The deputy mufti of the Spiritual Board of Muslims of Dagestan, Akhmed Tagaev, was shot dead in the republic’s capital, Makhachkala, on May 25. As Interfax noted, Tagaev was in charge of public and media relations for the board and regarded as “one of the... MORE

Sergei Stepashin, who heads the Russian Audit Chamber, the federal budgetary watchdog agency, was asked by REN-TV on May 27 why Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov stated in his recently released official property and income declaration that his only car is a Russian Zhiguli when, as... MORE

Several militants were reportedly killed during a special operation in Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, on May 28. According to some Russian media, two rebels were killed after a 12-hour battle with security forces that had surrounded the apartment building in which they were holed... MORE

Armenia is pressing ahead with its ambitious plans to build a new nuclear power station to replace the aging Soviet-era facility at Metsamor slated for decommissioning by 2017. The Armenian government has commissioned an Australian engineering company to manage the project. However, the key question... MORE

“We have agreed, that we will fight against the militants together, regardless of which territory they are in,” Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov stated on May 17 during a joint press-conference with Ingush President Yunus-Bek Yevkurov. “I have waited long for this day” (Interfax, May 17).... MORE

For the first time in recent years, joint military and police operations targeting fighters of the armed resistance are underway simultaneously in all three republics of the Northeast Caucasus: Dagestan, the Chechen Republic and Ingushetia. The operation in Chechnya involves the troops from the defense... MORE

The deputy head of the investigative committee of the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office in Dagestan, Seifudin Kaziakhmedov, was shot dead in Dagestan’s capital Makhachkala on May 21. Agence France-Presse reported that he was shot six times by an unknown assailant in broad daylight. The Moscow... MORE

The Memorial human rights group says that pressure by law enforcement bodies in Chechnya on youth in the republic has only increased since Russian President Dmitry Medvedev officially announced an end to the ten-year-long counter-terrorist operation in the republic last month, and that this pressure... MORE

Kavkazky Uzel on May 21 quoted law enforcement officials as saying that a winter base for Chechen rebels had been destroyed between the settlements of Neftyanoe and Eshilkhatoi in the mountains of Chechnya’s southeastern Vedeno district, while another large rebel base was discovered on the... MORE

Attendance at opposition rallies in Tbilisi has dwindled to a trickle, with only a few hundred protesters manning round-the-clock pickets for a standard fee of 30 Lari, plus food rations per night. The intention to bring opposition protesters to Tbilisi from the countryside has failed... MORE