Latest Articles about Domestic/Social
![](/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Dagestan_violence_EDM_January_10__2010_01.jpg)
Armed Attacks Reported in Dagestan
Violence continued in parts of the North Caucasus - particularly in Dagestan – this past week despite the major blow dealt to the North Caucasus rebels by a counter-insurgency operation in which 17 militants were killed. There were reports that Doku Umarov, the Chechen rebel... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Azerbaijan_Opposition_Rally_EDM_April_5__2011_Reuters_01.jpg)
Secular And Islamist Opposition Parties In Azerbaijan Plan Further Actions
Watching the serial outbreaks of unrest in Arab countries, Azerbaijan’s radical opposition parties see a possible model for political action in their own country. On the secular side, these groups are much-diminished descendants of the Musavat and Popular Front parties, which continually lost ground from... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Egypt__s_new_Prime_Minister_designate_Essam_Sharaf_is_greeted_by_supporters_after_giving_a_speech_at_Tahrir_Square_in_Cairo__Egypt__Friday__March_4__2011..jpg)
Egypt’s Internal Security Service Collapses in a Storm of Charges and Revelations
Trapped somewhere between revolution and counter-revolution, Egypt’s Ministry of the Interior is facing internal collapse amidst a disastrous leak of intelligence files, mysterious fires in records facilities, suggestions the ministry was running false-flag terrorist operations, a loss of judicial immunity and a dramatic deterioration of... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Abu_Bakar_Ba__asyir_behind_bars.jpg)
Trial of Indonesia’s Abu Bakr Ba’asyir a Test of Indonesia’s Counterterrorism Resolve
Reputed Jema’ah Islamiya leader Abu Bakr Ba’asyir told the Jamestown Foundation in 2005 that “the highest deed in Islam is jihad” (see Spotlight on Terror, December 16, 2005). After being arrested in August 2010, the Indonesian cleric is now on trial, facing charges under Indonesia’s... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Azerbaijan_Protests_EDM_April_7__2011.jpg)
“Day of Wrath” Fails In Azerbaijan
In the oversimplifying view of some Western commentators, the ongoing unrest in the “Muslim world” could or should not fail to grip Azerbaijan. On April 2 the veteran protest parties, Musavat and Popular Front, attempted to hold an unauthorized rally in Fountain Square, downtown Baku’s... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Supyan_Abdullaev_NC_EDM_April_7__2011.jpg)
Death of Umarov’s Successor Is a Major Setback to Rebel Movement
Following reports that Russian air and ground forces had killed 17 militants in an operation targeting a rebel base near the village of Upper Alkun in Ingushetia, Moscow waited with trepidation for the official identification of the body of Doku Umarov, the leader of the... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Russian_Army_Reserves_EDM_Feb_15__2011_01.bmp)
Russian Conscript System Begins to Collapse
Speaking in the Kremlin this week to the top brass of the Russian military, security, law enforcement and other so called “power structures” President Dmitry Medvedev pledged to fully support the modernization and rearming of the “power structures,” promising that the earmarked funding will not... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Kuchma_Putin__EDM_April_6__2011.jpg)
Ukrainian Former President Faces Charges Over Journalist Murder in 2000
The Prosecutor-General’s Office on March 21 launched an investigation against Leonid Kuchma, suspecting him of involvement in the murder of the opposition journalist Georgy Gongadze in 2000, Deputy Prosecutor-General Renat Kuzmin announced on March 22. The Prosecutor-General’s Office on March 24 officially charged Kuchma, president... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Russian_Census_Worker___Reuters__EDM_November_15th__2010_01.jpg)
North Caucasus Demographics Show the Regional Administrations’ Power to Skew Figures
On March 28, the Russian state statistical service released the preliminary results of the 2010 census. The country’s net population loss comprised 2.2 million people or 1.6 percent of the general population, which declined from 145.1 million in 2002 to 142.9 million in 2010. The... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Russian_General_Staff_Makarov_EDM_April_6__2011.jpg)
The “Brain” of the Russian Army Degenerates
In a calculated attack on Russian military science, Army-General Nikolai Makarov the Chief of the General Staff, argued that it has impaired progress (EDM, April 5). Marshal Boris Shaposhnikov coined the phrase in his 1929 book, Mozg Armii (The Brain of the Army) which refers... MORE