Latest Articles about The Caucasus
Fight Between Authorities and Islamist Militants Intensifies in Kabardino-Balkaria
Against the backdrop of the simmering conflict in Kabardino-Balkaria, President Vladimir Putin replaced the interior minister of the republic, Sergei Vasiliev, with a police major-general, Igor Romashkin. Vasiliev had been in office since 2010. The new Kabardino-Balkarian interior minister served as deputy director of the... MORE
Moscow May be Unimpressed by Cossacks’ Performance as Protectors of Russian Interests in North Caucasus
The process of electing the Terek Cossack ataman (chieftain) has been quite public and scandalous this year. Moscow’s envoy to the North Caucasus, Sergei Melikov, outlined the views of the government on the future of the Cossacks. He said the entire structure of the currently... MORE
Russia Fears Possible Tectonic Shifts in the North Caucasus
Russian experts have written a series of articles on the future of the North Caucasus in a new age of uncertainty in the Russian Federation. They have attempted to determine under what conditions the current political regime in the region could spiral into chaos. Expectations... MORE
Will Turkey Choose the European or Eurasian Energy Union?
The sixth meeting of the World Forum on Energy Regulation is scheduled to be held on May 25–28, in Istanbul, and is being organized by the office of the prime minister of the Turkish Republic. The competitive and dynamically expanding nature of the energy sector... MORE
Allure of Islamic State’s Media Machine Attracts New Generation of Chechen Recruits
Emotions ran high in the Chechen community once again with the news that two school children from Pankisi, Georgia, went to Syria to fight, presumably alongside the Islamic State organization (see EDM, April 16). Earlier in April, 16-year-old Muslim Kushtanashvili and 18-year-old Ramzan Bagakashvili went... MORE
More of Georgia’s Muslims Try to Join Islamic State
On April 2, two high school boys from Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge, populated by Muslim Chechens (known as Kists in Georgia), disappeared and later contacted their parents, notifying them that they were in Turkey. It is widely believed that the teenagers are heading for Syria, in... MORE
Tide of Support for Islamic State in the North Caucasus Causes Alarm in Moscow
Russia watchers can hardly fail to notice that Moscow often reacts to events in the North Caucasus after a significant time lag. Several amirs of the Caucasus Emirate pledged allegiance to the so-called Islamic State back in November–December 2014. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), however,... MORE
Russian Investigators Have Difficulty Accessing Nemtsov Murder Suspects in Chechnya
Six weeks after the assassination of prominent Russian opposition figure Boris Nemtsov near the Kremlin in Moscow, authorities have failed to present a coherent explanation for the crime. As one observer has pointed out: “It looks like the Kremlin has quickly cooled to the investigation.... MORE
Are Russian Military Exercises in the North Caucasus a Signal to Azerbaijan and Georgia?
Russian defense and interior ministry troops have each staged large-scale military exercises, one after another. Military drills take place across Russia practically year-round, but what was interesting about a recent series of exercises is that they were conducted in the mountainous regions of the North... MORE
Was France Preparing to Supply the Latest Anti-Aircraft and Anti-Missile Systems to Georgia?
Irakli Alasania, the former Georgian minister of defense (October 2012–November 2014), recently lifted the veil of secrecy over a mysterious document he signed during his visit to France in October 2014 (Newsday.ge, October 28, 2014). That memorandum of understanding (MoU), which was agreed to in... MORE