In four consecutive statements to the international press and local media, as well as to a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) conference, Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili has pilloried the country’s previous government for allegedly colluding with North Caucasus terrorists (Civil Georgia, April 29; Rustavi-2... MORE

The second presidential term of Mikheil Saakashivili is drawing to an end. Despite this fact, the Georgian president has not missed a chance to attract talented individuals into his administration, thus signaling that the end of his term in power does not signify the end... MORE

Why did Tamerlan Tsarnaev—one of the alleged April 15 Boston Marathon bombers who died in a shoot-out with police on April 18—not demand an end to the bloodshed in Dagestan, but was instead interested in what happened in Afghanistan and Iraq? The casualties in Dagestan... MORE

Speaking to reporters after last week’s (April 25) lengthy, televised, national question-and-answer (Q & A) session, President Vladimir Putin declared he “was optimistic this tragedy [the April 15 Boston Marathon bombing] will facilitate greater security cooperation, benefiting both America and Russia” (Interfax, April 25). This... MORE

Emil Pain, the well-known Russian expert on ethnic conflict and former Russian government official, has warned that the conflict in the North Caucasus is escalating. According to the Kavkazsky Uzel (Caucasian Knot) website, the number of casualties in the North Caucasus dropped to 199 in... MORE

On April 26, 2013, Prime Minister of Georgia Bidzina Ivanishvili admitted that the previous government perhaps had links with North Caucasian militants and terrorists, and Georgian territory was probably used not only for their transit but also for training purposes. It is difficult to underestimate... MORE

Islam is being politicized in an unusual and somewhat unexpected way in Crimea. Certain Crimean Tatar leaders have been using the existence of Islamic groups on the peninsula to advance their own communal demands even as some Ukrainian and Russian leaders have been invoking the... MORE

Adolf Hitler’s birthday, traditionally a concern for authorities determined to prevent racist violence in Russia (see Part One of this two-part article in EDM, April 15), appears to have passed without much disruption in 2013. At the time of writing, there were relatively few reports... MORE

The Kumyks are the third largest ethnic group in Dagestan. According to official data for 2010, an estimated 422,000 Kumyks lived in the mountainous republic (www.webcitation.org/616BvJEEv), ranking third after the Avars, with a population of 814,000, and Dargins, with a population of 510,000 in the... MORE

Moldova is again experiencing a vacancy of government. The tripartite Alliance for European Integration (AEI), under the Liberal-Democrat Prime Minister Vlad Filat, collapsed on March 5, abandoned by its other two parties. The Democratic Party, led by Parliament Chairman Marian Lupu officially and by business... MORE