Latest Articles about Domestic/Social
Decades on, Stalin’s Deportation of the Chechens Still Casts a Malevolent Shadow
Few events shaped the Chechen and Ingush peoples as profoundly as the experience of exile. Seventy-eight years ago, in February 1944, the Chechens and their Ingush ethnic kin were herded into freight trains and deported en masse to the sparsely populated steppes of Kazakhstan and... MORE
Push for Circassian Repatriation Set to Spark New Tensions Between Moscow and Ankara
Under the auspices of the Caucasian Federation in Turkey (Kaffed), that country’s Circassian Association and its most important branches in Ankara and Istanbul are planning to open an office that will provide support for Circassians who want to return to their ancestral homeland in the... MORE
Demographic Shifts Change Power Relations Within and Between Post-Soviet States
Over the last 30 years, demographic shifts in each of the post-Soviet countries have changed power relations both within and between them. The most obvious changes are in the size of the populations of each state, with declines in nine of the fifteen and increases... MORE
Will There Be War? A View From Belarus
The showdown over Ukraine continues to keep experts guessing. On the one hand, warnings that the invasion could start at any time emanate from Washington. On the other hand, there are multiplying suggestions that such a development remains a low probability; this accumulating evidence comes... MORE
Moscow and Kabul Beef up Forces on Tajikistan’s Border as Badakhshan Deteriorates Again
In mid-February, as Russians and Afghans mark the 33rd anniversary of the final withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, both countries are beefing up their forces along the Afghan-Tajikistani border. The trigger has been a renewed deterioration of the security situation in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous... MORE
Russian Demographic Losses Tighten the Noose Around the Kremlin
Population growth trends are destiny only over the long term, scholars have long insisted. But five years ago, American Enterprise Institute (AEI) demographer Nicholas Eberstadt warned in the research study “Russia in Decline” that the country’s demographic decline is imposing increasingly “unforgiving constraints” on the... MORE
Macron’s Ukraine Diplomacy Runs Into a Kremlin Wall
French President Emmanuel Macron held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on February 7 and 8, respectively. Overshadowing the talks were Russian forces staging a war scare near Ukraine’s borders. Macron is attempting a solo act,... MORE
Georgian Parliament Supports Ukraine, but Fears Mentioning Russia
On February 1, the first day of the legislative spring session, the Georgian parliament adopted a resolution in support of Ukraine that fell short of mentioning the Russian Federation. The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party had tabled this resolution, which lawmakers adopted with 74 votes... MORE
Azerbaijani President’s Visit to Kyiv During Ukraine Crisis: Motivations and Outcomes
In mid-December 2021, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev received an invitation from his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy (Trend.az, December 15, 2021), and within a month, he was paying a working visit to Kyiv amidst the security crisis around Ukraine and a large-scale cyberattack on Ukrainian government... MORE
Belarus and the Showdown Over Ukraine
Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka annually convenes a meeting devoted to the major tasks of the state border service. During the latest such meeting, on January 24, he unexpectedly responded to Zenon Poznyak’s assertion that Belarus was being militarily occupied by Russia (Pool Pervogo, January 24).... MORE