December 24, 2012 will mark the end of the contract between Azerbaijan and Russia for the lease of the Gabala radar station (Daryal-type radar station), built by the Soviet Union in 1984 to monitor missile launches at distances as far as 6,000 kilometers (3,728 miles)... MORE

As of July 11, 20 people had already been killed or wounded in insurgency-related violence in Dagestan since the beginning of the month. The total number of casualties in the whole of the North Caucasus in the same period was 26 (www.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/209480/). Out of the... MORE

The upcoming parliamentary elections pose a unique set of challenges to Georgia’s evolving democracy, the country’s stability and potentially to Georgian statehood itself. The challenges include: vote purchase leading to full or partial state capture, Russian military pressure timed to the voting, danger of post-election... MORE

As the Chechen Republic has been gradually rebuilt following the destruction of two wars, the Islamization of the region has become increasingly evident. While the federal center is not involved in Islamizing Chechnya, it has taken no steps to prevent it. The primary reason for... MORE

On July 6, floods swept through the western parts of Krasnodar region on Russia’s Black Sea coast, killing at least 160 people and leaving tens of thousands more without homes. Most of those killed were in the town of Krymsk, which has a population of... MORE

The Kremlin’s decision to stop drafting young non-Russian men from the republics of the North Caucasus threatens Moscow’s control both of that region and of the Russian Federation as a whole (see EDM June 27; RIA Novosti, June 25). This move simultaneously highlights and exacerbates... MORE

In June 2012, Ingushetia was the third deadliest republic in the North Caucasus, behind only Dagestan and Kabardino-Balkaria. Six people died in attacks in the republic and 17 were injured, while 11 were killed and 12 wounded in Kabardino-Balkaria, and 28 were killed and ten... MORE

The Russian military does not want to deal with military conscripts from the North Caucasus region and has placed them outside the constitution of the Russian Federation. By applying these exclusionary practices to the North Caucasians, the Russian government is taking yet another step toward... MORE

In March, the Russian military command unexpectedly began redeploying troops from Chechnya to Dagestan. Russian military forces left Chechnya in the largest numbers ever since the start of the second military campaign in the republic in 1999, with an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 personnel redeployed.... MORE

On June 30, one of the largest Circassian organizations in the North Caucasus, the Adyge Khase (aka the Circassian Parliament), held a conference in Maikop, Adygea. The head of the organization, Adam Bogus, portrayed the plight of the Circassians in the North Caucasus in bleak... MORE