Despite the statements from the NATO Lisbon summit about partnership with Russia, it did not take long for Moscow to demonstrate why partnership with it is so difficult, as well as revealing why there is little East-West trust. On November 30, RIA Novosti rebuffed a... MORE

The decision by FIFA to grant Russia the right to host the 2018 Football World Cup was met with enthusiasm within the country and with sobering comments around the world (EDM, December 6). Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, a driving force behind Russia’s effort to host... MORE

On December 10, the official responsible for the military draft in North Ossetia, Colonel Yuri Morozov, stated that the 2010 fall campaign to conscript youth for service in the Russian army was in danger of failing. According to Morozov, only 200 out of the 2,300... MORE

Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, has completed an unprecedented foreign policy marathon that started on October 19, with the a trilateral meeting in Deauville with French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, and German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, followed by the summits of the G20, Organization for Security and Cooperation... MORE

Russian Deputy Prosecutor-General, Ivan Sydoruk, said on December 8 that the number of terrorist acts committed in the North Caucasus Federal District rose 100 percent in comparison to last year. According to Sydoruk, 14 terrorist acts have been carried out in the district this year.... MORE

Speaking in the regional capital of Pyatigorsk on November 18, Russian Interior Minister, Rashid Nurgaliev, put Kabardino-Balkaria next to Dagestan and Ingushetia as the most dangerous places in the North Caucasus in terms of the terrorist threat (https://www.caucasustimes.com/article.asp?id=20543). Up until last year, the republic of... MORE

Russia has been long working to build an independent GPS (GLObal’'naya NAvigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema –GLONASS) system.  Yet, on December 5, the program received a blow as 3 new GLONASS-M satellites plunged into the Pacific Ocean some 1,000 miles north of the Hawaiian Islands after a... MORE

The risk-fraught prospect of Western arms sales to Russia was not an agenda item at NATO’s annual summit, just held in Lisbon. Although such sales, on top of Russia’s own rearmament programs, can increase Russian military capabilities on NATO’s eastern borders, the Alliance avoids dealing... MORE

Debate on the implications of military sales to Russia is stifled in NATO. The proposed sale of French Mistral-class warships to Russia is by far the largest among possible Russian procurements under discussion. Non-member country Georgia has taken the lead in airing concerns over the... MORE

On December 5, the Ingush non-governmental organization Mashr, which is headed by Magomed Mutsolgov and focuses on monitoring human rights violations in the republic, received the Moscow Helsinki Group. “Daily work in the field of rights of the individual and the defense of freedom in... MORE