Since the transformation of the Russian armed forces began in October 2008, senior political and military leaders have promised to improve command and control (C2) both in terms of force structure as well as by means of introducing new technology. President Dmitry Medvedev has set... MORE

If we can accept the results from a recent survey on what contemporary Russians know about the Putsch of August 1991, there are good reasons to be depressed. Moscow News reports that 8 percent of those surveyed did not know anything about the coup, 27... MORE

On August 11, the counterterrorism operation regime in effect in Kabardino-Balkaria was partially lifted. The suburbs of the republican capital Nalchik – Khasanya, Belaya Rechka and Volny Aul – along with several nearby settlements in the Chegem district   were officially taken off of the counterterrorism... MORE

The volatile turbulence that battered the world economy last week should have passed Russia by, but it did not. Indeed, Russia is not burdened by a massive debt, is spared political feuds about budget cuts and is not even exposed to the looming Greek default;... MORE

One policeman was killed and two wounded yesterday (August 11) during a shootout with alleged rebels in Dagestan’s Tsuntinsky district. The incident took place in the village of Vitiyatl when a group of suspected rebels discovered in a private home opened fired on police. Three... MORE

Interviewed on the third anniversary of the Russia-Georgia war, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev took credit for the invasion orders and subsequent basing of Russian troops in Abkhazia and South Ossetia (Russia Today TV, Radio Ekho Moskvy, First Caucasus TV Channel [PIK, Tbilisi], August 5; www.kremlin.ru,... MORE

Having failed to re-conquer the North Caucasus using force or realized the high price to be paid for such a conquest, Moscow is attempting to deprive regional nationalists and religious radicals of their social base of support by providing additional financial infusions. In the process... MORE

On August 8 – the third anniversary of the beginning of the short-lived armed conflict with Georgia – the Kremlin press service announced that President Dmitry Medvedev had sent to parliament for ratification two agreements on establishing military bases in the breakaway territories of Abkhazia... MORE

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev marked the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Georgia by visiting a Spetsnaz unit (Interfax, August 8), and assailing both Georgia and the United States in a live interview of unusual length and candor. Medvedev recounted that he had ordered the... MORE

On August 8, the well-known Russian pundits Igor Yurgens and Sergei Kulik published their assessment of the situation in the North Caucasus and the impact of external actors in the region. Yurgens and Kulik occupy top positions in the Institute of Contemporary Development, which is... MORE