Following the adoption of a new Information Security Doctrine, in December 2016 (see EDM, December 16, 2016), Russian President Vladimir Putin has recently approved a new Strategy for the Development of an Information Society for 2017–2030 (Pravo.gov.ru, May 10). This document replaces the previous version... MORE

Like the tsarist authorities who expelled the Circassians from the North Caucasus in 1864, an action many refer to as an “act of genocide,” and the Soviet ones who divided that nation up into a series of smaller ethnic communities, including the Adygei, the Kabardin,... MORE

Belarusian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Kravchenko visited Washington and held meetings at the US State Department and the Senate. He also participated in the May 9 roundtable discussion “Between East and West: Belarus at a Crossroads,” organized by the Atlantic Council and The Jamestown Foundation.... MORE

On April 25, the Turkish Air Force carried out strikes on the town of Sinjar (Iraqi Kurdistan) and on targets in the Karachok Mountains (northeastern Syria, between the towns of al-Hasakah and Qamishli) (Hürriyet, April 25). The airstrikes on Kurdish forces highlight Turkey’s determined stance... MORE

May 6 saw a protest on Moscow’s Sakharov Prospekt under the banner “against political repression.” The march was unremarkable except for the fact that it indicated the apparent decisive reuniting of the liberal and extreme nationalist components of the opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin.... MORE

A public discussion of the draft amendments to Georgia’s constitution, initiated by the ruling Georgian Dream–Democratic Georgia (GDDG) party, has begun (Civil Georgia, May 3). The proposed constitutional reforms are profound. According to many experts, if the package of amendments is adopted, it will effectively... MORE

The annual anniversary of Victory Day on May 9, 1945 (Moscow time), which marked the surrender of Nazi Germany, should have been the least controversial of public holidays throughout the former Soviet Union. Yet, the use of World War II symbolism by the Russian authorities... MORE

Outnumbered in their republic by ethnic Russians and nearly equaled by ethnic Tatars, the Bashkirs of Bashkortostan, the product of Joseph Stalin’s first great act of ethnic engineering, have responded to their increasingly desperate situation by creating a new national organization, “Saving the Nation Together.”... MORE

After the crackdown on the March 25 rally in Minsk, the main Belarusian daily Belarus Segodnya published an extensive report devoted to the White Legion, a group of young vigilantes under the guidance of Sergei Chislov, a graduate of Minsk Higher Engineering Anti-Aircraft Missile School... MORE

On May 9, columns of tanks will roll through the streets of Moscow, followed by S-400 surface-to-air missiles in Arctic camouflage and cyclopean Topol-M inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBM), to parade proudly on Red Square. Similar parades—minus the Topols—will take place across the country, from Vladivostok... MORE