Executive Summary  While the Romanian state has been struggling with a constitutional crisis pitting President Traian Basescu against the Social-Liberal Union (SLU) government of Victor Ponta, the Kremlin mouthpiece Voice of Russia has increasingly been instigating and drawing out the conflict. President Basescu survived the... MORE

Last month, the largest mosque in Central Asia, Hazret Sultan (“Holy Sultan”), opened in Astana. The mosque, whose total area is more than 17,500 square meters (188,368 square feet), is designed in classic Islamic style with traditional Kazakh ornaments and decorative elements. Its walls have... MORE

The trial of three Kazakh political opposition leaders for the Zhanaozen events is widely viewed as a test for Kazakhstan’s judicial system and democratic development. The trial of Vladimir Kozlov, leader of the unregistered opposition party Alga! (Forward), Serik Sapargaly, a politician and activist of... MORE

At the conclusion of the London Olympics, Russians suddenly realized that the Russian national team had a non-Russian face. Olympic sports were much revered in the Soviet Union and are highly regarded in contemporary Russia. They have often been seen as a battleground with the... MORE

Echoing Ronald Reagan’s 1980 election campaign theme, Georgia’s governing United National Movement (UNM) tells voters to “ask  [themselves] a very simple question:  Is Georgia now a better country than it was eight years ago? And if the answer is positive and if we want to... MORE

For the past twelve years of Russian armed containment of the ideology of the insurgents in the North Caucasus, the North Caucasian armed resistance has changed significantly. At first, only members of small radical Islamic jihadist groups participated in the local jamaats, which could not... MORE

On August 10, Circassian activists in Moscow picketed the offices of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Emergency Situations Ministry and the Migration Service. The initial request to hold a protest rally was turned down by the Moscow city authorities, so the activists reverted to one-person pickets... MORE

The Council of the Russian People organization attacked Circassian historians and activists in its online publication on June 26. The anonymous article alleged that Circassian activists and public figures harbor separatist and anti-Russian sentiments, and that the regional government supports these aspirations. According to the... MORE

There is no August lull in Russian politics this year, and the atmosphere in the country is thickening as President Vladimir Putin resorts to tougher and dirtier methods of upholding his eroding authority. Persecution and police pressure on prominent “rebels” – from the fierce blogger,... MORE

Before the commotion over the possible death of the well-known Chechen rebel emir Zaurbek Avdorkhanov in the Ingush village of Galashki on July 29 had subsided (www.chechenews.com/world-news/breaking/8565-1.html), suicide bombers attacked in Grozny. As of August 8, it was still unclear whether Avdorkhanov was really killed,... MORE