Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov posted a photograph of the dead leader of the North Caucasus insurgency, Doku Umarov, on his personal Instagram page, while the militants provided their official version of the death of Umarov, who headed the insurgency from 2006 to 2013. Kadyrov deleted... MORE

The head of the Circassian organization Adyge Khase in Karachaevo-Cherkessia accused Russian authorities of having a policy of double standards in regard to assisting compatriots abroad. According to Muhamed Cherkesov, only about 30 Circassian refugees from Syria have been allowed to settle in Karachaevo-Cherkessia, while... MORE

Earlier this month, the well-known Dagestani weekly newspaper, Novoe Delo, attacked the mayor of the city of Derbent for what it regarded as a servile attitude toward neighboring Azerbaijan. Journalist Ramazan Rajabov wrote: “Against all the protests and clamor by the local Lezgin population, the... MORE

Russia is facing a new problem and this concerns the new front that the Chechens have launched outside the North Caucasus. As a result of the brutal suppression of the Chechen armed resistance, only three small groups are left in the republic: the group led... MORE

In Chechnya, yet another problem has been added to the set of existing ones. The Memorial human rights center has designated Ruslan Kutaev as a political prisoner on April 19 (memo.ru, April 19), and earlier this month (July 2014), Amnesty International (amnesty.org) and Human Rights... MORE

The continuing tensions in Ukraine have resulted in over 21,000 refugees from eastern Ukraine receiving temporary shelter in Russia, according to Russia’s Ministry for Emergency Situations. The Central, Southern and North Caucasian federal districts received the majority of the refugees from Ukraine (gazeta.ru, July 12).... MORE

In the aul (village) of Afipsip in Adygea, Circassians are preparing to erect a statue of Kizbechu Sheretluko, a Circassian who fought the Russian advance into the North Caucasus in the 1830s. But they plan to place the statue next to a memorial to Soviet... MORE

Oleg Lyashko, the outspoken deputy of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, published on the parliament’s official website his legislative proposal to recognize the 19th century Circassian “genocide” (cherkessia.net, July 8). Kabard also cast doubt on the genuineness of the primary partner of the ICA in... MORE

For the past 15 years, bloodshed has been commonplace in the North Caucasus and illegal actions by the regional authorities have not been considered criminal. And during that whole period, regional officials have found ways to use official statistics to cast the situation there in... MORE

Last month, the newly appointed leader of the Caucasus Emirate, Abu Muhammad, explained why Muslims should not support the head of the al-Qaeda breakaway group—the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi—but instead provide support to al-Qaeda leader Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahiri... MORE