In the holiday pause, it has become even more apparent that the revitalized Russian politics has acquired a new and rather untraditional character. Nobody is remotely interested in where President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin are skiing or attending church services, and their... MORE

Probably the most cited example of China’s desire to expand its naval power beyond Chinese coastal waters is Beijing’s pursuit of aircraft carriers capable of operating conventional fixed-wing fighter aircraft. Chinese interest in acquiring aircraft carriers spans decades but financial, technological, political and strategic constraints... MORE

The end of 2011 saw another visit by Vladimir Putin to Chechnya. Putin’s first visit to Chechnya took place on December 31, 1999, while he was still serving as prime minister under President Boris Yeltsin. (Putin visited neighboring Dagestan several months earlier -- in August... MORE

On January 2, a court in Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia penalized two people who had participated in a public protest, sentencing them to five and ten days of detention. On January 1, the well-known North Ossetian journalist Elina Marzoeva and the rights activist Ruslan Magkaev were... MORE

A massive pro-democracy movement has emerged in Russia, bringing together all shades of political opposition from leftist Marxists to pro-Nazi nationalists. Still, the backbone of the protest rallies on December 10 on Bolotnaya Square (60,000 protesters) and the larger rally on December 24 on Sakharov... MORE

11. Russia's Defense Industry Faces Deep Crisis By Pavel Felgenhauer, May 12th More than 20,000 servicemen marched on Red Square in Moscow on May 9, to commemorate victory in the Great Patriot War—9,000 more than on the same day in 2010. The amount of military... MORE

Tensions between ethnic Russians and Tatars in the Republic of Tatarstan increased in 2011. Ethnic Russian activists were particularly angered by Tatar TV journalist Elmira Israfilova after she lashed out at the Russian protesters. Israfilova reportedly called the Russians occupiers and suggested that those among... MORE

In his recent year ender interview, Russian Defense Minister Anatoliy Serdyukov provided a relatively smoothly crafted overview on the course of the reform launched in the fall of 2008 and the ongoing efforts to modernize weapons and equipment. Serdyukov’s comments to Rossiyskaya Gazeta addressed problems... MORE

The end of 2011 saw a spike in violence in Kabardino-Balkaria. A series of high profile-killings of law enforcement agents followed the killings of several suspected insurgents. On December 31, the commander of a special police unit in Kabardino-Balkaria, Colonel Murat Shkhagumov, was gunned down... MORE

Russia has sunk into the usual hibernation of long seasonal holidays, but quite unusually it now lives simultaneously in two very different new years. The first one was planned very carefully by the Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, and it started on September 24 with his... MORE