On June 21, Greece’s State Assets Development Fund announced that Azerbaijan’s State Oil Company (SOCAR) has won the tender to acquire control of Greek DESFA’s (Public Gas Transmission System Operator) pipelines. The Asset Fund’s board of directors expressed its unanimous satisfaction with the terms of... MORE

At a specially called press conference, Georgia’s Interior Minister Irakli Garibashvili told foreign diplomats that the Georgian security services had evidence proving beyond doubt that members of President Mikheil Saakashvili’s team were involved in torture and rape of inmates as well as other human rights... MORE

Dagestan’s head Ramazan Abulatipov said in an interview with Kommersant-FM Radio on June 20, while attending the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, that the new leadership of the republic regarded its economic development as the necessary condition for resolving its problems. In the interview, Abdulatipov said... MORE

The administration of Ingush leader Yunus-Bek Yevkurov is trying to portray the dynamic that is occurring in the republic as positive. As often happens in the North Caucasus, republican leaders tend to claim the achievements of the federal agencies as their own. In this case,... MORE

Throughout 2012, Russian leaders refused to admit that there were any Chechens fighting on the side of the Syrian opposition. Ramzan Kadyrov tirelessly reassured the public that reports of Chechens being involved in the armed conflict in Syria were false (https://rusnovosti.ru/news/214102/). Kadyrov was apparently concerned... MORE

On June 6, seven Georgian soldiers were killed in a truck bomb attack in Afghanistan (TV9; Rustavi 2, June 6). Just three weeks earlier, on May 13, three more Georgian soldiers died in another truck bomb (1TV; Maestro; TV9, May 13). These latest attacks bring... MORE

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