The announcement by Vladimir Tor, the leader of the unregistered far-right National Democratic Party (NDP), that he will support anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny in the election for Moscow mayor (https://lenta.ru/news/2013/06/20/navalny/) may have gone unnoticed in the West, but it is one of the most interesting... MORE

A strike by 200 workers at the Kashagan oil field on July 7–8 went almost unnoticed because the dispute was resolved in record time. When 200 employees of CAPE Industrial Services demanded severance payment for their ending employment, high-level officials from Atyrau in Western Kazakhstan... MORE

Nearly 10,000 Chechens have sought political asylum in Germany since the start of 2013, an unprecedented number that is nearly six times as great as the flow a year earlier—and greater than the number of Afghans and Syrians doing so in the course of the... MORE

Experts have warned that the Dagestani authorities are opting for more heavy-handed measures in their efforts to resolve security issues in the republic in contrast to the previous republican leadership. On July 16, a roundtable on the remaking of Dagestani politics after the appointment of... MORE

A hot and lazy summer in Moscow has turned into a feverish political season last week by the torrent of breaking news—all of them created by Alexei Navalny, who has grown to a towering political figure that scares President Vladimir Putin’s subordinates and leaves far... MORE

Reverberations from the military operation in the Dagestani town of Semender in March have been felt throughout the republic, attracting attention to this small suburban town near the republican capital of Makhachkala. From March 20-27, government forces clashed with militants who were blockaded in a house.... MORE

Former speaker of the Georgian parliament Nino Burjanadze announced her decision to participate in the presidential elections that are scheduled for October and expressed her confidence in winning the race (https://en.trend.az/regions/scaucasus/georgia/2166923.html). Burjanadze is, indeed, widely considered to be the most dangerous rival to the ruling... MORE

The Russian media have reported that in June alone, more than 20 people were killed and wounded in the North Caucasus (www.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/226418/). Against the backdrop of such news, government official made a sensational statement about Russia’s ability to cope with the terrorist threat in the... MORE

Edward Snowden, the contractor who worked as a systems administrator at a US National Security Agency (NSA) facility in Hawaii, arrived in Moscow from Hong Kong on June 23, apparently planning to fly to Havana the next day, but has stayed in limbo in Russia—officially... MORE

After two heated discussions at the European Parliament’s (EP) Foreign Affairs Committee, Justas Paleckis, EP rapporteur on Belarus, modified his draft report (see EDM, June 14). The statement that in 2012 the human rights situation in Belarus improved was deleted. The situation is now described... MORE