Russian officials are insisting, and many commentators are accepting without question, that the reduction in the fall draft quota this year shows Moscow is on course to meet President Vladimir Putin’s promise in 2012 to end the military draft entirely by 2020 and to have... MORE

Political leaders normally like to convert “either/or” issues into “more or less” ones because the latter permit compromises while the former typically do not. However, the fight over the requirement that all residents in Tatarstan study Tatar fall into the former category. And as much... MORE

The reaction of Russia’s Islamic community to the ongoing prosecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar occurred suddenly and unexpectedly. Groups organized unsanctioned rallies in front of the Myanmar embassy in Moscow, in Makhachkala (Dagestan) and in Grozny (Chechnya), on September 3 and 4. Some demonstrators... MORE

The Embassy of the United States in Tbilisi, the capital city of Georgia, has announced that it is ready to issue US visas to Russian citizens, if they apply to the embassy with such a request (News.am, August 26). The statement by the US diplomatic... MORE

On July 7, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin and Ambassador Zurab Abashidze, the special envoy of the Georgian prime minister for relations with Russia, held a special meeting in Prague. One of the topics of the meeting was further development of transport coordination between... MORE

Since the end of the Soviet system, the greatest source of conflicts in the North Caucasus has been neither Islamism nor nationalism but rather property—over who controls this or that piece of land. The collapse of industry in the cities only intensified this problem in... MORE

Ethnic conflicts in Dagestan, the most Islamic and multi-ethnic republic in the North Caucasus, have multiplied and intensified over the last month. The turmoil threatens not only the territorial integrity of that federal subject but also exacerbates tensions in regions far from there, including in... MORE

The Circassian national movement in the North Caucasus as well as in the diaspora is on the rise. In part, this trend is powered by new activism among Circassian young people, who, reports show, are increasingly turning away from an Islamic to an ethno-national identity.... MORE

Like the tsarist authorities who expelled the Circassians from the North Caucasus in 1864, an action many refer to as an “act of genocide,” and the Soviet ones who divided that nation up into a series of smaller ethnic communities, including the Adygei, the Kabardin,... MORE

Azerbaijan and the European Union launched negotiations on a strategic partnership agreement, on February 7, 2017 (Azertag, February 6; Azernews, February 14). Whereas Armenia concluded negotiations with the European bloc on a comprehensive and expanded partnership agreement, on February 27 (ArmenPress, Lragir.am, February 27). Both... MORE