On January 1, 2015, the new Criminal Code, which was approved by President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s July 2014 decree, took effect in Kazakhstan. Hailed by the authorities as a means to modernize the domestic penal system in line with international standards, it introduces a number of... MORE

Most analysts concerned with the Circassian issue in the North Caucasus have focused on the three republics where subgroups of that nation are the titular nationalities—Adygea, Karachaevo-Cherkessia and Kabardino-Balkaria—or on the enormous diasporas in Turkey, Jordan and elsewhere. But another player has emerged in the... MORE

On June 11, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko fired General Oleksandr Kikhtenko as governor of Donetsk province, roughly half of which is controlled by Moscow-backed militants. Like his predecessor, local steel tycoon Serhy Taruta, who was ditched last fall and elected to parliament from Mariupol (Mariupil),... MORE

The meaning of Russia Day, the holiday celebrated last Friday, June 12, remains obscure and even foreign for the majority of Russians. Overall, the population has mixed feelings about the collapse of the Soviet Union, which was precipitated by the declaration of state sovereignty of... MORE

To read Part One, please click here.To read Part Two, please click here. President Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s policy is one of benevolent neutrality sympathetic toward Ukraine in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. Belarus’s diplomacy and its trade policies tilt in Ukraine’s favor to the extent possible without... MORE

Public figures rarely speak out against the existing political order in Karachaevo-Cherkessia, so the open letter from Nikolai Khokhlachyov, an ethnic-Russian activist in the republic, to Sergei Ivanov, the head of President Vladimir Putin’s administration, was surprising. Khokhlachyov called on Ivanov to appoint an ethnic... MORE

In his lengthy and informative May 19 interview to the Washington Post, Foreign Minister of Belarus Uadzimir Makei responded to four variations of one and the same persistent question: Should Belarus develop its relations more with the West or with Russia? Makei stood his ground,... MORE

In early May, the Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA) joint-stock company (a subsidiary of Russian RAO UES International) submitted a request to Armenia’s state regulatory commission for a fee increase for retail customers. Currently, there is a two-tier price system, with 42 Armenian dram (about... MORE

In an effort to break free from Pakistan’s influence, two different groups of Afghan Taliban leaders have during the last year reportedly explored the possibility of establishing a Taliban safe haven in Iran, while also seeking Tehran’s support for their insurgency. In October 2014, Abdul... MORE

The story of Moscow State University (MGU) student Varvara Karaulova has caused an outcry in Russia. Earlier this month, to the surprise of her parents and friends, the student unexpectedly disappeared and was later found by Turkish border guards at the Syrian border (RIA Novosti,... MORE