With Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s protection, the Novatek Company seems set to acquire full ownership (or at least the stock options for full ownership) in Yamal LNG, Putin’s new pet project. The Russian government and Novatek are now inviting Western companies to develop that gas... MORE

China’s previous five-year plans were generally focused on the economy and little else. Yet, the outline of the 12th Five-Year Blueprint on Economic and Social Development for 2011 to 2015 (hereafter Blueprint), which was released at the end of the National People’s Congress (NPC) last... MORE

The North Caucasus is increasingly reminiscent of the zone of military conflict where the situation is gradually approaching a critical point. News stories coming from the region – even those covered by official Russian media, the task of which is by no means to depict... MORE

Following the departure of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak on February 11 and the collapse of his regime, new faces and conflicts have appeared within the ranks of Egypt’s Islamist movement, including the Muslim Brotherhood.As with the larger Egyptian revolution, internal dissent first appeared on Facebook... MORE

On March 10-11, a large forum of Azerbaijani students studying in foreign countries took place in the French city of Strasbourg (www.1news.az). The event was sponsored by the Azeri Ministry of Youth and Sports and organized by the newly established NGO: ASAIF (Azerbaijani Students and... MORE

The muftis of Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachaevo-Cherkessia and North Ossetia were elected on March 15, 16 and 17. Russian experts on Islam have started questioning the official policy on Islamic bureaucracies and are now calling for their “modernization,” while the government continues its efforts to control the... MORE

On March 3, a conference titled “The Circassian Question and the Olympics in Sochi” was held at the Moscow center of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Many of the participants expressed disappointment with the Kremlin’s reluctance to discuss the issue of the Circassian “genocide”... MORE

The body of an officer of the Dagestani branch of the Federal Penitentiary Service was found in the republic’s capital on March 17. The officer, whose was a captain, was killed with two shots to the head, and two shell casings were found along with... MORE

Since its creation in 2008, the Uyghur-based Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) has vowed to carry out jihad against the Chinese occupiers of Xinjiang, the massive western province of China that is known to its Muslim inhabitants as East Turkistan. While evidence of actual operations in... MORE

There are currently two arguments about what the recent uprisings across the Middle East mean for al-Qaeda.  The optimists argue that non-violent revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt have stripped al-Qaeda’s narrative of its power. The pessimists counter that al-Qaeda is far from finished and will... MORE