On October 18, the Supreme Court of Karachaevo-Cherkessia concluded a trial of a group of 29 suspected militants. The process became the most massive case of imprisonment of alleged North Caucasus rebels in recent times, but it received surprisingly little coverage in the Russian press.... MORE

The poignant comment by John McCain that dictators all over the world “may be a little bit more nervous” after the death of Muammar Gaddafi has generated sharp resonance in Russia because the outspoken US Senator named Vladimir Putin among the dictators in question (Moskovsky... MORE

On October 6, the regional court of Aktobe in western Kazakhstan announced verdicts on four members of a terrorist gang. The men were accused of killing two policemen and a special task force officer during shootouts between a group of armed local residents and the... MORE

In Dagestan, a local resident was abducted yesterday (October 20) in the city of Dagstanskiye Ogni by a group of men wearing camouflage uniforms and masks. The incident happened around 12:30 p.m., local time, near the headquarters of the city tax inspectorate, when a vehicle... MORE

Two weeks before the presidential elections in Kyrgyzstan the question many in the country ask is whether there will be a second round of voting. The frontrunner, Prime Minister Almazabek Atambayev, certainly hopes to secure victory during the first round on October 30.Although Kyrgyzstan has... MORE

Last May, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced the formation of an All-Russia People’s Front (Obzherossiysky Narodni Front – ONF) – an amalgamation of masses of different regional and national public organizations around the ruling United Russia party (URP). It was announced the ONF will be... MORE

On October 17, details emerged of a controversial operation by the Russian security services in a remote Dagestani village of Khutrakh. Rights activists who clandestinely traveled to the sealed off area condemned the police operation as a manifestly punitive action. “[I]n Khutrakh we saw frightened,... MORE

For all their length, Bidzina Ivanishvili’s two “open letters” to the country (Civil Georgia, October 7, 12; EDM, October 14) barely touch on foreign policy generally, or relations with Russia in particular. The aspirant to supreme power in Georgia avoids tipping his hand in these... MORE

Bidzina Ivanishvili, whose $5.5 billion, made-in-Russia wealth equals Georgia’s state budget, has announced his candidacy for one of Georgia’s two top posts under the new constitution: prime minister or chairman of parliament. Parliamentary elections are due in May 2012 to usher in the new constitutional... MORE

The October 11 sentencing of Yulia Tymoshenko to seven years imprisonment makes it impossible to hold free elections in one year’s time on October 31, 2012. The EU has already made its position plain: if opposition leaders are not able to stand, then the elections... MORE