US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton paid valedictory visits to Armenia and Azerbaijan on June 4 and 6, respectively, as part of a regional tour (including a comparatively successful visit to Georgia – see EDM, June 11, 12). Clinton had undertaken her get-acquainted tour of... MORE

Ramzan Kadyrov explained his sudden dismissal of the Chechen government on May 17 by pointing to the new challenges he said the republic was facing (www.vesti.ru/doc.html?id=796442). However, no one in Chechnya has any doubts that dismissing the government was used only as a pretext for... MORE

The threat of a renewal of war between Azerbaijan and Armenia became increasingly imminent last week as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited the region. The governments of both countries blamed each other for violating the cease-fire while mediators rushed to calm the sides... MORE

On June 7, an unusual police operation took place in Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria. About 100 investigators and special forces servicemen had arrived the previous day from Moscow at the Russian military airbase at Mozdok in neighboring North Ossetia. The group secretly moved into... MORE

Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan has set about forming his new government in a significantly changed political configuration that emerged from the May 6 parliamentary elections won by his Republican Party (HHK). The cabinet currently taking shape will be missing a key political player, the Prosperous... MORE

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Georgia delivered some potentially significant results (see EDM, June 11). These look, however, not nearly as impressive as Clinton’s lavish praise for Georgia’s performance on economic reforms.Two features stand out in Clinton’s praise. First, it credits Georgia’s... MORE

On June 7, President Vladimir Putin issued a decree creating the Presidential Council for Relations between Nationalities. The council’s statute stipulates its role as a consultative governmental body to help implement government nationalities policy. The council will have no direct administrative power, but its decisions... MORE

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton paid a visit to Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey on June 4-7, almost two years after her first South Caucasus tour in early July 2010. That tour was billed as a “get-acquainted” trip, midway through her tenure. The just-completed... MORE

Relations between Russian authorities and the country’s Muslim subjects have been a sensitive issue since Islam appeared within the limits of the Russian Empire. Islam today remains one of the most problematic issues in Russian politics and is the main destabilizing force that could trigger... MORE

The Azerbaijani-Turkish Trans-Anatolia gas pipeline project (TANAP) has become the basic component of the EU-backed Southern Corridor for Caspian gas to Europe. Shortly after the signing of the Azerbaijan-Turkey memorandum of understanding (MOU on December 26, 2011), the European Commission incorporated TANAP into the planning... MORE