In Kabardino-Balkaria, as in other republics of the North Caucasus, public debate intensifies from time to time regarding republican residents going off to fight in the Syrian civil war on the side of the rebels. But at the same time, the republic is still dealing... MORE

A large-scale scandal was unleashed in Karachaevo-Cherkessia, after the republican branch of the United Russia party refused to register a popular politician, Aliy Totorkulov, as a candidate in the party’s primaries. Totorkulov is the chairman of the Russian Congress of Peoples of the Caucasus and... MORE

On the night of April 20, unidentified militants attacked the village of Juli in Dagestan’s Tabasaran district. The attackers robbed a local grocery store and shot up and set fire to several buildings. According to some accounts, the group consisted of four or five militants... MORE

In his recent speech, the head of the Republic of Ingushetia, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, said that several terrorism-related draft bills are under consideration in the Russian State Duma. He noted that it was important to provide a legal definition of a new type of crime—international terrorism.... MORE

According to open media sources, over the past five years, five representatives of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and the Caucasus Emirate have been killed in Turkey. All five were actively involved in the ongoing armed conflict in the North Caucasus (Kavkazsky Uzel, April 15).... MORE

On April 15, the Dagestani newspaper Novoe Delo reported that police had cracked down on mosque parishioners in Makhachkala. According to the newspaper’s sources among the congregation of the mosque on Vengerskikh Boitsov Street, the police randomly detained up to 200 people. Dozens of police... MORE

No region of the Russian Federation has a greater number of young men who could qualify to serve in the Russian military than does the North Caucasus, the combined result of rapid demographic growth and the absence of a Russian military draft there for most... MORE

On April 5, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree establishing a new federal security service, the Russian National Guard, which largely inherits the troops from the Ministry of Interior. The director of the new federal service has the status of a Russian government minister... MORE

On April 11, the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti quoted a government official as saying that “according to the preliminary information, three suicide bombers blew themselves up near the Novoselitsky district police station in Stavropol region (RIA Novosti, April 11). The first surprising fact... MORE

The so-called Islamic State (IS) is increasingly infiltrating Russia, threatening its security (Lenta.ru, June 24, 2015). It has been less than one year since the IS claimed to have a “province” in the North Caucasus (Polit.ru, June 24, 2015), and now the organization claims to... MORE