On August 15, the newspaper Kommersant, quoting sources in the Russian security services, reported that the Federal Security Service (FSB) had thwarted a major terrorist attack in Moscow region. A group of young North Caucasians allegedly planned to derail the high speed Sapsan train that... MORE

The Russian government plans to privatize a number of its state-owned companies, focusing on the energy and commodity sectors. However, the cabinet faces a challenging task to prove that the latest privatization efforts will be more efficient than earlier controversial moves to sell-off state-owned assets.Russia’s... MORE

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is unlikely to receive a very warm welcome during his state visit to Tajikistan scheduled for September. The gradually cooling relations between the two countries have hit a new low after Boris Gryzlov, the speaker of the lower house of Russia’s... MORE

Since the transformation of the Russian armed forces began in October 2008, senior political and military leaders have promised to improve command and control (C2) both in terms of force structure as well as by means of introducing new technology. President Dmitry Medvedev has set... MORE

If we can accept the results from a recent survey on what contemporary Russians know about the Putsch of August 1991, there are good reasons to be depressed. Moscow News reports that 8 percent of those surveyed did not know anything about the coup, 27... MORE

On August 11, the counterterrorism operation regime in effect in Kabardino-Balkaria was partially lifted. The suburbs of the republican capital Nalchik – Khasanya, Belaya Rechka and Volny Aul – along with several nearby settlements in the Chegem district   were officially taken off of the counterterrorism... MORE

The volatile turbulence that battered the world economy last week should have passed Russia by, but it did not. Indeed, Russia is not burdened by a massive debt, is spared political feuds about budget cuts and is not even exposed to the looming Greek default;... MORE

One policeman was killed and two wounded yesterday (August 11) during a shootout with alleged rebels in Dagestan’s Tsuntinsky district. The incident took place in the village of Vitiyatl when a group of suspected rebels discovered in a private home opened fired on police. Three... MORE

Interviewed on the third anniversary of the Russia-Georgia war, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev took credit for the invasion orders and subsequent basing of Russian troops in Abkhazia and South Ossetia (Russia Today TV, Radio Ekho Moskvy, First Caucasus TV Channel [PIK, Tbilisi], August 5; www.kremlin.ru,... MORE

Having failed to re-conquer the North Caucasus using force or realized the high price to be paid for such a conquest, Moscow is attempting to deprive regional nationalists and religious radicals of their social base of support by providing additional financial infusions. In the process... MORE