Latest Articles about Domestic/Social

Medvedev Tries to Prove His Relevance In the Putin-Centric State
The first week of Vladimir Putin’s reinstated monopoly on power was marked by Dmitry Medvedev’s persistent attempts to prove that his presidency did not end on September 24, when he announced the “deeply thought-through decision” not to run for a second term. Medvedev demonstratively denigrated... MORE

Eight Killed In Dagestan Car Bombing
A number of insurgency-related incidents were reported in Dagestan and Ingushetia this past week. Dagestan’s Interior Ministry reported today (September 30) that an arms cache was discovered on the outskirts of the village of Toturbiikala in the republic’s Khasavyurt district yesterday (September 29), and that... MORE

Public Security Officially Joins the Blogosphere
On September 27, the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) announced the national launch of "police microblogging construction" (gong’an weibo jianshe) as the newest element in its social management toolkit and public security informationization (MPS.gov.cn, September 27; People’s Daily, September 27). To prepare the national launch... MORE

Plans To Build North Caucasus Ski Resorts: Why Paint the Fence If The House Is Burning?
Russia keeps bewildering the public with extravagant economic plans for the North Caucasus that are supposed to pacify the region. According to Russian officials, it is unemployment that is causing the problems there (www.russiatoday.ru, 24, December 2010). To provide employment for the local population, ski... MORE

Life-Long Rule For a Self-Appointed Tsar
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin decided to terminate the pretense of being officially second in command in Russia and announced that he will replace President Dmitry Medvedev in the Kremlin. At a congress of the ruling United Russia party in Moscow, Medvedev also announced he will... MORE

Divergent Election Results Between North Caucasus and Rest of Russia May Spark Russian Nationalist Backlash
On September 24, besides the sensational-albeit-expected news that Vladimir Putin will return to the Russian presidency in 2012, the United Russia party’s conference unveiled its list of candidates for the next parliamentary elections. Out of 601 people on the list, 44 candidates to the Russian... MORE

Tsentr 2011: Russia’s “New” Brutal Army
The highlight of the combat training year for the Russian armed forces, conducting the operational-strategic exercise Tsentr 2011, illustrates the experimental nature of the numerous contradictory reform aspirations and the weakness of the country’s conventional military. Tsentr 2011, staged in seven training ranges in southern... MORE

Ingushetia’s Government May Face New Surge of Violence
On September 23, a delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) visited Ingushetia. The head of the PACE delegation, Nikolaos Dendias, called the refugees’ living conditions in the republic “unsatisfactory.” Dendias is a member of Pace’s committee on migration, refugees and... MORE

After Elections, Latvia Can Have a Latvian Government Again (Part Two)
All three of Latvia’s Western-oriented parties together won the September 17 parliamentary elections on the basis of a common set of values: commitment to NATO and the EU, market economics, and consolidation of the Latvian society in the Latvian state. As in any multiparty system,... MORE

Ukrainian Multi-Vectorism: Satisfying Europe While Craving a Managed Democracy
Ukraine’s next parliamentary election will take place in 2012. During this period the Viktor Yanukovych administration will attempt a precarious balancing act to satisfy the West. At the same time, the administration will try to put in place a managed democracy to facilitate Yanukovych’s re-election... MORE