Latest Articles about Domestic/Social

Will Flu Spoil Tymoshenko’s Election Campaign?

A flu epidemic which recently erupted in Ukraine may derail the presidential election campaign. As the major parties try to use the epidemic to their advantage, the situation threatens to spiral out of control because the media hype is causing panic to spread faster than... MORE

Minsk Forum Raises New Questions

The Minsk Forum has become a regular feature of the late fall in the Belarusian capital. Each November, an increasingly large gathering –including diplomats, politicians, academics, and business people from more than 20 countries this year– assembles to discuss a variety of issues, with its... MORE

Medvedev’s Quasi-Modernization Hits the Wall

President Dmitry Medvedev is today paying a very special visit to Germany in order to participate in celebrations that have more significance for contemporary Russia than he dares to admit. Twenty years ago he was a fresh graduate of the Leningrad University with some democratic... MORE

Violence in Chechnya has Spiked Since Counter-Terrorist Operation’s End

November 3 marked the 200th day since the Russian government formally ended the “counter-terrorist” operation it launched in Chechnya in September 1999, and statistics collected by the Kavkazsky Uzel (Caucasian Knot) website show that more blood has been spilled since the April 16 announcement of... MORE

Attacks and Shootouts Reported in Ingushetia, North Ossetia, Dagestan and Chechnya

Violence has continued in the North Caucasus this week, with police, military personnel, suspected militants and civilians reportedly killed and wounded in attacks in Ingushetia, North Ossetia, Dagestan and Chechnya. Alexei Samborsky, an employee of Ingushneftegazprom, an oil and gas company in Ingushetia, was shot... MORE

Opel Not Going Russian After All

Late on November 3 (November 4 in Europe) the General Motors (GM) corporation decided to retain ownership of its heavily indebted German subsidiary Opel. The decision reverses GM’s September 10 tentative consent to sell a majority stake in Opel to a Kremlin-dominated consortium.GM’s reversal became... MORE

Bakiyev Promotes his Son to Key Post

On October 29, Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s son Maksim Bakiyev was promoted to lead the Central Agency on Development, Investment, and Innovation (www.akipress.kg, October 29). The agency was formed as a result of Bakiyev’s recent government reform and is entitled to control all foreign financial... MORE

Fissures Appear in the Power Vertical in Moscow

Local government elections held on October 11 in 75 regions of Russia were massively rigged by the authorities in favor of the ruling United Russia party. There is, of course, nothing particularly new about election fraud in Russia –the nation is not a democracy and... MORE