Georgian prosecutors have questioned the head of the Rustavi 2 TV channel, Nika Gvaramia, in connection to his accusations of government pressure on his company (Civil Georgia, October 22). Gvaramia had claimed that a certain businessman, Aleksi Akhvlediani, told him on behalf of the government... MORE

The wider South Caucasus region is conspicuously located between the battlefields of Syria and the Caspian Sea. Therefore, Russia’s use of cruise missiles, launched (on October 7) by ships belonging to its Caspian Flotilla, to hit targets in Syria had inadvertently put the region briefly... MORE

A month after local elections were held in Dagestan, key municipalities in the republic still do not have legitimate authorities. An open and latent political struggle has ensued in the republic’s most populous cities—Makhachkala, Khasavyurt, Derbent and Buinaksk. The republic’s flamboyant governor, Ramazan Abdulatipov, attempted... MORE

Russian authorities have unrelentingly cracked down on the Islamic organization Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami (The Party of Islamic Liberation). Indeed, Russia’s Supreme Court first designated the Hizb ut-Tahrir a terrorist organization on February 14, 2003, and thus for over a decade has officially outlawed the group... MORE

Over the past ten years, the Russian government has repeatedly claimed that the situation in the North Caucasus has stabilized (Regnum.ru, October 14). Speaking at a meeting of the National Antiterrorist Committee (NAK) in Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria, on October 13, Federal Security Service (FSB) head Aleksandr... MORE

For the last several weeks, political life in Tbilisi has been largely dominated by ongoing negotiations between the governments of Russia and Georgia regarding Russian natural gas giant Gazprom’s large-scale return to the Georgian market. The news of these negotiations first broke on September 26,... MORE

Israeli analyst Avraam Shmulevich has urged Ukrainian authorities to take a more pro-active approach to the situation in Russia. Shmulevich visited Ukraine to consult the newly created inter-party parliamentary group “Za Vilniy Kavkaz” (For a Free Caucasus). In an interview with a Ukrainian news agency,... MORE

A new 226-page book written by a group of scholars widely reputed to be close to the Russian security services argues that Islamic State (IS) is, first and foremost, an ideological phenomenon. As such, this militant group can only be contained and then defeated on... MORE

On October 11, in an interview with Russia’s Rossiya 1TV channel, President Vladimir Putin reassured his audience that he did not intend to send Russian ground troops to Syria. The interviewer asked Putin about it twice, and twice the Russian president denied such plans. “Are... MORE

Muscovites were surprised by news reports of a thwarted terrorist attack (Lenta.ru, October 11) planned by militants with ties to the so-called Islamic State (IS). Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said two people taken into custody testified that they were preparing a terrorist attack on... MORE