Summing up the situation unfolding in Chechnya over the past year, it is worth noting that diametrically opposite processes took place in that part of the North Caucasus. Anyone who had a chance to visit Chechnya in the last year seems to be excited about... MORE

The Russian Navy plans to increase its presence on Ukrainian territory by adding urban infrastructure and civilian manpower to its naval assets in Sevastopol. The command of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet intends to build a housing estate (“mikrorayon”) for 20,000 personnel of the fleet, their... MORE

Russian military reform, initiated in the fall of 2008 after the short war with Georgia in August of the same year, has reached a critical junction: the old military machine has been dismantled, while a new one is struggling to emerge. Today, Russia is in... MORE

In 2010, Circassian activists managed for the first time to stage public protests in multiple countries against what they referred to as Russian “imperialism” in the North Caucasus. The Circassians protested against the 2014 Winter Olympics that are scheduled to be held in the surroundings... MORE

Two parallel court proceedings in Vienna have confirmed that Austrian OMV and Russian Surgut Neftegaz had coordinated their hostile takeover attempts against Hungarian MOL. The Austrian and the Russian company were targeting MOL’s oil-refining business, which is recognized as the most efficient in Central Europe.... MORE

Nikolai Gogol’s Myortvyye Dushi (Dead Souls), published in 1842, drew inspiration from nineteenth century Imperial Russian landowners maintaining dead serfs on the official count in property registers. Today, the Russian defense ministry likewise engages in creative methods of counting the number of servicemen in the... MORE

On December 31, 2010, an Israeli analyst of the situation in Kabardino-Balkaria, Abraham Shmulevich, declared that the republic was entering a state of civil war. This stark warning came after a well-known researcher and popularizer of Circassian traditions and rites, Aslan Tsipinov, was killed on... MORE

On December 24, 2010, the Russian government’s official newspaper, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, finished the publication of Russia’s Federal Law of December 13, 2010 No 357-FZ “On the Federal Budget for 2011 and the Planned Period of the Years 2012 and 2013,” which it had begun publishing... MORE

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev started the year that will decide his political fate by reviving his campaign against corruption, and on January 13 he chaired a meeting of the Anti-Corruption Council. Medvedev opened the proceedings with the half-hearted admission that “our successes in this sphere... MORE

The second week of January 2011 saw little let-up in apparent insurgency-related violence in the North Caucasus, with the largest number of reports coming out of Dagestan. On January 13, two men attacked a police unit in Dagestan’s capital Makhachkala, killing one policeman and wounding... MORE