
Latest Articles about The Caucasus

Latest Russian Claims of Victory in North Caucasus Ring Hollow
The Russian propaganda machine described the death of each and every secondary member of the armed resistance movement in the North Caucasus as having done "irreparable damage to the insurgency." If the man killed in the fighting is among the volunteers from the Gulf States,... MORE

Insurgency-related Violence Reported in Kabardino-Balkaria and Dagestan
Russian law-enforcement agencies conducted a special operation today (April 29) in the village of Progress, located on the administrative border between Kabardino-Balkaria and Stavropol Krai. According to the National Anti-Terrorist Committee (NAK), 16 people suspected of involvement with the “armed underground” were killed in the... MORE

Lavrov Elaborates on Non-Use-of-Force Proposals in Sukhumi and Tskhinvali
On April 25 and 26, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov paid a “working visit” to the occupied Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which Russia unilaterally “recognizes” as states. He visited Russian army and border troop cantonments, met with the Moscow-installed local leaders, and used... MORE

Circassian Activists in North Caucasus Explore Possibility of Repatriating Circassians in Libya
On April 21, Gazeta Yuga, a weekly newspaper that is published in Nalchik, reported on the continuing efforts of Circassian groups in Kabardino-Balkaria to help their ethnic kin stuck in the fighting in Libya. Some activists in the North Caucasus have proposed that Libyans of... MORE

Lessons For Today’s Circassian Activists in the Diaspora? (Part Three)
Following the defeat of Nazi Germany in the Second World War, the Soviet government negotiated the massive handover of many of USSR citizens – even those who had emigrated before the war. Many of the Soviet citizens who found themselves in the West by the... MORE

Russia Says it Killed “al-Qaeda” Emissary in North Caucasus
The National Anti-Terrorist Committee (NAK) announced today (April 22) that among the militants killed yesterday (April 21) in a shootout with security forces near the village of Serzhen-Yurt in Chechnya’s Shali district was a Saudi national known by the nom de guerre Moganned who, according... MORE

Emir of Dagestan’s Sharia Jamaat Reportedly Killed in Russian Special Operation
Russia’s intelligence services reported on the night of April 18 that they had identified the body of Israpil Validzhanov, who was better known as Emir Hassan, the head of Dagestan’s Sharia Jamaat armed resistance movement, among four militants killed near the village of Tashkapur in... MORE

Renewed Calls To Close Metsamor Nuclear Power Station
After the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and its disastrous impact on the Fukushima nuclear plant, the international community is once again raising concern about the Metsamor Nuclear Power station in Armenia. On April 11, National Geographic ran a powerful story, entitled “Is Armenia’s Nuclear... MORE

Analyst Examines North Caucasian Attempts To Break Away From The USSR During World War II (Part Two)
Aslan Kazakov’s description of Soviet tactics in the North Caucasus at the dawn of the Soviet era is strongly reminiscent of the modern reality in the region. “[In the 1920’s] officers of the local OGPU (Soviet secret police) department, jointly with detachments of state security... MORE

Proposed Election Reforms Define Fault Lines in Georgian Political Landscape
Georgia is in the throes of difficult consultations among key election stakeholders over much touted reform in the electoral code. The electoral reform talks between the government’s representatives, Davit Bakradze, Chairman of Georgia’s Parliament, and a coalition of eight non-government oppositional parties was launched on... MORE