Latest Articles about The Caucasus

Kadyrov Exaggerating the Threat of Suicide Attacks Backfires

Chechen authorities are increasingly reporting successes in operations against suicide bombers. Official data suggests that the number of suicide bombers has increased exponentially and that they are now occurring everywhere. The latest attempt on Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov’s life again made the issue of suicide... MORE

Kadyrov Says He No Longer Wants Zakaev to Return to Chechnya

Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov appears to have abruptly ended his courtship of Akhmed Zakaev, the exiled prime minister of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (ChRI), calling the London-based separatist leader a “liar” and “hypocrite.”Speaking on October 27 during a meeting of the regional branch of... MORE

Southern Corridor, White Stream: the Strategic Rationale

White Stream, the proposed gas pipeline from Georgia to Romania on the seabed of the Black Sea, is intended to maximize European gas imports from Central Asia through the E.U.-initiated Southern Corridor. The Corridor grand design spans Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, and –with White Stream– also... MORE

White Stream can De-Monopolize the Turkish Transit of Gas to Europe

Political risks to Caspian gas transportation have emerged westward of the Caucasus in Turkey, where such risks were least expected. Azerbaijan has become the first gas-exporting country to experience those risks, stemming from Turkey’s position as a transit monopolist. Turkey’s AKP government is practically blocking... MORE

Insurgent Violence Reported in Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia

A suspected rebel in Chechnya yesterday (October 27) detonated a grenade, killing himself and a policeman, in one of several violent incidents involving insurgents and security forces in the North Caucasus over the last several days.Chechen Interior Minister Ruslan Alkhanov said that the incident took... MORE

Maksharip Aushev’s Murder Followed his Renewed Criticism of Status Quo

The longtime Ingush opposition leader and businessman Maksharip Aushev was shot to death in Kabardino-Balkaria yesterday (October 25). The incident took place around 9:30 a.m., local time, on a road near the village of Nartan in Kabardino-Balkaria’s Chegemsky district. The unidentified attackers fired more than... MORE

Chechen Authorities Claim Suicide Bombing Cell Eliminated in Grozny

The head of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office, Aleksandr Bastrykin, said yesterday (October 22) that the number of terrorist acts in the North Caucasus has increased by 57 percent this year. He told a meeting of the committee in St. Petersburg... MORE