
Latest Articles about The Caucasus

Saakashvili’s Visit to Baku Ignites Political Debates
At the end of February 2013, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili paid an official visit to Baku. During the visit, Saakashvili met with his Azerbaijani counterpart, President Ilham Aliyev, and discussed several issues of mutual interests. As analysts suggested, the visit was supposed to calm down... MORE

Alexei Navalny Blasts Ingushetia’s Government for Extravagant Spending
The most influential Russian opposition figure and crusader against government corruption, Alexei Navalny, has turned his attention to the North Caucasus once again. On March 1, Navalny revealed a document that implicates Ingushetia’s government in planning to spend nearly $90,000 to enable a fashion designer... MORE

Russian Urban Centers Might Be Target for Next Muslim Riots
On March 2, Federal Security Service (FSB) personnel in St. Petersburg arrested members of the Nurjular organization, which in 2008 was designated as an extremist group by the Russian Supreme Court and outlawed (https://ru.apa.az/news/242585). Five citizens of Russia, four citizens of Azerbaijan and one citizen... MORE

Georgia Adrift, US AWOL After Regime Change
Georgia’s parliamentary elections on October 1, 2012, have ushered in, not merely a rotation of government, but a change of regime, from President Mikheil Saakashvili’s United National Movement (UNM) to billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream. The latter won an indisputable mandate in the narrow terms... MORE

Continuing Human Rights Abuses Force Chechens to Flee to Europe
The massive relocation of North Caucasians to Europe is still under way, producing concerns among both the regional authorities in the North Caucasus and Western European countries. While in 2000, at the beginning of the second Chechen war, only ethnic Chechens were found among the... MORE

Signs of Balkanization Emerge in the North Caucasus
On February 27, the speaker of Ingushetia’s parliament, Mukharbek Didigov, stated that the moves by the Chechen authorities to take control over a disputed border area will force Ingushetia’s government to adopt “response measures to defend their land and their sovereignty.” On February 9, a... MORE

Amid Conflict with Bidzina Ivanishvili, Mikheil Saakashvili Returns to His Political Roots
The political situation in Georgia in the past several weeks has rapidly deteriorated. Instead of co-habitation, the president and the prime minister of the country have reverted to playing a zero-sum game that may end in one of the sides completely losing and disappearing from... MORE

Adygea Can Accommodate Hundreds of Circassian Refugees from Syria
On February 22, authorities in Adygea stated that the republic was prepared to receive more Circassian refugees from Syria. Republican official Fatima Paranuk stated that the authorities had compiled a list of vacant houses and land strips that can be handed over to the incoming... MORE

Dagestan Is Enmeshed in Another Round of Ethnic Confrontation
Following the Kumyks, who held a rally in the city of Pyatigorsk on February 10 (https://www.chernovik.net/content/lenta-novostey/v-pyatigorske-proshyol-sezd-kumykskogo-naroda), Chechen residents of Dagestan have also come out into the streets to protest. The organizers of a rally held on February 23 to mark the 69th anniversary of the... MORE

No Letup in Insurgent Violence in Dagestan
On February 14, Russian Deputy General Prosecutor Ivan Sydoruk publicly admitted that Dagestan ranked first in the Russian Federation in terms of the number of crimes committed. That same day, Dagestan’s acting president, Ramazan Abdulatipov, presided over a Dagestani government meeting on the issues of... MORE