Latest Articles about Domestic/Social

Circassian Opposition to the Kremlin Mounts in the Northwest Caucasus

The authorities and opposition movements in the Circassian republics of the northwestern Caucasus have returned to negotiations after a series of protest demonstrations and violent attacks targeting the leaders of Circassian non-governmental organizations (EDM, November 18 and 25, December 3).On October 30, the parliament of... MORE

Belarus Cracks Down on Youth Activists

Since late November, the Belarusian authorities have targeted members of the Malady Front (Young Front, MF), an organization registered in the Czech Republic but not in Belarus, as well as Eurapeyskaya Belarus (European Belarus), the members of which overlap.On November 16-17, the press secretary of... MORE

Viktor Yushchenko’s Foreign Policy Agenda

Viktor Yushchenko has trailed badly in opinion polls in the last year with ratings of less than 5 percent, but has benefitted from the collapse of Arseniy Yatseniuk’s election campaign (rankings of candidates in 2008-2009: www.uceps.org/ukr/poll.php?poll_id=91). Yushchenko is now the main “Orange” competitor to Yulia... MORE

Kyrgyz Authorities Deny Entry to Human Rights Activists

The number of human rights activists who have been denied entry to Kyrgyzstan has spiked this year. On December 2, Tajikistan’s prominent human rights activist Nagina Bakhriyeva was denied entry to the country upon her arrival from Dushanbe to Bishkek’s Manas airport (www.24.kg, December 2).... MORE

Lukashenka Makes Key Leadership Changes in Belarus

On December 4, Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka made sweeping changes to the higher echelons of the leadership. The changes reflect both adverse news on the economic front and the installment of some hard-line personalities on the eve of a series of elections that will monopolize... 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