Following the August 2008 Russia-Georgia war, President Mikheil Saakashvili took unprecedented steps to reach out to the North Caucasus (see EDM, May 9, 2012). His government launched multiple “soft power” initiatives as well as cross-cultural and educational exchanges to open the republics of the North... MORE

Circassians in the North Caucasus were infuriated by the speech delivered by Abkhazia’s president, Alexander Ankvab, at an official celebration. On September 29, the leader of the Georgian breakaway region delivered a speech to a meeting in Sukhumi dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the... MORE

With the Olympics in Sochi scheduled to start on February 7, 2014, the situation in the North Caucasus is not improving as quickly as the authorities in the Kremlin would like (https://www.sochi2014.com/). The steps the Russian government has taken so far appear to be insufficient... MORE

On October 4, the Georgian parliament passed further amendments to the new Georgian constitution. The country’s new constitution was adopted in October 2010 under President Mikheil Saakashvili and will go into effect after the upcoming presidential election on October 27, 2013. It turns the president... MORE

Police in Kabardino-Balkaria conducted operations against the armed resistance and took preventive measures to foil terrorist attacks in the republic throughout the month of September (https://kabardino-balkaria.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/172027/).At the start of October, a young man was killed in Kabardino-Balkaria’s Baksan district. According to police, he was driving... MORE

On September 30, the commander of the Russian ground forces, Colonel-General Vladimir Chirkin, stated that troops under his command would take part in providing security to the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014 (https://www.itar-tass.com/c96/896137.html). The statement came amid a series of other statements by... MORE

The most recent spike of violence in Dagestan, which started in September, culminated on October 1–2, when intense fighting between government forces and rebels in the wooded area between the villages of Verkhnee Ubeki and Nizhnee Ubeki in the republic’s Levashi district left ten people... MORE

Generally, the military conscription campaign in Russia becomes relevant for Chechnya and the North Caucasus twice a year—in the spring and in the fall, when the Russian president issues a decree ordering the start of the draft season (https://www.rg.ru/2013/09/30/prizyv-dok.html). Conscription in Russia is still mandatory,... MORE

On September 18, a special commission formed to probe the lawfulness of issuing Abkhazian passports (i.e. granting Abkhazian “citizenship”) to ethnic Georgians from the Gali district presented its report to the parliament of the breakaway territory of Abkhazia. The commission came to the conclusion that... MORE

Something completely unexpected recently took place in Russia: a provincial court in Novorossiysk designated a Russian translation of the Koran as extremist material (https://echo.msk.ru/blog/echomsk/1161702-echo/). The court’s decision stipulated that all copies of the publication should be confiscated and eliminated. The court based its decision on... MORE