The last remaining hurdle to Russia’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) now appears to have been cleared, as Russia’s chief WTO negotiator, Maxim Medvedekov, announced on November 3 that Moscow has accepted a last-minute membership compromise. Thus, Russia has taken another significant step... MORE

Expectations about the State Duma elections on December 4, were a record low, but all the political actors have reasons to claim success. The Kremlin-controlled United Russia is set to collect more than 50 percent of the vote, loudly declaring that its course of stability... MORE

In Dagestan, the deputy director of the Makhachkala Industrial-Economic College, Nazhmudin Abdulkerimov, was found shot to death yesterday (December 1) in his car in the village of Semender. A law-enforcement source said the body had a gunshot wound to the head. A source in the... MORE

In December 2007, Moscow killed the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) officially, declaring a unilateral “moratorium” (suspension) of indefinite duration on Russia’s compliance with the CFE treaty and the accompanying Flank Document. Moscow’s official decision capped years of undeclared and unacknowledged breaches, including... MORE

According to the Committee of Inquiry of Kabardino-Balkaria, on November 21, three gunmen were killed during a special operation in Nalchik (the capital of the republic). A source within the security ministries of Nalchik reported that a battle with gunmen occurred on a street of... MORE

On October 18, the US arms control expert, Steven Pifer offered an optimistic view on NATO-Russia relations and missile defense, while Russia’s Ambassador to the Alliance Dmitry Rogozin, outlined his own solution to the impasse over NATO’s refusal to legally guarantee that the phased adaptive... MORE

On November 27, one week before the parliamentary Duma elections in Russia, a congress of the ruling United Russia party unanimously endorsed Prime Minister and former President Vladimir Putin, as its official candidate in the upcoming presidential elections, scheduled for March 4, 2012. In his... MORE

The Russian and Circassian narratives on Circassian history continue to clash. On November 16, one of the three major Russian TV channels, NTV, broadcast a report about Russia providing humanitarian assistance to Circassians. “In 1998, prior to the NATO bombardment, Russia evacuated 42 Circassian families... MORE

With it appearing increasingly unlikely that NATO and Russia will come to an agreement on a joint European missile defense system, it seems certain that the US-Russian reset may be in serious trouble. The successful negotiations that led to START III and the reduction of... MORE

The Soviet art of socialist realism used to be defined as “socialist in substance, national in form.” Threats to prevent the construction of a trans-Caspian gas pipeline by military force are also a form of Kremlin art: bluff in their substance, even if brutal in... MORE