The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) security agenda has been boosted in recent years through promoting multilateral counter-terrorist cooperation. One important feature in this counter-terrorist cooperation is the staging of Peace Mission joint military exercises ostensibly designed to test and strengthen the capability of the SCO... MORE

On June 19, Amnesty International issued a report titled “The Circle of Injustice: Security Operations and Human Rights Violations in Ingushetia.” The report points to five republics where armed groups strike most often: Chechnya, Dagestan, Ingushetia, North Ossetia and Kabardino-Balkaria. Although Amnesty International recognizes that... MORE

Economic preaching and demagogy shaped debates in Russia last week as President Vladimir Putin partook in the G20 summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev attended the UN Conference on Sustainable Development hosted by Brazil. At the same time, the St. Petersburg... MORE

Russian state-controlled companies, Gazprom and Rosneft, mapped out far-reaching expansion programs in bilateral deals with Western companies at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on June 21-22. Russian President Vladimir Putin coordinated the overall process (Interfax, June 21 – 23; Kommersant, June 22). In parallel... MORE

Against the backdrop of the general security situation across the North Caucasus, where in May alone 164 people were victims of the conflict between the government and the armed opposition, the situation in Chechnya appears to be less intense. Violence in the republic in May... MORE

Moscow has reacted with concern after learning about the ongoing talks between Washington and three Central Asian countries aimed at agreeing on the handover of equipment linked to the NATO drawdown in Afghanistan. Russian officials fear that such equipment donations to the Armed Forces in... MORE

Every news item about insurgent activities in Karachaevo-Cherkessia should be put in the wider context of the general situation in the North Caucasus. On a regional scale, the events in this republic are immeasurably small, especially compared to the other North Caucasus republics or to... MORE

The Moscow Center of Strategic Studies (CSS) – an influential think tank led by well-known economist, former parliamentarian and first deputy economics minister in Vladimir Putin’s first government, Mikhail Dmitriev – has recently published a report about the ongoing political and economic crisis in Russia.... MORE

On June 19, the first meeting of the new Russian government commission for the socio-economic development of the North Caucasus took place in Grozny, Chechnya. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev presided over the meeting and stated that development of the North Caucasus was “one of the... MORE

On June 5, the head of Kabardino-Balkaria’s department for civil and religious organizations, Anzor Kurashinov, revealed that 300 more Syrian Circassians were expected to arrive in the republic before the end of 2012. Kurashinov estimated that 150 repatriates had arrived in Kabardino-Balkaria from Syria to... MORE