Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Brennan has estimated that 2,000–3,000 militants from Russia are fighting in Syria (Mk.ru, November 16), half the number given by Russian President Vladimir Putin (Portal-credo.ru, October 16). Syrian President Bashar al-Assad provides an even higher figure: he estimates that... MORE

On November 21, the authorities in the Black Sea resort town of Sochi erected a monument to Russian Tsar Alexander II. The monument was part of a larger project called the Alley of Russian Fame (Alleya Rossiyskoy Slavy). The head of the project, Mikhail Serdyukov,... MORE

United National Movement (UNM), Georgia’s once powerful political party, which spent nine years (2003–2012) in power, is in serious trouble. The start of December 2015 brought new revelations of the party’s internal power struggle and fragmentation, which turns out to be much deeper than previously... MORE

The Russian authorities have lost control over three key movements of people in the North Caucasus—from rural areas to the cities, from the North Caucasus region to Moscow and other Russian centers, and from the region to Syria and the Middle East more generally. That... MORE

Moscow’s reaction to the downing of a Russian military jet over Turkey has been unusually harsh. In his address to the Russian parliament on December 3, President Vladimir Putin continued his diatribe against Turkey’s leadership. “If anybody thinks that after having committed a cowardly military... MORE

The statutes of the Spiritual Board of Muslims of Dagestan say that all imams in the republican mosques must be appointed by the official mufti of Dagestan. In practice, this does not normally happen. The communities themselves propose the candidacies of mosque imams and ask... MORE

Kabardino-Balkarian jamaat has regained little of its strength since its leader, Amir Abdullah (Robert Zankishiev), was killed in a police operation in Nalchik on November 10 (TASS, November 10). In fact, the jamaat has suffered new, even more substantial losses. On November 22, the authorities... MORE

The bombshell of late November was the postponement of Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s visit to Moscow, where he was supposed to have met with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. The official reason given—that both sides were too busy to meet—is rather dubious. Indeed, Putin’s schedule... MORE

On November 24, Russia’s TASS state news agency announced the signing of the international project for building a highway connecting Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachaevo-Cherkessia to Abkhazia. The new highway would cut across the Caucasus Mountains and connect the central North Caucasus to Abkhazia in the South... MORE

Following mid-November’s bloody terrorist attacks in Paris and the ongoing international campaign against the Islamic State in Syria and northern Iraq, Georgian authorities have grown increasingly concerned about the security situation in the Pankisi Gorge area, which is located on the border with the Russian... MORE