On February 12, the Circassian website Natpressru.info noted that the administration of the town of Krasnaya Polyana in Krasnodar region moved its town day celebrations, which include concerts, athletic competitions and other events, to May 21. The news outraged many Circassians because May 21 is... MORE

Russia’s seizure of Ukrainian territories, and its continuing military operations in Ukraine’s east, receded from center stage at the Munich Security Conference on February 12–14. Instead, the calamities visited upon Europe by wars in Syria and the wider Middle East (uncontrolled mass migrations into Europe,... MORE

After the Kremlin denied having ground troops in Syria, the Russian leadership was surprised by Ramzan Kadyrov’s statement that Chechen special forces were fighting in the Middle East against the Islamic State (IS). A trailer for a program produced by the Russian federal TV channel... MORE

Following the military exercises conducted in Dagestan last month by the snipers of the Southern Military District motorized infantry, during which troops learned speed shooting at the Dalny shooting range near the city of Buinaksk (Arms-expo.ru, January 17), a new round of military exercises was... MORE

It has been half a year since Kyrgyzstan officially joined the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) of Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Armenia. Its accession treaty took effect on August 12, 2015. That same day, Kazakhstan tore down customs controls on its border with the Kyrgyz... MORE

On February 1, Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka met with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Sochi. The meeting was not planned in advance: Lukashenka had reportedly only called his Russian counterpart on January 28 to request this engagement. This puzzled political commentators. After all, the two... MORE

The Russian federal prison authority plans to ramp up the fight against the so-called prison jamaats, according to the newspaper Kommersant. Officials say that Islam is spreading rapidly among inmates and may be a security danger in light of the threat the Islamic State poses... MORE

At the height of recent anti-government protests in Chisinau, some Moldovans in the crowd may have hoped for Romania to intervene; but the Russian state media made it sound as if it this were a real possibility, if not an actual plan in Bucharest (Pervii... MORE

As more and more low-level or hushed-up evidence makes clear, the Kremlin’s Ukraine gambit may have serious, unexpected domestic ramifications for the Russian Federation, such as increasing the likelihood of regional separatism—a prospect not seriously considered since the early 2000s and the end of Russia’s... MORE

Hundreds of Muslim Georgians who live in the autonomous republic of Adjara, in southwestern Georgia, held a protest rally, on February 5, in the regional capital of Batumi. The protesters demanded that Georgian authorities give them permission to construct a new, large mosque in the... MORE