On February 8, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev held a government commission meeting in the city of Cherkessk, Karachaevo-Cherkessia on the socio-economic development of the North Caucasus. The commission called for investing additional funds—nearly $3 billion—through 2020 into the region’s agricultural development. Chechen leader Ramzan... MORE

On February 15, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s United National Movement (UNM) party, as part of a power-sharing agreement, confirmed its proposal to the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) coalition that a large part of the new constitutional provisions should go into effect now, instead of in... MORE

The meteor that exploded over Chelyabinsk in the early hours of February 15, as damaging as it was, produced even more jokes than material destruction. One of those was about the State Duma urgently approving legislation banning the incursions of celestial bodies because of their... MORE

In January, government forces killed 26 militants in the North Caucasus Federal District. Eight of those killed were referred to as leaders of the illegal armed groups. In the same period, 101 police operations were carried out in the district. Russia’s law enforcement agencies noted... MORE

The former prime minister of Tajikistan, Abdumalik Abdullojonov, was arrested in Ukraine last week at the request of Tajik authorities. Abdullojonov claims that his life would be in jeopardy if he were extradited to Dushanbe. He was declared wanted internationally 16 years ago. Tajikistan charges... MORE

On February 5, Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili made a number of statements addressed to Defense Minister Irakli Alasania, some of which sounded like accusations and warnings against the leader of the Our Georgia-Free Democrats (OGFD) party and one of the leaders of the ruling... MORE

The Russian government has been forced to admit it is worried not only about Islam’s proliferation in the North Caucasus, but also about the proliferation of ideas of the North Caucasian militants spreading to other regions of Russia. Russian authorities are trying to prevent the... MORE

This week, speaking at a meeting of Russia’s top security officials—the so called “extended collegium” of the Federal Security Service or FSB—Alexander Bortnikov, the FSB chief, announced: “Geopolitical pressure on Russia, coming from the United States and its allies who still consider our nation one... MORE

On February 1, the head of the Russian parliament’s Committee for Nationalities, Gadzhimet Safaraliev, stated that the State Duma was preparing amendments to the country’s citizenship law that would allow former subjects of the Soviet Union and Russian Empire to migrate to the Russian Federation... MORE

Just as a fight in a bar in the Karelian city of Kondopoga in August 2006 helped power a dramatic rise in ethnic Russian activism against immigrants from the Caucasus (see EDM, November 6, 2006), so too local media reports in recent weeks that have... MORE