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

Contrary to expectations of many observers both at home and abroad, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has failed to instruct a parliament loyal to him to decriminalize the offences with which former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko had been charged. Rather, he looks determined to keep her... MORE

On September 23, the Russian justice ministry issued an official warning to the Circassian Congress in Adygea. Russian officials accused the Circassian activists of extremism and incitement of hatred. Following the recognition of the Circassian “genocide” by the Georgian parliament in May 2011, the Circassian... MORE

Vladimir Putin made his first visit in his new status of president-all-but-elect to China last week and used this opportunity to emphasize the unprecedented level of trust between the leaders of the two world powers, which “learned to act hand-in-hand” on the international arena. It... MORE

The head of the Dagestani branch of the Federal Penitentiary Service, Muslim Dakhkhaev, was wounded in an attack in Dagestan’s capital, Makhachkala, yesterday (October 13).  The attack occurred just before 9 p.m., local time, when unidentified gunmen shot and threw grenades at the Mercedes in... MORE