The Georgian authorities’ decision to dismantle a mosque minaret in the village of Chela on August 26 triggered an incident in the Samtskhe-Javakheti and Adjara regions where tensions between Christians and Muslims have surfaced for the first time in many decades (https://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=26386). Locals said that... MORE

During the last two weeks of August, practically all the residents of Chechnya were busy voting for the republic’s main mosque, called the “Heart of Chechnya,” in the competition for Russia’s top ten landmarks (https://10russia.ru/rules). The contest was launched in March and will conclude at... MORE

Last month, the White House canceled President Barack Obama’s visit to Moscow in the first week of September for a summit with President Vladimir Putin because of mounting deadlock in bilateral relations and the Russian decision to grant fugitive United States National Security Agency (NSA)... MORE

On August 26, Vladislav Baumgaertner of Russia was arrested in Minsk and placed in the KGB prison popularly known as Amerikanka while criminal proceedings have been launched against him by the Belarusian Prosecutor’s Office. An ethnic German, born and raised in the Urals (www.comnarcon.com/index.php?id=454?), Baumgaertner... MORE

On August 19, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on special security arrangements for the city of Sochi when it hosts the Winter Olympics in 2014. The decree’s provisions envisage a complete ban on incoming automobile traffic in Sochi and its surroundings from January 7... MORE

The end of summer has brought Russia to the intersection of several long-brewing crises that the authorities sought to mitigate by applying palliative half-measures and postponing hard decisions. In foreign affairs, the sharp escalation of the civil war in Syria has exposed the difficult consequences... MORE

On August 18, Kumyks clashed with Laks in the Dagestani town of Karaman. An estimated 700 police officers were deployed to separate the warring factions. Fifteen civilians and four police officers were reportedly injured in the clashes and the highway connecting Makhachkala to the northern... MORE

The Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) “Defense Policy Blue Paper,” could not have come out at a more opportune time for Taiwan’s main opposition party. Less than a month after its June 6 publication, Taiwan’s defense establishment was thrown into turmoil by the death of Corporal... MORE

Writing in the last two issues of China Brief, Andrew Chubb raised an important analytical question about reading Chinese official sources: how much sense can we make of them without thinking about the audiences expected to read them? Chubb focused on the hawkish rhetoric of... MORE

On August 12, Chechen militants launched a bomb attack targeting the reconnaissance group of the Russian interior ministry’s Sever Battalion, which is primarily manned by residents of the Chechen Republic (www.mk.ru/incident/article/2013/08/13/898403-chechenskie-boeviki-vzorvali-chechenskiy-spetsnaz.html). One officer died and four others were injured in the blast. That same day,... MORE