On March 6, the Crimean parliament voted in favor of unification with Russia, and declared that a referendum on this decision will be held either on March 15 or March 30 (https://qha.com.ua/iste-kirim-parlamentosu-nun-kararlari-131096tr.html). Crimean Tatars immediately refused to accept this resolution (https://censor.net.ua/video_news/274444/krymskie_tatary_ne_priznayut_referendum_moskovskih_marionetok_glava_medjlisa_video).This news comes a day... MORE

On March 2, Ukrainian interim president Oleksandr Turchynov appointed new heads of state administrations (governors) in several oblasts in eastern and southern Ukraine (Ukraiynska Pravda, March 2, 3). The main cities in Ukraine’s southern and eastern oblasts have most recently experienced pro-Russian, potentially separatist demonstrations,... MORE

In Ukraine’s case, democratic theory was at no time a valid premise for assessing the stability, internal legitimacy, or indeed the logic of the country’s political order. That order functioned to a large extent through informal arrangements among interest groups that coalesced around Ukraine’s “oligarchs”... MORE

According to Moscow’s SOVA Center for Information and Analysis, radical Russian nationalists tried to arrange several more skhods (translated as “people’s gatherings”—generally involving street marches and demonstrations) in January 2014, as the country was preparing to host the Winter Olympics in Sochi (https://www.sova-center.ru/racism-xenophobia/publications/2014/01/d28925/). In the... MORE

For the first time in recent memory, there was no official commemoration of the deportation of Chechens in 1944. The government’s scandalous refusal to mark the 70th anniversary of Joseph Stalin’s deportation of the Chechens to Kazakhstan was quietly condemned by many people in Chechnya.... MORE

After impeaching the fugitive President Viktor Yanukovych on February 22, the new authorities in Kyiv have proceeded to form a new government. The first appointments show that this will be far from the national-unity government advised by the United States and the European Union. The... MORE

“In the event of escalation in Crimea and Ukraine at large,” reads the February 28 editorial statement by Nasha Niva, “Belarus will need national unity and restraint. All the political arguments between the [Belarusian] government and the opposition would be worth putting on the back... MORE

Fifteen Dagestani organizations have asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to fire the head of Dagestan, Ramazan Abdulatipov. The Union of Patriotic Forces of Dagestan and the Assembly of the Indigenous Peoples of Dagestan organized a symposium on February 1. Following the symposium, which was titled... MORE

The two telephone conversations between United States President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 2 and February 22 marked a dramatic deterioration of relations caused by the near-complete collapse of common ground in managing the crisis in Ukraine. The first discussion about... MORE

In the past week, many people in Chechnya saw an anonymous video of clashes at the administrative border between Chechnya and Ingushetia. The video was apparently recorded by a Chechen police officer, but the authorities, trying to conceal the clashes from the public, disliked the... MORE