A capacity for unleashing targeted repressions is crucial for the survival of authoritarian regimes, and President Vladimir Putin finds it increasingly difficult to demonstrate that he has such a capacity—or that he controls it. Health problems keep him confined to his cozy residence outside Moscow,... MORE

The new Prime Minister of Georgia Bidzina Ivanishvili appeared quite surprised when he heard criticism from the Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Speaking at a press conference in Prague, on November 12, where the Parliamentary Assembly of NATO... MORE

On October 28, Georgia’s new Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili named the new Head of the Government of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara (hereafter, Adjara)—a 1,120 square mile large region of stunningly beautiful mountains and rain forests, with the population of approximately 376,000, located on the... MORE

Neo-Nazi and extremist nationalist gangs have been operating in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union, but two separate attacks in the Moscow region demonstrate the rising power of xenophobic ideas in the country. The first attack occurred at 9:30 p.m. on November 9,... MORE

On November 8, ethnic Nogai in Dagestan held a rally calling on President Vladimir Putin to consider creating a Nogai autonomous republic within Russia. The new republic would presumably include parts of Dagestan, Chechnya and Stavropolregion where Nogais have resided traditionally. The activists declared: “Only... MORE

A proposal to drop any reference to nationality in the names of the non-Russian republics of the Russian Federation has deeply divided Tatarstan, the largest and most influential of these republics, almost precisely along ethnic lines. The Tatars are outraged about this attack on their... MORE

It has been 460 years since the first Muslim groups were incorporated into the Russian state (www.prlib.ru/history/pages/item.aspx?itemid=268), yet Moscow has not advanced at all toward better understanding the Islamic world. Starting with the capture of Kazan in 1552 and until the Soviets took power in... MORE

On November 12, Georgia’s Deputy Minister of Culture Yuri Metchitov, serving in the “Georgian Dream”–led new government, declared that Georgia should change the name of the Museum of the Soviet Occupation, opened in Tbilisi in 2006. As Metchitov stated, the museum draws the irritation of... MORE

On November 17, the Russian Congress of the Peoples of the North Caucasus held a series of protests in Moscow demanding the facilitation of the repatriation of the Syrian Circassians to the North Caucasus. It is noteworthy that even organizations loyal to Moscow, such as... MORE

The Kremlin is moving from confusion to controversy in international affairs, a policy area which used to boost Russia’s “great power” status and bring joy to its leaders. Moscow cannot formulate a coherent position on the eruption of violence in the Gaza “black hole,” and... MORE