered broad support for his replacement (see Part One, EDM, January 21). While supportive of the current minister of defense,... MORE

With weeks to go before the opening of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, US and Russian media reported that female suicide bombers might be targeting the upcoming event. The police reportedly visited hotels and distributed leaflets with a description of the potential suicide bombers,... MORE

So much self-congratulating has been emanating from the Kremlin following the spectacular triumphs of Russian foreign policy since September 2013, that the court of President Vladimir Putin prefers to ignore the fact that the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, which took place in... MORE

On December 18, 2013, in Ulaanbaatar, the Mongolian government’s Ministry of Road and Transportation and the Mongolian-Russian shareholding “Ulaanbaatar Railway” Society organized the first tripartite consultative meeting of “The Mongolian-Russian-Chinese Northern Railway” (news.mn, December 19, 2013). Because of the lack of existing rail freight loading... MORE

On almost a daily basis, Dagestan is rife with explosions, murders, rumors and arrests. All this makes the situation in the republic bleak, especially against the backdrop of the approaching Olympics in Sochi. For the first time, North Caucasians in general, and Dagestanis in particular,... MORE

The situation in Syria has not changed significantly in the past month, but the same cannot be said about the Chechens who are fighting there. Indeed, the Chechen groups in Syria have evidently radicalized and split into different factions because of the dispute between al-Nusra... MORE

The eastern Mediterranean, which has seen an intermittent Russian naval presence for more than two centuries, will again see Russian military assets deployed there as a new Russian-Cypriot agreement takes effect. On January 10, Cyprus’s Council of Ministers approved a defense ministry draft proposal for... MORE

The escalating crisis in Ukraine is reverberating in Moscow, where the ruling elite is convinced the violent clashes in Kyiv between special police forces and protesters have been organized and financed by the West. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the European Union of supporting... MORE