A Georgian news agency surprised everybody on August 28 with the announcement that the country’s armed forces had launched a special operation against an armed group near the Russian-Georgian border. It was presumed that the armed group had crossed from Russia into Georgia in the... MORE

Following a summer lull, August 2012 became one of the most eventful periods for Azerbaijani politics, featuring several key developments, which may significantly affect the situation in the region. First, after several months of negotiations and numerous visits of Russian delegations to Azerbaijan, it became... MORE

On August 28, one of the most respected spiritual leaders of Dagestan of the past century, Said Atsaev, was murdered in the village of Chirkei, located 25 kilometers northwest of the city of Buinaksk. Better known as Sufi Sheikh Said Efendi Chirkeisky, Atsaev was a... MORE

In August, Circassian activists in Kabardino-Balkaria announced that the republic had filled its quota of Circassian refugees coming from Syria. The leader of the Peryt civic organization, Akhmed Stash, told a reporter from the Kavkazsky Uzel (Caucasian Knot) website that refugees arriving from Syria were... MORE

On August 19, a suicide bomber attacked the funeral of a police officer in the village of Sagopshi in Ingushetia’s Malgobek district. Seven police officers were killed in the attack and at least 15 other people were wounded, nine of them seriously. Ilez Korigov, the... MORE

At the conclusion of the London Olympics, Russians suddenly realized that the Russian national team had a non-Russian face. Olympic sports were much revered in the Soviet Union and are highly regarded in contemporary Russia. They have often been seen as a battleground with the... MORE

Echoing Ronald Reagan’s 1980 election campaign theme, Georgia’s governing United National Movement (UNM) tells voters to “ask  [themselves] a very simple question:  Is Georgia now a better country than it was eight years ago? And if the answer is positive and if we want to... MORE

For the past twelve years of Russian armed containment of the ideology of the insurgents in the North Caucasus, the North Caucasian armed resistance has changed significantly. At first, only members of small radical Islamic jihadist groups participated in the local jamaats, which could not... MORE

On August 10, Circassian activists in Moscow picketed the offices of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Emergency Situations Ministry and the Migration Service. The initial request to hold a protest rally was turned down by the Moscow city authorities, so the activists reverted to one-person pickets... MORE

On July 20, five men suspected of terrorism-related activities were arrested in Atyrau (western Kazakhstan). The arrested men had contacts with the Az-Zahir Baibars Brigades of Jund al-Khilafah (Soldiers of the Caliphate), which was founded by three Kazakhs from Atyrau and ordered attacks in Kazakhstan... MORE