In 2010, Circassian activists managed for the first time to stage public protests in multiple countries against what they referred to as Russian “imperialism” in the North Caucasus. The Circassians protested against the 2014 Winter Olympics that are scheduled to be held in the surroundings... MORE

Nikolai Gogol’s Myortvyye Dushi (Dead Souls), published in 1842, drew inspiration from nineteenth century Imperial Russian landowners maintaining dead serfs on the official count in property registers. Today, the Russian defense ministry likewise engages in creative methods of counting the number of servicemen in the... MORE

On December 31, 2010, an Israeli analyst of the situation in Kabardino-Balkaria, Abraham Shmulevich, declared that the republic was entering a state of civil war. This stark warning came after a well-known researcher and popularizer of Circassian traditions and rites, Aslan Tsipinov, was killed on... MORE

On December 24, 2010, the Russian government’s official newspaper, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, finished the publication of Russia’s Federal Law of December 13, 2010 No 357-FZ “On the Federal Budget for 2011 and the Planned Period of the Years 2012 and 2013,” which it had begun publishing... MORE

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev started the year that will decide his political fate by reviving his campaign against corruption, and on January 13 he chaired a meeting of the Anti-Corruption Council. Medvedev opened the proceedings with the half-hearted admission that “our successes in this sphere... MORE

Promoting social equality and justice has been the single most oft-stated commitment that the Chinese leadership has made to its people the past year. In an interview with China National Radio late last month, Premier Wen Jiabao vowed to "render society more fair and just."... MORE

When Iran’s security forces announced in February 2010 that they had successfully captured Abdelmalek Rigi, the elusive commander of Jundallah (Soldiers of God), many observers wondered aloud about the impact Rigi’s capture might have on the Baloch insurgency. [1]Jundallah, an ethnic Baloch nationalist rebel group,... MORE

Muqtada al-Sadr, the firebrand Iraqi Shi?a cleric whose militia experienced a major military defeat by the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, stated angrily in April 2008: “The occupation has made us the target of its planes, tanks, air strikes and snipers. Without our support... MORE

Several former top officials who served in the 2008-2009 government of the then Ukrainian Prime Minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, have been arrested on corruption charges since her arch rival Viktor Yanukovych was elected president in February 2010. Tymoshenko herself has to spend several hours almost weekly... MORE

In 2010, rights activists in the North Caucasus continued to come under strong pressure from the Russian government. Most notoriously, in September 2010, Chechnya’s ruler Ramzan Kadyrov filed a libel case against head of the Memorial human rights center, Oleg Orlov. Following the killing of... MORE