The Coordinating Council of Circassian civil society organizations of Kabardino-Balkaria appealed to the head of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Lavrov, to recall the ambassador to Turkey, Aleksei Yerkhov. In a recent interview with the Abkhazian service of Sputnik News, the Russian envoy... MORE

On February 20, former interior minister (2004–2012) and former prime minister (2012) Vano Merabishvili was released from prison in Tbilisi, where he spent six years and nine months in solitary confinement (Interpressnews February 20). Merabishvili—widely known as the “Georgian strongman” during his time in government... MORE

On February 19–22, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev paid a historic state visit to Rome, Italy (Azertag, February 19). Before this latest trip, the Azerbaijani leader had made three official and two working visits to Italy, but a state visit (the highest-level visit possible in inter-state... MORE

The southwestern Russian Republic of Kalmykia has long hoped to become a major player on the Caspian, which it argues could be achievable with the construction of a new port on that inland sea along with a new canal from there to the Sea of... MORE

An estimated 10,000 people participated in a rally in the Novolak district of Dagestan on February 23, to commemorate the victims of Stalinist-era repressions and mark the 76th anniversary of the forced deportation of Chechens and Ingush during World War II. Chechen activists at the... MORE

On February 10, the authorities jailed Giorgi “Gigi” Ugulava, the secretary general of the opposition party European Georgia (EG), on charges of allegedly embezzling some $17 million while serving as mayor of Tbilisi (2005–2013). Ugulava’s arrest undermined the planned next round of Western-mediated talks between... MORE

A group of people unexpectedly disrupted a large assembly of Balkar activists in Nalchik, the capital of the Northwest Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkaria. On February 2, dozens of youths stormed a hall where the congress of the Council of Elders of the Balkar People (CEBP)... MORE

The United States’ sanctions against Iran and the unwillingness of most Caspian littoral states to challenge them have sent Tehran’s maritime trade in this sea plummeting over the last two years, reducing its non-petroleum component by half (Financial Tribune, May 27, 2019). But that has... MORE

In the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib, the Russian Armed Forces—mainly via their “proxy,” Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian Arab Army—are confronting Turkish military units (see EDM, January 30, February 18), putting severe strains on the Moscow-Ankara relationship. But Russian military activities along Turkey’s borders are not... MORE

Vladimir Putin is a specialist at “hybrid” operations, in which the nominal goal of any move covers up his real methods and motives. He has launched another such effort in Sochi, where his government is using plans for the construction of a new railroad as... MORE