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Latest Articles about Russia
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Is Russian Gold Being Used to Support North Caucasus Insurgency?
On November 16, Russia’s Federal Security Service announced it had intercepted a channel that supplied gold from Russia’s north to Ingushetia. The security services confiscated over 17 kilograms of gold from an unnamed individual in the city of Kazan, Tatarstan. The same individual, a resident... MORE
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Putin Attempts a Comeback as His Leadership Becomes Precarious
Winter hit Moscow furiously in the last days of November causing colossal traffic jams, but the political climate remains hot as if the electoral season and the government reshuffle did not end in May. President Vladimir Putin announced plans for several trips and scheduled the... MORE
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A Depressing Curtain for Russian Naval Power: Admiral Sergei Gorshkov Fails Her Sea Trials (Part One)
After a year of encouraging progress in the refitting of a late Soviet–era carrier, which Russia plans to sell to India, the vessel’s latest sea trials in September 2012 ended in failure and disappointment. The discouraging results point to substantial structural problems in Russia’s domestic... MORE
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Russians Fleeing Adygea, Threatening Moscow’s Control of Region
Since the end of Soviet times, the percentage of ethnic Russians in the Circassian republic of Adygea has fallen from 78 percent to 52 percent, the result of the dominance of the minority Circassians in republic institutions and the failure of Moscow to address the... MORE
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Russia’s Ever Friendlier Ties to Vietnam—Are They a Signal to China?
The regional tensions precipitated by China’s demand to incorporate virtually all of the South China Sea into its territorial waters are well known and acute. China has previously warned the United States to leave the region and not interfere in China’s “core interests.” What is... MORE
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Hizb ut-Tahrir Takes Advantage of Ethnic Fault Lines in Tatarstan, Kyrgyzstan
On November 16, Russian prosecutors charged nine citizens of Tajikistan and Russia with membership in Hizb ut-Tahrir and possession of grenades, rifles, TNT, millions of dollars’ worth of counterfeit money, and written materials promoting extremism (Interfax [Moscow], November 16). In the months prior, there were... MORE
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Arrests in Turkey May Be Connected to So-Called “Berlin Group” of Russian Killers
On November 22, the Turkish authorities announced that six people had been arrested in Istanbul for involvement in the murder of Chechen refugees in the city in September 2011 (www.mk.ru/social/news/2012/11/22/777469-politsiya-stambula-zaderzhala-ubiyts-chechenskih-bezhentsev.html).On September 16, 2011, three Chechens were shot dead in Zeytinburnu, one of the busiest districts... MORE
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Fighting Corruption Russian Style
The dismissal of Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov by President Vladimir Putin earlier this month as a result of an investigation of corruption in the defense ministry–controlled holding company “Oboronservis” (see EDM, October 25, November 1, 8) has been followed this week by further state-sponsored disclosures... MORE
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Circassians Will Not Follow Abkhaz Example, Adyge Khase Leader Says
Asker Sokht, president of the Circassian “Adyge Khase” organization of Krasnodar Krai, said this week that his nation will not seek to realize its rights by violating the sovereignty and territorial integrity of any country as the Abkhaz have done (www.regnum.ru/news/polit/1597324.html). Many are likely to... MORE
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Russian Army Lacks Recruits, but Will Not Draft North Caucasians
On November 22, the authoritative Russian newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta published a report on how the Russian army is becoming increasingly undermanned. According to the paper’s sources in the Russian military, the new Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was “extremely displeased” with a report by General Vasily... MORE