Russia seems to be poised to invest big money in the North Caucasus in an effort to reduce the intensity of rebel activities there. But the target group of Russia’s new policy is not primarily the militants engaged in armed resistance against Russian rule, but... MORE

This week, the new First Deputy Defense Minister, Colonel-General Vladimir Popovkin (Retired), described in an interview in the official government newspaper, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, his priorities in reforming the defense ministry and rearming Russia’s armed forces. Popovkin last month replaced Colonel-General Alexander Kolmakov, who was not... MORE

Russia’s Surgutneftegaz has filed a case in Budapest’s Metropolitan Court, seeking legal registration as a stakeholder in Hungarian MOL, the national oil and gas company. Surgut is asking the court to invalidate MOL’s April 2010 refusal to enter the Russian company’s shares in the Hungarian... MORE

Tension between Armenia and Azerbaijan has risen significantly over the past month despite a renewed international push for a resolution to the Karabakh conflict. The US, Russia and France are again pressing the conflicting parties to finalize a framework peace accord drafted by the three... MORE

One year since Natalya Estemirova, a prominent Chechen human rights activist and renowned journalist, was kidnapped and shot, her murder remains unsolved, while Chechnya has increasingly become a no-go zone for independent journalists and human rights NGO’s. At a press conference held in Moscow on... MORE

Gazprom’s proposal for German RWE to join Gazprom’s South Stream project, has fallen flat at both the corporate and the political levels in Germany. The proposal clearly aimed to disrupt the European Union-backed Nabucco project, where RWE is a key stakeholder, developing offshore gas in... MORE

Jacob Kipp recently analyzed the political-military context of Vostok 2010 and drew attention to an increased threat perception in the Russian Far East relating to China. Kipp also referred to the taboo within Russian security circles about openly referring to China in discussion of threat... MORE

On July 5 at the Eurasian Economic Community’s Interstate Council in Astana, Belarus, Russia, and Kazakhstan agreed to form a Customs Union that came into effect the next day. Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan may join at some point in the future. The Union between Russia and... MORE

On July 6, Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, outlined the government’s plans for North Caucasus development at a United Russia party gathering in the Stavropol region (www.kavkaz-uzel.ru, July 6). However, the grandiose future projects that Putin described in his speech were accompanied by much more... MORE

Recently, Roger McDermott, a regular contributor to this publication, offered an excellent overview of the operational-strategic exercise being conducted in Eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East by the Russian armed forces (EDM, July 6). McDermott correctly pointed to the role of the exercise in... MORE