Latest Articles about Domestic/Social
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Xi’s Mass Line Campaign: Realigning Party Politics to New Realities
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “mass line” (qunzhong luxian) education campaign echoes in content and format a similar effort initiated by Xi’s predecessor, Hu Jintao, to improve the party’s governance capacity. The current campaign’s effort to leverage Mao’s authority points to an increased sense of... MORE
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Murder of Leading Dagestani Cleric Signals Deepening Crisis in Sufi Hierarchy
Yet another Sufi sheikh has been added to the list of those killed in Dagestan. On August 3, Sheikh Ilyas-haji Ilyasov, of the branch of Islamic teaching known as the Naqshbandiyya-Khalidiyya, was murdered. The sheikh had an estimated 500–1,000 murids (followers). Ilyasov was an ethnic... MORE
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Radicalization of Migrant Workers in Russia Could Threaten Stability in Tajikistan
On July 19, General Dzhurakhon Zoirov, head of Tajikistan’s Anti-Organized Crime Division of the Ministry of the Interior, announced that Amriddin Tabarov (a.k.a. Dumullo Amriddin) has been placed on Interpol’s international wanted list (Ozodi, July 20). Tabarov is purportedly the leader of Jamaat Ansarullah an... MORE
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Moscow Signals Kanokov’s Term as Head of Kabardino-Balkaria May End
On July 30, the Russian security services reported that four suspected rebels were killed in Stavropol region. A source in the local police said the incident took place on July 29 near the town of Tersky, located in Georgievsky district in the southern part of... MORE
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Kazan Exploits Russia’s Nationality Policy in Ways Moscow Never Intended
Just as the Republic of Tatarstan did routinely under its former President Mintimer Shaimiev, Kazan has again taken a Moscow policy and transformed it in a way that is very much at odds with the one articulated by the central Russian leadership. It has cleverly... MORE
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Failures of East Slavic Integration
In a surprising move, Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka did not end up going to Kiev, Ukraine, to celebrate the 1025th anniversary of the baptism of Rus, a common legacy of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, solemnly celebrated in all the three East Slavic countries (https://naviny.by/rubrics/politic/2013/07/30/ic_articles_112_182507/). Observers... MORE
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Georgian Dream Government Not Coping with Economy’s Slump
Data just released by Georgia’s state agency for statistics (GeoStat) show a pronounced economic downturn. The robust growth that Georgia was experiencing until the October 2012 elections has petered out following the regime change. In June 2013, the economy contracted for the first time since... MORE
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Russian Police Cracks Down on Ethnic Crime and Non-Russians
On July 27, a group of Dagestani traders clashed with the police near the market in Moscow’s Ochakovo-Matveyevskoye district. One police officer was injured in the fighting. The incident quickly rose to prominence in the Russian national news as video recordings proliferated across the Internet... MORE
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Xenophobia Becomes a Thorn for Putin’s Bubble
Last week, Edward Snowden departed from the Sheremetyevo Airport—though not to a dubious “safe haven” like Bolivia but to an undisclosed location in Russia as his plea for a temporary asylum was granted. Russian authorities had obviously expected that his celebrity status would evaporate after... MORE
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Religious Tensions Grow in Astrakhan Region
Astrakhan is a port city on the lower part of the Volga River and a large military harbor on the Caspian Sea. To the east, Astrakhan region borders Kazakhstan; to the west, the region faces the North Caucasus. Its proximity to that unstable area is... MORE