The Kremlin’s decision to stop drafting young non-Russian men from the republics of the North Caucasus threatens Moscow’s control both of that region and of the Russian Federation as a whole (see EDM June 27; RIA Novosti, June 25). This move simultaneously highlights and exacerbates... MORE

As talks continue over the extension of Russia’s use of a military base in Tajikistan, the Central Asian country’s envoy to Moscow suggests that the two countries have reconciled their positions on all parameters of a new lease except its duration. Speaking to the media... MORE

Tajikistan’s perceived strategic significance is rapidly growing, in anticipation of the US/NATO quasi-withdrawal from Afghanistan by 2014. Tajikistan shares a 1,400 kilometer border with Afghanistan. That border and Tajikistan itself are an anti-narcotics defensive frontline opposite Afghanistan, the source of an estimated 90 percent of... MORE

In June 2012, Ingushetia was the third deadliest republic in the North Caucasus, behind only Dagestan and Kabardino-Balkaria. Six people died in attacks in the republic and 17 were injured, while 11 were killed and 12 wounded in Kabardino-Balkaria, and 28 were killed and ten... MORE

July has brought a drought to the Russian political climate; even the rise in communal tariffs has barely registered as the urban dwellers migrate en masse to their dachas. The lull gives both the stakeholders in Putin’s regime and the risk-takers in the opposition camp... MORE

The Russian military does not want to deal with military conscripts from the North Caucasus region and has placed them outside the constitution of the Russian Federation. By applying these exclusionary practices to the North Caucasians, the Russian government is taking yet another step toward... MORE

The end of June marks two months of active confrontation between the opposition and authorities. Moscow seems to have come out of the political coma it was in for the better part of the last decade and resumed the dynamic political life of the 1990s. Just... MORE

In March, the Russian military command unexpectedly began redeploying troops from Chechnya to Dagestan. Russian military forces left Chechnya in the largest numbers ever since the start of the second military campaign in the republic in 1999, with an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 personnel redeployed.... MORE

During weekend talks in Geneva about Syria, Western diplomats made an effort once again to enlist Moscow’s help in removing President Bashar al-Assad. Western attempts to shift Russia on Syria have been encouraged by statements from Russian officials that Moscow is not backing the Assad... MORE

IS RUSSIA SENDING A DETACHMENT OF THE BLACK SEA FLEET TO SYRIA? Despite a recent flurry of contradictory reports, it appears that a detachment composed of ships from the Russian Black Sea Fleet and possibly the Baltic Fleet is preparing for deployment to the Russian... MORE