On May 11, an unprecedented two-week military exercise, “Noble Partner 2015,” began at the former Russian military base, Vaziani, in the suburb of the Georgian capital of Tbilisi. Russia withdrew its last military forces from Vaziani in 2007 (Civil Georgia, May 11). Georgian and United... MORE

After the demise of the Soviet state with its atheist policies, a massive process of rebuilding old and building new mosques started across the North Caucasus. Today, Chechnya has nearly 1,000 mosques and Dagestan has two or three times that number (Kavpolit.com, February 15, 2014).... MORE

Victory Day in Russia was celebrated with especially great pomp this past May 9. An estimated 1.5 million people participated in marches across the country. The anniversary had some distinct novelties this year, such as the Bessmertny Polk (Immortal Regiment), which featured people marching with... MORE

Mass arrests of Muslims in mosques have become a hallmark of the Dagestani head Ramazan Abdulatipov’s policies. While Abdulatipov’s predecessor Magomedsalam Magomedov engaged in a negotiating process and dialogue with the Salafist part of the Muslim community, this approach has been gradually scrapped during the... MORE

Dagestan is the only part of the North Caucasus today that is experiencing ceaseless counter-terrorism operations (KTO). The security services announce KTOs in various areas of the republic, and these sometimes continue for months. During an active KTO regime, the authorities restrict the movements of... MORE

For the first time since the death of the Caucasus Emirate’s last leader, Abu Muhammad (Aliaskhab Kebekov), near the city of Buinaksk, on April 19 (Vdagestan.com, April 20), one of his possible successors, Abu Usman Gimrinsky (Magomed Alievich Suleimanov), issued a statement. Amir Abu Usman... MORE

Russia’s Muslim community has been unsettled by the recent destruction of a mosque in the northern Russian town of Novy Urengoy. Local Muslims began worshiping at the mosque in 1996, after repairing the decaying building. Maksim Shevchenko, a well-known pro-Kremlin journalist who specializes in minority... MORE

On April 30, Georgia’s National Service of Statistics (NNS) finally released the preliminary results of the 2014 census, the first census held in the country since 2002. Although, few expected demographic growth in the last 12 years, the results were still shocking. Since 2002, Georgia’s... MORE

Information published earlier this month on the website of the de facto parliament of the separatist Georgian region of South Ossetia caused a diplomatic scandal between Yerevan and Tbilisi. Reportedly, the chairman of the South Ossetian parliament, Anatoly Bibilov, met with the speaker of Armenia’s... MORE

On April 25, after months of public scandals and brawls, the Terek Cossacks elected a new ataman (chieftain). The Cossacks confirmed the only candidate for the position, Alexander Zhuravsky, as the new head of the Terek Cossack Force. The election of the new ataman was... MORE