As Russia is a member of the six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear program and a neighbor of North Korea, it naturally was concerned by the announcement of Kim Jong-Il’s sudden but not altogether unexpected death on December 17, 2011. Moscow quickly sent official condolences... MORE

On January 26, the Russian Defense Minister Anatoliy Serdyukov announced an apparently routine measure to strengthen the Southern Military District by stationing additional Special Forces elements in Stavropol and Kislovodsk. GRU Spetsnaz (Glavnoye Razvedyvatel’noye Upravleniye – GRU, Voyska spetsialnogo naznacheniya – Spetsnaz), the prestigious Special... MORE

The first summit for seven months between Armenia President Serzh Sargsyan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev was held on January 23 in Sochi, and mediated by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (as in all previous eight meetings in the past three years). After his failure... MORE

On February 2, the Dagestani government outlined its latest plans for curbing the insurgency in the republic. The statement by the head of Dagestan, Magomedsalam Magomedov, on governmental plans to exert control over the republic sounded like a plan to occupy a foreign country. “We... MORE

On February 2, the leader of the North Caucasus rebels Doku Umarov made an astonishing statement in support of the growing movement in Russia against Vladimir Putin. In a dramatic departure from the previously circulated views, the head of the Caucasus Emirate called on the... MORE

In a video posted yesterday (February 2) to the rebel Kavkaz-Center website, Doku Umarov, the “emir” of the Caucasus Emirate, ordered his forces to refrain from attacks on Russian civilians in connection with the fact that, as the website characterized it, “the process of civil... MORE

Events in Ingushetia signal a possible increase in tensions in this North Caucasus republic after a nearly two year period of decline in militant activities.  The decline in Ingush rebel activities was linked to the arrest of their leader Magas (aka Taziev-Yevloev) in June 2010... MORE

As Western nations and the Arab League are pressing a draft United Nations Security Council resolution that seeks to ease President Bashar al-Assad out of power and condemn the regime for its violence against protesters, Russia has been steadfastly resisting, threatening to use its UN... MORE

The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan have held yet another Russian-mediated meeting that was apparently intended to help their Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, save face after three years of intensive but unsuccessful efforts to broker a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The summit hosted by... MORE

On January 26, the Russian general staff reported the results of the fall 2011 draft. The deputy chief of the general staff, Vasily Smirnov, said that 135,800 young people across the Russian Federation had been drafted, and that none of them came from Chechnya. Smirnov... MORE