In the wake of worsening Russian-Western relations over Ukraine, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is holding Rapid Trident military exercises, on September 16–26, in Ukraine near Lviv. According to European Command (EUCOM) spokesman Gregory Hicks, the drills will bring together about 1,300 troops from... MORE

On September 11, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a “snap inspection” of the Armed Forces in Eastern Military District (MD). The motif of the “snap inspection” has been popularized by the defense minister, Army-General Sergei Shoigu, since early 2013 and used to great effect during... MORE

The armed resistance in the North Caucasus is transforming and adapting to the new conditions under the Caucasus Emirate’s new emir. September 7 marked exactly one year since the death of the insurgency’s former leader, Doku Umarov (Kavkavsky Uzel, March 18). Umarov was poisoned by... MORE

Russian observers reacted quite strongly to an Internet video released by the Islamic State, the group formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) that is operating in Iraq and Syria as well as Lebanese border areas, in which militants are threatening... MORE

On September 5, Ukraine, Russia, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and leaders of the Moscow-backed separatist “governments” signed an armistice agreement in Minsk. The armistice protocol’s Point 4 envisages a “permanent monitoring [of the situation] along the border between Russia and... MORE

The ceasefire agreement signed in Minsk, on September 5, by representatives of Ukraine, Russia and Moscow-backed rebels operating in Ukraine’s Donbas region (area including Luhansk and Donetsk provinces) seems to be holding. Yet, serious problems of implementation persist among the different parties to the somewhat... MORE

At the end of July, the governor of Adygea, Aslan Tkhakushinov, and the chief of the Kuban Cossack Forces, Nikolai Doluda, unexpectedly announced that the Cossacks would start conducting public safety patrols in the republic. The Kuban Cossack Forces are based in Krasnodar region and... MORE

In July 2014, when the war in eastern Ukraine was becoming increasingly intense and bitter, former president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili accused the new Georgian authorities of persecuting “the officers of the armed forces that came to Ukraine to consult the Ukrainians during the fighting.”... MORE

Ukraine has been “coerced to peace” by Russia after five months of hostilities, as Georgia was in 2008 after five days. Russia’s hybrid war methods, rehearsed already against Georgia and deployed fully against Ukraine, proved indecisive, until Russia escalated to the level of conventional war... MORE

Following deadly attacks in Beijing, Kunming and Urumqi over the last year, the Xinjiang government has intensified its efforts to regulate Uyghur religious activities. The provincial government has once again reinforced its ban on Ramadan fasting for Uyghur civil servants and students in 2014, as... MORE