Latest Articles about Domestic/Social
Moldova on Automatic Pilot After the Presidential Election Fails Again
On December 7 Moldova failed in its fifth attempt this year to elect a head of state in parliament. The Communist Party, which governed from 2001 to September 2009 and retains 48 seats in this parliament, blocked the election of Marian Lupu, presidential candidate of... MORE
Kadyrov Requests Additional Funding From Moscow Amid Accusations of Rights Abuses
On December 7 the independent Chechen magazine Dosh (Word) reported that its website was attacked by hackers, who destroyed its news section and part of its archive (www.doshdu.ru, December 7). The attack came days after the magazine received a prestigious award from the Reporters Without... MORE
Putin Reassures his Audience and Reduces Medvedev to Irrelevance
Vladimir Putin’s annual talk-show has set a new record as he kept answering questions from carefully selected “common” Russians for more than four hours last Thursday, habitually demonstrating a perfect grasp of innumerable social problems and generously delivering gifts. Direct coverage continued non-stop on both... MORE
Islamic Terrorist Threat in the Crimea
The head of the Crimean Interior Ministry, Gennadiy Moskal, has drafted new legislation to ban extremist groups in Ukraine (Ukrayinska Pravda, October 27). Moskal is also a Kyiv parliamentary deputy from the Our Ukraine-Peoples Self Defense faction (NUNS) and a member of the Peoples Self... MORE
The Security Situation in Dagestan Continues to Deteriorate
The situation in Dagestan, one of the largest republics in North Caucasus, has remained markedly tense. Along with the problem of armed resistance, there are several other burning issues, inter-ethnic tensions being one of them. This issue becomes especially sensitive for the people of Dagestan... MORE
Local Court Rules Against United Russia Electoral Victory in Dagestani City
On December 3, the Derbent city court in Dagestan annulled the mayoral elections that took place on October 11. The decision was astonishing news, given that Felix Kaziahmedov the incumbent mayor of Derbent and a member of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, had been announced... MORE
PKK Leader Abdullah Ocalan Challenges Omission from Peace Initiative from His Prison Cell
Turkey has been busy debating the recent initiative of the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi - AKP) to end the long conflict between Turkish security forces and the Kurdistan Workers Party (Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan – PKK). On November 12, Turkish Interior Minister... MORE
Support for Circassian Nationalism Grows in the North Caucasus
Rising tensions in Kabardino-Balkaria (KBR) involving two neighbouring republics Karachaevo-Cherkessia (KChR) and Adygeya (EDM, November 25) have led to violence. On December 1, the headquarters of the “Khasa” Circassian in Nalchik was attacked by a group of 50 people described as well-built sportsmen. The attack... MORE
Russia Signals Support for Moldovan Presidential Candidate Lupu
On November 21-22 in St. Petersburg, the Moldovan governing alliance’s candidate for head of state, Marian Lupu, attended the congress of Russia’s party of power, United Russia, which is officially headed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Lupu initialed together with Duma Chairman Boris Gryzlov a... MORE
Circassians in Karachaevo-Cherkessia Plan Mass Protest
Circassians in the Republic of Karachaevo-Cherkessia have called for a national demonstration to protest against the denial of their civil, political and ethnic rights. Two demonstrations are set to take place on November 26 –the first in the town of Habez, located 18 miles to... MORE