Although Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov had assured everyone three years ago that the administrative border between Chechnya and Ingushetia had been resolved once and for all (TASS, December 8, 2018), the issue has found a way to resurface in recent weeks. Only this time, the... MORE

The extrajudicial murder of a local Pamiri activist by state security police in the mountainous and impoverished Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast of Tajikistan has sparked violent protests in that region’s capital, Khorog. The mass demonstrations have so far claimed at least three other lives and left... MORE

For the third time since the beginning of October, Chinese employees of the Russian state-owned oil giant Rosneft came out to protest. Their grievances include the failures of that company to pay them in a timely fashion, to assist those whose positions have been eliminated,... MORE

Activists in the North Caucasus called on compatriots to use the ongoing Russian census to advance the interests of their ethnic groups. The Russian census took place over the span of a month, from October 15 to November 14, 2021 (delayed by a year due... MORE

Since the victory of Turkey’s ally Azerbaijan in the Second Karabakh War (September 27–November 9, 2020), Russian commentators have been concerned about Ankara’s efforts to create a union of Turkic states under its aegis. And that alarm has only intensified now that Turkey has established... MORE

On November 13, one of the top leaders of the ruling Georgian Dream party, former parliamentary chairperson Irakli Kobakhidze, issued a statement, in which he referred to Polish member of the European Parliament (MEP) Anna Fotyga as a “patron of criminals” (Facebook.com, November 13). Fotyga,... MORE

The political crisis in Belarus is far from over. Its internationalization along the lines of a geopolitical tug-of-war between Russia and the West began well before the current showdown over Middle Eastern migrants. Stuck at the Polish border (see EDM, November 11), the masses of... MORE

On the eve of this year’s Day of National Unity, on November 4, ethnic Russians and migrant workers clashed in a Moscow neighborhood, leading to a media circus in which Margarita Simonyan of RT denounced “persons of Caucasus nationality” for attacking Russians. Chechen leader Ramzan... MORE

An epiphenomenon is a secondary effect or byproduct that arises from but does not causally influence a process—so in a way, it is an occurrence whose significance is blown out of proportion. Social life and politics are replete with such epiphenomena. They regularly garner all... MORE

Ethnic-Chechen and ethnic-Russian members of a special forces unit clashed at the Tambukan training center, in Stavropol Krai, in mid-October. The row took place amidst trials these service members were undergoing to receive the honor of wearing the crimson (maroon) beret. The crimson beret symbolized... MORE