On May 5, the National Bank of Belarus, responding to pressure to devalue the Belarusian ruble, stipulated that by May 12, the exchange course with hard currency (the US dollar, the Euro and the Russian ruble) could increase from its current 8 percent depreciation rate... MORE

On May 4, the official Russian defense ministry publication, Krasnaya Zvezda, reported that in late April the first meeting of a new military science council was held in Moscow. Yevgeniy Podzor outlined the first session of the newly formed Council on Scientific and Technical Policy... MORE

On May 9, the leader of the North Caucasian rebels, Doku Umarov, appointed Ibragimkhalil Daudov (aka Emir Salikh) as the new head of the Dagestani insurgency -- or the “Dagestani front,” in Umarov’s words. Daudov replaces Israpil Velidzhanov (aka Emir Khasan), who was killed in... MORE

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has given the torpid election campaign in Russia an all too familiar direction with the suggestion, or rather the order, to build the Russian Popular Front that would mobilize “everyone who is united in their common desire to strengthen our country,... MORE

Kazakhstan is increasingly uncomfortable within the Customs Union with Belarus and Russia due to the constant attempts by the Kremlin to politicize the structure originally intended to boost trade relations and ensure free movement of citizens, goods and capital within the union. Recently, Grigoriy Onishenko... MORE

Russia’s ongoing intense military campaign in the North Caucasus does not seem to be confined to a single village, district or even republic. Given that the incessant special operations being conducted across the entire perimeter of the North Caucasus republics involve numerous units of the... MORE

Unidentified gunmen fired on a unit of Russian interior ministry internal troops yesterday evening (May 12) as they were conducting a reconnaissance operation in a wooded area of Dagestan’s Tsumadinsky district. An internal troops major was fatally wounded in the attack. A law-enforcement source was... MORE

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 hardware that rolled by the stands was smaller, however (106 pieces instead... MORE

The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, stated on April 28 that the renowned human rights activist Natalya Estemirova had not helped to protect people. “I defend human rights here in the republic,” he said, adding “She did not help us.” Kadyrov spoke via a TV... MORE

Much of the western attention to the Franco-Russian political agreement on the procurement of the helicopter landing dock Mistral for the Russian Navy emphasizes its potential “power projection” capability. NATO members, including the Baltic States, have misinterpreted remarks by the naval top brass and laid... MORE