Kavkazky Uzel on April 1 quoted Anatoly Tsyganok, head of the Center for Military Forecasts at the Institute of Political and Military Studies, as saying that former Vostok battalion commander Sulim Yamadaev, who was reportedly shot to death in Dubai on March 28, may have... MORE

Dubai’s The National newspaper reported on April 2 that police in the United Arab Emirates had detained “the prime suspect” in the killing of Sulim Yamadaev, the former commander of the Chechen-manned elite Russian army unit, the Vostok battalion. Citing police sources, the newspaper reported... MORE

Armenia's leadership and main opposition forces are gearing up for a fresh showdown in the first local elections in Yerevan since the early 1990s to be held on May 31. The surprise decision by the top opposition leader, Levon Ter-Petrosian, to run for Yerevan mayor... MORE

On March 27 Russia's state owned gas monopoly Gazprom signed a memorandum of understanding with Azerbaijan's state-owned oil and Gas Company, SOCAR, which would provide for deliveries of Azeri gas to Russia starting in January 2010. The report in the Russian newspaper Vedomosti on March... MORE

President Mikheil Saakashvili's announcement on March 4, reshuffling the leadership of Georgia's armed forces has caused widespread surprise. Colonel Vladimir Chachibaia, Chief of the Joint Staff resigned, after holding the post since only November 2008, with General Devi Chankotadze appointed as his replacement (Inter Press... MORE

On March 12, Russia’s Investigative Committee announced the names of the suspects who killed both the acting and the former mayor of the capital of North Ossetia, Vladikavkaz, as well as several top police officials last year. Nine people are accused of committing the crimes;... MORE

Reports about armed encounters have been streaming in from Dagestan for the past week. For three days, the Russian army jointly with the Federal Security Service (FSB) and Dagestan’s Interior Ministry carried out a military operation aimed at eliminating a group of militants in the... MORE

Kommersant on March 26 quoted Akhmed Zakaev, the London-based prime minister of the separatist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, as saying of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov’s assertion that an announcement of an end to the counter-terrorist operation in Chechnya is imminent: “On paper, of course, you... MORE