On October 7, the well-known Russian experts on the Russian security services Alexander Soldatov and Irina Borogan unveiled a report on the government’s preparations for the Sochi Winter Olympics. The report states that the magnitude of spying on visitors during the Olympics will be unprecedented... MORE

It is hardly surprising that the Russian opposition was not awarded the Nobel Peace prize this year. It remains in a state of disarray, and the veterans who enjoy international recognition, like Lyudmila Alekseyeva, have little in common with young angry rebels like Nadezhda Tolokonnikova—a... MORE

The new (September) national survey by the Independent Institute for Socio-Economic and Political Studies (IISEPS), a pollster sponsored by the West and headquartered in Vilnius, Lithuania, revealed that the electoral rating of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has risen to 42.6 percent. This is the share of... MORE

With the Olympics in Sochi scheduled to start on February 7, 2014, the situation in the North Caucasus is not improving as quickly as the authorities in the Kremlin would like (https://www.sochi2014.com/). The steps the Russian government has taken so far appear to be insufficient... MORE

On October 4, the Georgian parliament passed further amendments to the new Georgian constitution. The country’s new constitution was adopted in October 2010 under President Mikheil Saakashvili and will go into effect after the upcoming presidential election on October 27, 2013. It turns the president... MORE

Police in Kabardino-Balkaria conducted operations against the armed resistance and took preventive measures to foil terrorist attacks in the republic throughout the month of September (https://kabardino-balkaria.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/172027/).At the start of October, a young man was killed in Kabardino-Balkaria’s Baksan district. According to police, he was driving... MORE

On October 4, the Moldovan government published the text of the agreement handing Chisinau International Airport to a Russian consortium, led by Khabarovsk-based Komaks, in an exclusive concession (Unimedia, October 4).Under the agreement, the Russian side shall operate the Chisinau airport for 49 years (until... MORE

On September 30, the commander of the Russian ground forces, Colonel-General Vladimir Chirkin, stated that troops under his command would take part in providing security to the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014 (https://www.itar-tass.com/c96/896137.html). The statement came amid a series of other statements by... MORE

Kazakhstan faced domestic terrorist incidents in 2011–2012, which mainly targeted National Security Committee (KNB) and other government buildings. And meanwhile, the Kazakhstani government has been increasingly tracking the small-scale involvement of some of its citizens in foreign insurgencies in Afghanistan and Syria. Since then, Astana... MORE

On September 26, the European Parliament’s (EP) Subcommittee on Human Rights held an urgent parliamentary hearing in Brussels and discussed the report titled, “The Pressing Situation in Regards to Human Rights of the Crimean Tatar people,” prepared by European diplomat Dirk Schuebel. The report included... MORE