On April 3, in a bloody incident in Nazran, five people were killed on their way home from their jobs at a brickyard (www.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/204389/). The incident illuminated the authorities’ incompetence and inadequate response to the processes occurring in the republic. Government agents surrounded the car... MORE

Since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in Syria more than a year ago, Western and Arab diplomats and journalists continue to ask the same question: When will Moscow abandon the seemingly doomed regime or put pressure on Damascus to stop the carnage that,... MORE

A court in Adygea has unexpectedly, and probably inadvertently, endorsed Circassian aspirations for a unified republic in the North Caucasus. On April 3, it was announced that the court in Maikop had ruled that the ethnic Cherkess living in Adygea were not an ethnicity separate... MORE

Moscow plans to introduce a new training program for military professionals in early May, which envisages intensive six week courses for contract personnel. The latest in an endless series of experiments aimed at improving standards among kontraktniki is also intended to reverse the long standing... MORE

On April 12-13, high-profile experts close to the Russian government participated in a conference on the North Caucasus in the city of Pyatigorsk, the seat of the Moscow’s envoy to the region, Aleksandr Khloponin. A deputy to Khloponin, Yuri Oleinikov, stated that the administration had... MORE

Orthodox Easter was celebrated in Russia last Sunday with all the ceremonial pomp and official hypocrisy, but it has hardly produced any calming effect on the brewing political crisis. Ahead of his return to the Kremlin, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s last official address to the... MORE

Security forces in Ingushetia launched a special operation today (April 13) in a portion of the republic’s Sunzha district where a group of militants was reportedly encircled. A group of around ten alleged militants were reportedly blockaded yesterday (April 12) in a wooded area near... MORE

The latest top-level meetings of post-Soviet regional groupings, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), pledged to intensify joint efforts to counter security and economic challenges. However, despite continued Russian efforts to sustain the groupings’ unity, the CIS and... MORE

President-elect Vladimir Putin is still legally Prime Minister until his inauguration on May 7. As Prime Minister, Putin is required to present to the Duma (the lower house of parliament) an annual “report of government activities.” Putin has limited his appearances in parliament to the... MORE

No one could have predicted a scandal would erupt when, on April 3, the Russian National Anti-Terrorist Committee (NAK) reported that security forces had killed five rebels in Ingushetia’s main city, Nazran. The authorities acknowledged there was a woman among the slain rebels. According to... MORE