On July 23, government forces declared a counterterrorist operation regime and launched a special operation in the center of Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria. According to the Russian National Antiterrorist Committee (NAK), the authorities learned about the presence of six suspected members of a terrorist group in a... MORE

The international context of negotiations to implement the Minsk armistice is changing in Russia’s favor. As the leading Western power, the Barack Obama administration effectively pressures Ukraine to legitimize the Donetsk-Luhansk authorities in the constitution and through elections. This would satisfy Russia’s main demands at... MORE

Sometimes a story appears that seemingly makes no sense and cries out for an explanation. The following story is one of those cases: On July 15, RIA Novosti reported that Russia will trade $160 million worth of military hardware for Thai rubber, fruit and vegetables.... MORE

Urged by US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland in Kyiv last week, Ukraine took a first step toward legalizing the secessionist authorities in the country’s constitution (see EDM, July 20). Concurrently, US Vice President Joseph Biden asked Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to accept local... MORE

During the past two months, Egypt has witnessed an unprecedented wave of attacks by Islamist militants, mostly launched by the Islamic State’s Egyptian branch—which calls itself “Sinai Province,” and which was formerly known as Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis—against tourists in Luxor, the chief prosecutor, a naval... MORE

It is probable that before the end of 2015, more than 1,000 French residents or nationals will have traveled to Syria and Iraq to join one of the various armed groups active in the two countries. This mobilization dwarfs all prior French jihadist travel to... MORE

In May 2015, missing Tajikistan police commander Colonel Gulmurod Halimov appeared in an Islamic State video to announce his defection to the group. While his defection caused embarrassment in Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe, given the regime’s repressive religious policy, this development was also perhaps unsurprising. A... MORE

Three people were killed and at least 13 wounded in the western Ukrainian town of Mukacheve (Mukachevo), on July 11, as members of the nationalist paramilitary group Right Sector (RS) attacked local police near a local sports club with machine guns and grenades. RS claimed... MORE

Russian news agencies reported that both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chechnya’s governor, Ramzan Kadyrov, expressed their condolences to the leadership of Iraq for the terrorist attack in Khan Bani Saad, Diyala Governorate. Terrorists detonated a car laden with explosives in the city, killing more... MORE

Although the Greek banks reopened on July 20, and Athens repaid some of its debt to the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank, unease about the Greek crisis continues in the Balkans. The last 25 years of turbulent political and economic transition have... MORE