Latest Articles about Russia
Putin’s Agenda: Gunboat Diplomacy
Since announcing his return to the presidency on September 24, Vladimir Putin has regained the limelight (though he never lost the power) attached to the direction of Russian foreign policy. The results have not been long in coming. Putin has been a vocal champion of... MORE
Russia Blocks Consensus At OSCE’s Year-End Conference
On December 6-7 in Vilnius, the OSCE’s year-end ministerial conference dramatized this organization’s vulnerability to sabotage by the Kremlin. That vulnerability is inherent in the OSCE’s own structure and modus operandi, which enable Russia to exercise discretionary veto powers under this organization’s consensus rules.Lithuania, holder... MORE
What Russian Statistics On Militant Attacks In the North Caucasus Reveal
It is common practice to summarize the year’s events at its conclusion. Following this tradition, we can consider the figures concerning the situation in the North Caucasus, which is not improving, as the federal authorities in the Russian Federation would like to present it. The... MORE
No Let-up In Insurgency Related Violence In Dagestan
Dagestan’s Interior Ministry reported today (December 9) that a cache of weapons was discovered in Karabudakhentsky district on the Caspian Sea coast. According to the ministry, police found a bag containing four F-1 hand grenades, five RGD-5 grenades, an RPG-18 grenade launcher, a GP-25 under-barrel... MORE
Authorities Move Troops and Hire Thugs to Suppress Pro-democracy Activists In Moscow
The ruling United Russia (UR) lost votes in the December 4 Duma elections compared to the landslide in the previous national poll in December 2007, but official results still gave it a majority. After counting over 99.9 percent of the votes, the Central Election Commission... MORE
Russian Parliamentary Election Results in the North Caucasus Questioned
On December 4, parliamentary elections were held in Russia. Russian observers say that the manifestly exaggerated victory of the ruling United Russia party in the republics of the North Caucasus played a key role in enabling the ruling United Russia party to win over 50... MORE
NATO Supply Routes to Afghanistan Under Threat
“Issue ignored is a crisis invited,” Henry Kissinger once famously said writing on US foreign policy. This sums up the predicament in which the US may find itself if it fails to address the risks stemming from Pakistan’s decision to close NATO supply routes in... MORE
General Makarov Highlights the “Risk” of Nuclear Conflict
In the current election season the Russian media has speculated that the Defense Minister Anatoliy Serdyukov may be replaced, possibly by Dmitry Rogozin, Russia’s Ambassador to NATO, which masks deeper anxiety about the future direction of the Armed Forces. The latest rumors also partly reflect... MORE
Russian MFA Defends Soviet Annexation of Baltic States and Moscow
On December 1 and 2, respectively, Lithuania’s and Estonia’s ministries of foreign affairs (MFAs) refuted the Russian MFA’s latest claims that the three Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) had voluntarily joined the Soviet Union in 1940. Moscow’s claims in this regard are hardly new;... MORE
Kremlin Chooses Guns Over Butter Approach to Dealing with North Caucasus
On November 23, Moscow’s envoy to the North Caucasus, Aleksandr Khloponin, officially confirmed earlier information that the planned large-scale program for economic development of the North Caucasus would not be approved by the end of 2011. Khloponin told a press conference in Makhachkala, Dagestan, that... MORE