While the threat of piracy has gained international recognition off the coast of Somalia and farther out into the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean, pirate activities in the Gulf of Guinea have only recently caught the world’s attention.  According to the UN’s International Maritime Organization... MORE

A high-profile crime against the official Islamic hierarchy of the republic of Tatarstan took place in this relatively quiet Russian region on July 19, when the chief of the instructional division of the Spiritual Board of Muslims of Tatarstan, Valiulla-khazrat Yakupov, was gunned down at... MORE

This month, the government agency that oversees Russia’s arms exports and imports – the Federal Service on Military-Technical Cooperation (Federalnaya Sluzhba Voyenno-Tecknicheskogo Sotrudnichestva or FSVTS) – confirmed that Iran is suing Russia for damages to the tune of some $4 billion in the Court of... MORE

On July 21, a massive clash between ethnic Russians and Caucasians took place in the central part of the Russian city of Kislovodsk, in Stavropol region of the Northern Caucasus Federal District. Participants in the incident reportedly used knives and guns, and two people died... MORE

On June 13, 2012, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) obligated Russia to pay 60,000 euros ($73,680) to relatives of Ramzan Umarov, who was kidnapped by police on April 2007 in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan. The Dagestan Public Prosecutor’s office had opened a... MORE

The Georgian Dream opposition coalition, and its dominant party of the same name, has presented almost all of its candidates for single-mandate districts in Georgia’s upcoming parliamentary elections. The name “Georgian Dream” applies both to Bidzina Ivanishvili’s party and to the coalition that the Georgian... MORE

Bidzina Ivanishvili, multi-billionaire leader of the Georgian Dream opposition party and coalition, has almost completed the nomination of candidates for the upcoming parliamentary elections in single-mandate electoral districts. Most of these candidates are non-political individuals (veteran cultural figures and sportsmen, some employees of Ivanishvili’s organizations)... MORE

Recent events in Ingushetia, the smallest republic of the North Caucasus, have forced observers not to discount the Ingush armed resistance’s capabilities. In 2011, there were 108 casualties in the ongoing conflict in Ingushetia, including 70 dead and 38 injured. That was three times fewer... MORE

Last Thursday, President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with the leaders of the parties represented in the State Duma and responded to the official opposition’s very delicate reservations with the affirmation that “we have made absolutely the right decisions,” but their implementation would be reasonably... MORE

Pressure by international human rights bodies on Kazakhstan’s government is increasing as the trials of political opposition leaders for their role in the December 2011 riots in Zhanaozen are approaching. The leader of the unregistered “Alga!” (Forward) party Vladimir Kozlov, a politician and activist of... MORE