On November 9, the Kavkazsky Uzel (Caucasian Knot) website reported the Russian statistical service’s intention to double check the October 2010 census results for Chechnya and Ingushetia. The process will take place hundreds of miles away in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and is projected... MORE

The G20 summit in Seoul last week was outstanding in its intensity of divergences that this crisis-born institution sought to harmonize. The US unfortunate unilateralism in money-making and China’s shameless currency manipulation, the prudence of budget austerity and the need in stimulating stalled growth, irreducible... MORE

Unidentified attackers shot up the home of a policeman in the village of Sergokala in Dagestan’s Sergokalinsky district late yesterday (November 11). The gunmen fired automatic weapons but no one was hurt in the incident, which capped a particularly violent day in Dagestan, with eleven... MORE

Actions taken recently by the local leadership in Dagestan have become increasingly reminiscent of the policy carried out by Ramzan Kadyrov, the pro-Russian leader of Chechnya. Shortly after an all-Chechen congress was held in the Chechen capital of Grozny from October 13-14, the Dagestani authorities... MORE

Last week a Kommersant reporter, Oleg Kashin (30), was attacked and severely beaten by two men near his rented apartment in the center of Moscow. The attack was filmed by surveillance cameras: Kashin was beaten with an iron bar disguised in a bouquet of flowers.... MORE

Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin’s, October 27 visit to Kyiv confirmed that the honeymoon in bilateral relations, which followed Viktor Yanukovych’s election as president last February, is over. It is clear now that the ruling elite in Ukraine, although viewed by many as pro-Russian, are... MORE

On November 2, Dagestan’s President, Magomedsalam Magomedov, signed a decree to set up a commission for the social rehabilitation of former militants. The commission is designed to help militants who wish to return to peaceful life re-integrate into society. Only three of the commission’s 14... MORE

In the image contest between the Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, and Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, in anticipation of the 2012 presidential elections, Medvedev appears as a tech-savvy proponent of innovative projects (EDM, October 25). However, he is hardly innovative in his choice of the means... MORE

Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, has expressed “moderate” optimism about a near-term resolution of the Karabakh conflict after hosting yet another meeting of his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts. The talks held in the southern Russian city of Astrakhan on October 27 underscored Moscow’s key role in... MORE

Komsomolskaya Pravda has highlighted a paradoxical and endemic problem facing military reform: large-scale corruption in the officer corps represent black holes into which billions of rubles disappear. Despite the reform, officers continue to rip off state funds. The corruption is rampant and figures offered in... MORE