On May 28, the Caucasustimes.com website published the results of the survey in Karachaevo-Cherkessia that was conducted earlier in April. The poll revealed highly critical attitudes towards the regional and national authorities. Eighty-six percent of those polled agreed with the statement that socio-economic issues were... MORE

The 500,000 Circassians in the North Caucasus have long drawn strength and encouragement from the continuing vitality of the 5-million-strong Circassian diaspora in the countries of the Middle East. A major source of the diaspora’s strength in turn has been the participation of many of... MORE

Russia’s barbed-wire fence construction in Georgia beyond the occupation line (see EDM, June 3, 11–13, 17) has provided another demonstration of the shifting balance of power (“new geopolitical realities”) in this region. It drove home this point without resorting to outright military aggression; and it... MORE

On June 12, some of the most astonishing news in recent years arrived from Chechnya: the previously ubiquitous portraits of Ramzan Kadyrov had reportedly vanished from the streets of Grozny and other Chechen towns and villages. Until a few days ago, enormous images of the... MORE

One major assumption behind the new Georgian government’s Russia policy holds that Georgia might regain its Russian-occupied territories in the future through a negotiated solution. This presupposes making Georgia an attractive country to the occupied territories’ populations; de-isolating them to broaden their options; and—if those... MORE

The following is the conclusion to the two-part historical series in EDM by Ibragim Gukemukh of the end of the road to Krasnaya Polyana and the last stand of Circassian resistance against Tsarist Russia’s conquest of the Northeast Caucasus. To read Part One, see EDM,... MORE

Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili supervises Georgia’s policy toward Russia through his special envoy, veteran diplomat Zurab Abashidze. This appointment has led to the establishment of a bilateral negotiating channel between Abashidze and Russia’s Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister and State Secretary Grigory Karasin. In the absence... MORE

During the ten-day period from May 29 to June 9, five armed assaults on police officers were reported in Kabardino-Balkaria as the militant movement there appears to be experiencing a resurgence.On May 29, there was an armed clash between a road police unit and unidentified... MORE

The construction of barbed wire fences by Russian border troops, crossing from South Ossetia into previously uncontested Georgian territory (see Part One, EDM, June 11), caught Tbilisi and its Western partners by surprise. With this operation, Russia de facto annexed several additional bits of Georgian... MORE

The Russian Ministry of Education recently awarded, on a “competitive basis,” funding for the education of foreign students to some of the country’s universities. Circassian activists expressed indignation over the fact that no educational institutions in either Kabardino-Balkaria or Adygea received funding for foreign students.... MORE