On February 24 in Brussels, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin led a governmental delegation for talks with the European Commission on the full range of EU-Russia relations. The Russian delegation lobbied heavily for EU endorsement of Gazprom’s South Stream project. It also raised strong objections... MORE

There are increasing signs that North Caucasus style unrest may be spreading to nearby Krasnodar Krai, in particular to Sochi, the planned site of the 2014 Winter Olympics. Authorities in Sochi today (February 25) defused an improvised explosive device (IED) that had been placed on... MORE

Russia plans to modernize its oil production sector, notably state-owned companies, by pursuing international energy partnerships. The Kremlin has increasingly prioritized modernization and innovation slogans. On January 31, President Dmitry Medvedev said Russian state-owned companies, including oil giant Rosneft, should do more to pursue a... MORE

The new act of terror committed by suicide bombers in Dagestan on February 14 appears to have been a continuation of a series of attacks across Russia carried out by the North Caucasus armed resistance movement, which over the years has become increasingly capable of... MORE

Popular uprisings rocking the Middle East are a cause for concern in Moscow, in particular, as the unrest may disrupt arms trade worth tens of billions of dollars. In 2010, Russia agreed to sell the Libyan regime of Moammar Gaddafi more than $2 billion worth... MORE

On February 22, Dmitry Medvedev made a surprise trip to North Ossetia. In Vladikavkaz, the Russian president chaired the first meeting of the Russian National Anti-Terrorist Committee (NAK) ever held outside of Moscow. Attacks in Kabardino-Balkaria the previous several days may have prompted Medvedev’s extraordinary... MORE

The main political sensation in Russia this week is Finance Minister Aleksei Kudrin’s statement that Russia needs fair and honest elections that would grant the authorities a mandate for executing difficult economic reforms (Rossiyskaya Gazeta, February 20). The nominally-dominant United Russia party expressed disapproval and... MORE

On February 17, the Memorial human rights center, the only Russian civil organization that closely monitors the situation in the North Caucasus, published data on attacks against the Russian law enforcement agencies and the army in the volatile region. According to the open source analysis... MORE

Moscow’s apparently random decision to increase tensions with Tokyo over the disputed Kurile Islands provoked anxiety among international observers. Yet, the recent surge in bilateral diplomatic heat over the issue should not be regarded as unexpected or necessarily as an illustration of Moscow picking a... MORE

After selling a large block of shares in Hungarian MOL to the Kremlin-connected Surgutneftegaz, Austrian OMV CEO Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer’s final gift to European energy security is an agreement with Gazprom that interferes with the EU-backed Nabucco project. On February 21 in Moscow, Gazprom CEO Aleksei... MORE