China is increasingly interested in railway construction in the former Soviet Central Asian states as a land alternative to maritime transit for shipping high-value, low-volume products such as electronics to European markets. If all goes according to plan, in May 2014 the final technical decisions... MORE

Georgia’s policy toward the North Caucasus has never been marked by continuity. It experienced ups and downs throughout the ages, according to historical evidence. The Chechens helped the Georgians against the Khazars in the distant past, and the first king of Georgia, Farnavaz, was married... MORE

Almost all of Russia seems to be glued to the television, watching the Sochi Winter Olympics where Team Russia—currently in seventh place in the overall medal count—is apparently failing to take much gold. But meanwhile, on February 13, President Vladimir Putin granted an audience at... MORE

Several days prior to the opening of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, peculiar events started to take place at the Russian-Georgian border. According to multiple accounts, Georgian border guards unexpectedly stopped allowing some residents of the North Caucasus to cross at the Upper Lars... MORE

On January 30–31, the deputy prime ministers of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, Tokon Mamytov and Murodali Alimardon took part in negotiations to try to relieve tensions from recent border clashes, which involved exchanges of fire between their border guards. Mamytov and Alimardon reached an agreement to... MORE

On February 4, 2014, Kazakhstan and El Salvador established diplomatic relations. Kazakhstan’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Kairat Abdrakhmanov, and his Salvadorian counterpart, Enrique Garcia Gonzalez, signed a communiqué to this end in New York on January 30 (Trend, February 4). On January 16,... MORE

On January 20, Abkhazia’s separatist government moved its so-called “border zone” with Russia almost seven miles (11 kilometers) deeper into Abkhazia. The measure is designed to widen the security area around the city of Sochi and tighten safety measures ahead of the Olympic Games (civil.ge,... MORE

For the past several days, those hostile to the Ukrainians protesting against President Viktor Yanukovich on Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in Kyiv spread rumors alleging the presence of Chechens in the ranks of the opposition (https://pravdatoday.info/content/zulihan-tut-nastoyashchaya-geopoliticheskaya-bitva-ishod-kotoroy-zatragivaet-i-nas).While this rumor might have been disregarded as a bad... MORE

While most of the worldwide media outlets focused on Euromaidan protests in Kyiv since Ukraine’s withdrawal from signing the Association Agreement with the European Union in November 2013, the signing of a five-year economic agreement between Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and several Chinese companies went... MORE

The 2014 Winter Olympics, which are estimated to have cost the Russian taxpayer some $50 billion, will be officially declared open this week (February 7) in Sochi by President Vladimir Putin. The games are intended to magnify before the world Putin’s personal achievements and triumphs... MORE