Latest Articles about Domestic/Social
![](/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Sergei_Shoigu__Anatoly_Serdyukov_-_EDM_November_8__2012_01.jpg)
Putin Has Fired His Defense Minister
On November 6, President Vladimir Putin sacked Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov (50), replacing him with Sergei Shoigu (57), who was appointed governor of the Moscow region last May after serving for more than 20 years as chief of Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry (Ministerstvo po Chrezvychaynym... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Chinese_Trucks_at_China-Kyrgyzstan_border_-_EDM_November_7__2012.jpg)
Chinese ‘Expansion’ in Kyrgyzstan: Myth or Reality?
On October 22, about 450 villagers threatened to destroy the offices of the Chinese company Zijin Mining Group in the village of Orlovka in northern Chui province in Kyrgyzstan. The attack occurred after a villager’s horse was killed by a staff member of the company.... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Minsk_Victory_Square_-_EDM_November_7__2012.jpg)
Belarus Targets Intellectual Community
On November 5, the Russian company ROSSPEN published the memoirs of former chairman of the Parliament Stanislau Shushkevich, the first leader of Belarus after independence. The book came out in a Russian-language edition because none of Belarus’s publishers dared to issue the original in Belarusian.... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Bomb_squad_-_EDM_November_7__2012.jpg)
Twenty Years On, Ossetian-Ingush Conflict Still Far from Being Resolved
On October 23, a suspected suicide bomber destroyed a police checkpoint on the administrative border between Ingushetia and North Ossetia. One police officer died in the attack and several others were injured. The power of the bomb was estimated at 50 kilograms of TNT. The... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Ukraine_vote_count_-_EDM_November_6__2012.jpg)
Violations, Strong Showing of Radicals Spoil Ukrainian Election
The parliamentary election on October 28 disillusioned those who hoped for progress in Ukraine after the botched election to the regional and municipal councils in 2010. Like two years ago, radicals performed better than expected while the lack of a level playing field and the... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Mintimir_Shaimiyev_-_EDM_November_6__2012.jpeg)
Shaimiyev Criticizes Moscow for Seeking Return to Pre-Perestroika Relations
Mintimir Shaimiyev, the former president of Tatarstan whose views both reflect and help power the ideas of other non-Russian leaders, has issued a sweeping indictment of the current central Russian government for continuing to be in thrall to “a nostalgia for imperial thinking,” for seeking... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Construction_of_Shahriston_Tunnel_-_EDM_November_5__2012.jpg)
Road Projects in Tajikistan Impact Its Strategic Geography
On October 27, Tajikistan’s President Emomalii Rahmon formally inaugurated the Shahriston tunnel along the Dushanbe-Khujand highway (BBC Tajik, October 27). The 5,253-meter tunnel cuts the time required to drive between the capital of Dushanbe and Tajikistan’s second-largest city, Khujand (Leninabad), from eight to less than... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Mikhail_Prokhorov_-_EDM_November_5__2012.jpg)
Is Moscow Preparing to Play the Ethnic Card to Stay Politically Relevant?
At the convention of the new Russian political party Grazhdanskaya Platforma (Civil Platform) in Moscow on October 27, one of its leaders, billionaire-turned-politician Mikhail Prokhorov, proposed abolishing the republics within the Russian Federation. He advocated changing the Russian constitution to redraw its administrative borders in... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Kazan_bilingual_-_EDM_November_5__2012.jpg)
Draft Language Law Could Ultimately End Non-Russian Language Instruction, Moscow Ethnographer Says
In the most serious attack on the status of the non-Russian republics and their titular nationalities since Soviet times, new legislation now under consideration in the Russian Duma would allow parents and students to choose whatever language they would like to study, an ostensibly balanced... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Vladimir_Putin_-_EDM_November_5__2012.jpg)
US Elections Deepen the Divergence Between Russia’s and Putin’s Interests
The choice that the United States will make tomorrow is certain to have a strong impact on US-Russia relations, but President Vladimir Putin cannot figure out what outcome will suit his interests better. Back in 2004, he opted for endorsing George W. Bush, which the... MORE