Yet another Sufi sheikh has been added to the list of those killed in Dagestan. On August 3, Sheikh Ilyas-haji Ilyasov, of the branch of Islamic teaching known as the Naqshbandiyya-Khalidiyya, was murdered. The sheikh had an estimated 500–1,000 murids (followers). Ilyasov was an ethnic... MORE

It is now official: The White House has cancelled President Barack Obama’s visit to Moscow for a summit with his Russian counterpart, President Vladimir Putin, planned for September 3. Obama will still come to Russia to attend the G20 summit in St. Petersburg on September... MORE

On July 30, the Russian security services reported that four suspected rebels were killed in Stavropol region. A source in the local police said the incident took place on July 29 near the town of Tersky, located in Georgievsky district in the southern part of... MORE

General Dzhurakhon Zoirov, head of Tajikistan’s Anti-Organized Crime Division of the Ministry of the Interior, announced on July 19 that Amriddin Tabarov (a.k.a. Dumullo Amriddin) has been placed on Interpol’s international wanted list (Ozodi, July 20). Tabarov is purportedly the leader of Jamaat Ansarullah an... MORE

Latin America is not generally thought of as a high priority for Russian foreign policy. But as relations with the United States continue to stagnate as they did in 2008, Russia is apparently turning greater attention to that region in order to advance its goals... MORE

Just as the Republic of Tatarstan did routinely under its former President Mintimer Shaimiev, Kazan has again taken a Moscow policy and transformed it in a way that is very much at odds with the one articulated by the central Russian leadership. It has cleverly... MORE

On July 29, the Russian defense ministry’s Zvezda Television announced that new helicopters would “soon” be delivered to Russian “peacekeeping” troops in Moldova’s Transnistria territory. It claimed that the matter “is being agreed upon” with Moldova, following the green light already received from Tiraspol (Zvezda... MORE

Moscow’s highly ambitious military rearmament plans to 2020 always appeared destined to encounter major setbacks linked to the capacity of the domestic defense industry to deliver the modernization of weapons and equipment for the Armed Forces. However, on July 31, within a few days of... MORE

On July 27, a group of Dagestani traders clashed with the police near the market in Moscow’s Ochakovo-Matveyevskoye district. One police officer was injured in the fighting. The incident quickly rose to prominence in the Russian national news as video recordings proliferated across the Internet... MORE

Last week, Edward Snowden departed from the Sheremetyevo Airport—though not to a dubious “safe haven” like Bolivia but to an undisclosed location in Russia as his plea for a temporary asylum was granted. Russian authorities had obviously expected that his celebrity status would evaporate after... MORE