Latest Articles about Domestic/Social
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Vladimir_Putin_and_Yuri_Kokov_-_April_9__2014.jpeg)
Kabardino-Balkaria Joins Russian Regions Not Allowed to Elect Governors
On April 3, Kabardino-Balkaria’s parliament voted to reject direct elections for the republic in favor of appointment by the Russian president. Adalbi Shkhagoshev, a member of the republican parliament from United Russia, the country’s ruling party, told the newspaper Kommersant that the decision was taken... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Kryashen_Kazan_Tikhvin_Church_-_EDM_April_8__2014.jpg)
Moscow Using Sub-Ethnic Groups at Home and Abroad
Most Western analysts accept as fundamental the ethnic divisions that were reified by Soviet leaders and consider Moscow’s divide and rule strategy only in terms of them, focusing for example on Russians and Ukrainians or Armenians and Azerbaijanis. But the Kremlin has never accepted as... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Crimean_Tatars_protest_in_Simferopol_-_EDM_April_7__2014.jpg)
Rehabilitation of Crimean Tatars Could Reverberate in the North Caucasus
On April 1, Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Moscow with Tatarstani President Rustam Minnikhanov, who informed Putin about his three recent visits to Crimea. Apparently acting as liaison between the Kremlin and the Crimean Tatars, Tatarstan’s president told Putin that the Crimean Tatar leaders... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Russian_rubles_-_EDM_April_7__2014.jpg)
International Isolation Begins to Affect Russia
As the charged pause in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict drags on, policymakers in Moscow discover that their bold breakthrough into the territory beyond the boundaries of international law has brought rather unexciting consequences. Last Monday (March 31), President Vladimir Putin called German Chancellor Angela Merkel, seeking... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Russian_Neo-Nazis.jpg)
Crimean Events Bolster Russian Neo-Nazis
The eyes of the world—especially those of analysts in the West—have been trained on the ongoing situation in Ukraine, but the situation inside Russia also shows signs of being affected by Crimea’s annexation. In particular, President Vladimir Putin’s defense of ethno-nationalism has invigorated Russia’s homegrown... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Russian_police_-_EDM_April_3__2014.jpg)
Security Forces and Police in North Caucasus Systematically Violate Human Rights
In an attempt to change the statistics related to the armed underground movement in the North Caucasus, which damage the image of its republics, the authorities are turning a blind eye to human rights violations in the region.Fifteen years after the start of the Chechen... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Alyaksandr_Lukashenka_on_Ukrainian_TV.jpg)
Lukashenka’s Balancing Act on Ukraine
Following President Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s pronouncements about Crimea being effectively part of Russia (see EDM, March 26), Ukraine recalled its ambassador in Minsk for consultations. After Belarus voted against the United Nations General Assembly resolution condemning Russia’s annexation of Crimea, damage control on the part of... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Georgia_street_rallies__March_27.jpg)
Kremlin’s Followers in Georgia Become Active
Against the backdrop of Russia’s intervention in Ukraine, its annexation of Crimea and the international community’s weak reaction, supporters of Georgia’s integration into the Eurasian Union—a political-economic project dominated by Moscow and championed by Vladimir Putin—have begun raising their voices. Small, but active groups in... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Rustam_Minnikhanov.jpg)
Russian Nationalists in Tatarstan Ask Moscow to Protect Russians in Ukraine
With a patriotic frenzy under way in Russia in connection with the crisis in Ukraine, annexation of Crimea and ensuing tensions with the West, ethnic minorities living in Russia are predictably coming under increased scrutiny by the state security services and Russian nationalists. As one... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Simferopol_Art_Museum_-_EDM_April_1__2014.jpg)
Russian Occupiers Looting Crimean Museums
A Ukrainian parliamentarian has called for the United Nations to intervene and stop the looting of museums in Crimea by the Russian occupation authorities, an action that he says raises the specter of a broader effort by Moscow to change the cultural and ethnic face... MORE