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

Russia’s Investigation Committee (Slyedstvenny Kommitet Rossye—SKR) spokesman Vladimir Markin stunned Moscow on October 25 by publicly accusing the defense ministry–controlled holding company “Oboronservis” of corruption and of defrauding the federal budget of “over three billion rubles” ($100 million). According to Markin, the offices of “Oboronservis”... MORE

On the day preceding Nursultan Nazarbayev’s latest visit to Moscow (see EDM, October 19), the widely-read Russian daily newspaper Izvestia published an interview previously obtained from an unidentified high-level official of the Russian Space Agency (Roskosmos). In his conversation with journalists, the official claimed that... MORE

On October 19, a court in Nazran, Ingushetia, sentenced the republic’s leading opposition figure, Magomed Khazbiev, to 15 days arrest. Khazbiev, who was accused of obstructing police officers while they were on duty, was arrested immediately upon his arrival from Moscow, where he had organized... MORE