With the backing of the Kremlin, and some help from interested European parties, Gazprom is intent on rolling back the European Union’s Third Energy Legislation Package on EU territory. The Russian government and Gazprom have signed inter-governmental and corporate agreements to build sections of the... MORE

Increasingly it is becoming obvious that the leadership of Ingushetia and Dagestan are following the example of the Chechen government in trying to portray their regions as safe places in order to claim they have at least some level of popular support. However, there is... MORE

On January 28, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in Brussels that the European Union has agreed to give Russia full access to the OPAL pipeline in Germany, the largest natural gas pipeline in Europe. “We had problems with access to the OPAL gas pipeline, which... MORE

Moscow-based, independent television cable news channel Dozhd (meaning “Rain”) has been accused of “extremism,” and a number of cable TV providers threatened to remove it from the TV-channel packages that they offer their subscribers.  On January 26, 2014, in “Dilettanty”—a panel discussion program on the... MORE

Moscow commentators have already denounced the Baltic countries for supposedly helping to organize the Ukrainian revolution (windowrussia.ruvr.ru/2014_01_24/Baltijskij-sled-na-kievskom-evromajdane-5748/), and they have condemned Estonia, along with Finland, for supposedly stirring up the Finno-Ugric nations of the Middle Volga region of the Russian Federation (apn.ru/opinions/article30878.htm). But Moscow and... MORE

As the Russian government has been investing tens of billions of dollars in the construction of Olympic infrastructure in Sochi, a previously hailed grandiose project for developing tourism in the North Caucasus has been gradually fading away. To provide a more appropriate background for the... MORE

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his resignation to President Viktor Yanukovych, while an extraordinary session of the parliament (Vekhovna Rada) repealed the “draconian laws of January 16,” which had triggered the outburst of radicalism, violent battles, and tense standoffs between protesters and...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