On January 26, the Russian general staff reported the results of the fall 2011 draft. The deputy chief of the general staff, Vasily Smirnov, said that 135,800 young people across the Russian Federation had been drafted, and that none of them came from Chechnya. Smirnov... MORE

On January 27, there was a major clash between security forces and insurgents in the Kizlyar district of Dagestan. Five militants and four servicemen were killed in the incident. According to government officials, Russian Interior Ministry troops and other security units discovered a group of... MORE

Four Russian servicemen were killed and two wounded today in a shootout with insurgents in Dagestan’s Kizlyar district. According to the Investigative Committee’s branch in Dagestan, five militants were also killed in the battle, which took place on the outskirts of the Ukrainsky farm (RIA... MORE

The activities of the resistance movement in the North Caucasus have tended to spread unevenly across the region so far. The northeastern part of the Caucasus has certainly been leading the resistance for the past 12 years. As we move toward the west, from the... MORE

On January 22, the Circassian activist organization Adyge Khase-Circassian Parliament met in Adygea’s capital Maikop and resolved to hold a conference on the repatriation of Circassians from Syria. The conference is expected to take place in Adygea on February 11. The activists also called on... MORE

On January 23, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin published an article about ethnic relations in the Russian Federation. This was Putin’s second article to appear in the Russian press recently as he gears up for presidential elections in the country in March 2012. To a... MORE

In Dagestan today (January 20), three alleged militants were killed in a shootout with security forces in the republic’s Khasavyurt district. According to the Anti-Terrorist Committee, two of the slain suspects were identified as 25-year-old twin brothers Sabit and Said Akaev, who, according to the... MORE

The Kavkazsky Uzel (Caucasian Knot) website has published the statistics for casualties in the North Caucasus in 2011. The figures, compiled using open sources, allow us to draw a range of interesting conclusions. First of all, it is peculiar that the number of those wounded... MORE

On January 16, in what may constitute a major political shift, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev introduced a bill reintroducing the direct election of governors in the regions of the Russian Federation. The newspaper Kommersant published photocopies of the president’s legislative proposal on its website. The... MORE

In an interview published on December 27, 2011, the chairman of the Circassian organization Khase, Ibragim Yaganov, scathingly criticized the Russian government for its policies in Kabardino-Balkaria. Yaganov, who is based in Kabardino-Balkaria, is a well-known public figure among Circassians. In an interview with the... MORE