Last week, Georgia marked the five-year anniversary of the start of the short military conflict with Russia over South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The conflict ended in Georgia’s defeat and the recognition of the independence of its former autonomies by the Russian Federation. The mourning ceremonies... MORE

On August 7, the acting head of Dagestan, Ramazan Abdulatipov, and other republican officials met a group of residents of the embattled Dagestani village of Gimry. The Dagestani government proposed a deal with the villagers’ leaders that should end the settlement’s suspended status. The authorities... MORE

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu’s visit to Washington last Friday could have repaired some damage from the predictably canceled presidential summit in Moscow, but the meeting failed to produce any substance for bilateral relations, which had deteriorated beyond the point... MORE

On August 1, Tbilisi City Court acquitted former Defense and then Interior Minister Bacho Akhalaia on charges that involved exceeding official powers, illegal confinement and torture in three separate cases. However, Akhalaia remains in custody, awaiting trial on separate, unrelated cases. The court’s verdict follows... MORE

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

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

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

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

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

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