In a sign of the degree to which the security situation in parts of the North Caucasus has deteriorated, Russia’s railway system has ordered that passenger trains will no longer travel through Chechnya and Dagestan at night.A source in the press service of Russian Railways... MORE

In 2010, the western part of the North Caucasus, comprised of the territories of Karachaevo-Cherkessia, Adygea and the adjacent Black Sea littoral, gave little sign that it was following the pattern of events in the rest of the North Caucasus. In this part of the... MORE

On February 7, the leader of the North Caucasian insurgency, Doku Umarov, claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing attack at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport on January 24, which killed 36 people and wounded over 100. In an unusually politicized and polemic video address posted on the... MORE

On February 5, it came to light that Magomed Gamzatov, the outspoken leader of the Didoi (aka Tsez) minority in Dagestan, died under suspicious circumstances. The Didoi people and Gamzatov made headlines in Russia in December 2010, when they requested protection from the Georgian government... MORE

Insurgency-related violence –and, apparently, simple criminal violence– continued in the North Caucasus this week, particularly in the republics Kabardino-Balkaria and Dagestan.In Kabardino-Balkaria, four gunmen charged into a café in the town of Chegem on February 2 and shot a group of traffic policemen who were... MORE

Amid reports by the Russian government that militant activity in Kabardino-Balkaria has increased four to five times (www.rosbalt.ru/2010/11/29/794929.html) –more than anywhere else in the North Caucasus region– local authorities are trying to belittle the role of rebel fighters against the backdrop of economic plans for... MORE

On January 26, the Russian government gave a presentation of the North Caucasus ski resorts project at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. It was aimed at attracting much needed foreign investment to the enterprise, which the government hopes will solve this volatile region’s... MORE

Background Hussein Vakhaevich Gakaev (a.k.a. Amir Mansur) was born on July 8, 1970, in the village of Kalinovskaya of the Naur district of the Chechen Republic bordering Mozdok, North Ossetia. His identification card states that he is a resident of the village of Elistanzhi in... MORE

On January 29, Vladimir Markin, the spokesman for the Russian Investigative Committee, announced that investigators had determined the identity of the perpetrator of the bombing of Domodedovo airport in Moscow, which took place on January 24. According to official information, a suicide bomber detonated explosives... MORE

No individual or group has yet claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing at Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport on January 24, which killed 35 people and wounded at least 125. However, the Russian media has been full of the theories and rumors about who may have been... MORE