Out of 137 official news releases in connection to the armed opposition’s activities in Chechnya in 2012, 71 were about the arrests of rebel supporters. One-third of those arrested on charges of providing support to the rebels were women. Meanwhile, 28 militants and 42 service... MORE

At the start of 2013 it makes sense to summarize the events of the previous year. The official figures from 2012 suggest that the Republic of Dagestan today is the primary base of the armed resistance in the North Caucasus: 262 terrorism-related crimes were committed... MORE

The year 2012 will be remembered in modern Georgian history as the period when the unchallenged, almost nine-year rule of President Mikheil Saakashvili and his United National Movement (UNM) ended, at least for now. Regardless of Saakashvili’s successes with providing public goods and fighting against... MORE

From the start of the crisis in Syria in 2011 and especially in 2012, Circassians discovered there were an estimated 100,000 of their ethnic brethren living in that war-torn country. Circassian activists expended much effort in 2012 trying to convince the Russian authorities to help... MORE

The North Caucasus is far more unstable and more threatening to Moscow’s control than it was a year ago, despite widespread acceptance of Vladimir Putin’s assertions to the contrary. There are three reasons for that conclusion: First, across the region, Islam and nationalism are reinforcing... MORE

A most unusual event took place in Kabardino-Balkaria in June 2012, when a group of 100 Russian special forces servicemen and investigators descended on the republic’s capital Nalchik. The investigators arrested the head of the republican president’s administration, Vladimir Zhamborov, several other top Kabardino-Balkarian officials... MORE

Early December saw multiple victims of the armed confrontation in the North Caucasus, as had the previous weeks of this year. According to independent sources, eight people were killed, one injured and four kidnapped in the region during the week of December 3–9 (www.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/216978/).On December... MORE

On December 5, Turkmenistan’s capital of Ashgabat hosted a summit of heads of state of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries. The presidents of Moldova, Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan did not attend this forum, however. Instead of President Ilham Aliyev, Prime Minister Arthur Rasizade represented Baku... MORE

A trial is underway over one of the most controversial and interesting political figures in recent Georgian history, Irakly Okruashvili (https://eng.ghn.ge/news-6999.html; https://lenta.ru/lib/14163771/). In 2004–2006, Okruashvili alternately occupied such high-ranking government positions as general prosecutor, interior and defense minister of Georgia. Okruashvili was considered one of... MORE

Dagestan’s state news agency reported a killing on the Kavkaz federal highway near the village of Agachaul on December 7 under a strange headline. According to RIA Dagestan, unknown assailants fired shots at a car in which Abakar Sulebanov, the former chief of a bread... MORE