Russia is moving rapidly to start building the South Stream natural gas pipeline before the end of the year. On October 29, Serbia became the first Gazprom partner to announce its final investment decision on the construction of South Stream. Bulgaria will follow suit on... MORE

On October 24, the Memorial human rights center published a report on the situation in the North Caucasus during this past summer. The report documents the latest trends in the region that are often overlooked in the daily news. For example, Memorial determined that the... MORE

Earlier in October, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin traveled to India to complete discussions ahead of President Vladimir Putin’s planned trip there and to negotiate nuclear and arms deals. Perhaps not surprisingly, given Rogozin’s charm as a diplomat, Putin’s trip was postponed and overt... MORE

Ethnic Russians continue to leave the North Caucasus—albeit at a slower rate than in the 1990s—but it is an indication of just how far things have gone there. “About a third of the ethnic Russian population still [in the North Caucasus] would like to leave,... MORE

Army-General (retired) Yury Baluyevskiy, the former Chief of the General Staff and until January 2012 Deputy Secretary in the Russian Security Council, has attached his name to an important article in the military press blasting the ongoing “reform” of the Armed Forces. The significance of... MORE

On October 24, Federal Security Service (FSB), police and Emergency Situations Ministry special forces killed two alleged Islamic radicals in Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan. One FSB officer was killed and several others were injured during the operation. A counter-terrorism operation regime was reportedly introduced... MORE

The Moscow rumor about President Vladimir Putin’s health problems appears well-informed and confirmed by several cancellations of long-scheduled visits and by the postponement of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) summit in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, but it is remarkable how little interest it stirs in Russia... MORE

While on a visit to Chechnya on October 15, Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev held a meeting with the Russian Interior Ministry police chiefs of the North Caucasus Federal District and the joint command of the Interior Ministry’s troops (www.kommersant.ru/doc/2045606/print). Kolokoltsev was preparing to deliver... MORE

Chechens suddenly learned from the Russian media that the authorities in Moscow were preparing to axe the federal program on socio-economic development of the Chechen Republic in 2008–2012. Chechnya was destined to receive about $3 billion through this program (https://regions.ru/news/2429193/). However, Moscow has proposed replacing... MORE

The temporary thaw in the usually icy relations between Moldova and its breakaway region of Transnistria has apparently come to an end. A warning signal was sent by the Russian foreign ministry special envoy Sergei Gubarev on October 13 during his visit to Tiraspol, Transnistria’s... MORE