An unexpected breakthrough emerged in the stalled investigations of several mysterious international murders of Chechens with ties to the Caucasus Emirate in 2008–2012. The news concerns a person who simultaneously worked for the security services of several countries—Russia, Georgia and Turkey.  A kind of James... MORE

The sudden meltdown of President Viktor Yanukovych’s regime in Kyiv last week has surprised the Kremlin. On Wednesday February 19, during the height of the bloodbath in Kyiv, when dozens of people were shot dead and hundreds wounded, the Kremlin-financed news website Vzglad was calling... MORE

In 1995, Turkmenistan proclaimed a policy of international diplomatic neutrality, and on December 12 of that year, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted the Resolution on the Permanent Neutrality of Turkmenistan, with 25 countries co-sponsoring the resolution (United Nations General Assembly, January 11, 1996).Despite... MORE

Russian views concerning various global security crises and political revolutions in recent years differ widely from the views of their counterparts in Europe or the United States, ranging from the Arab Spring to recent events in Ukraine. Yet such differences also exist—though by no means... MORE

Despite the mounting ferocity of Sino-Japanese rhetoric, China’s partner Russia is moving forward on normalizing its ties with Japan. Indeed, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at Sochi on February 8, and Putin has accepted an invitation to visit Tokyo... MORE

Since the start of the year, the security services have been waging a powerful counter-insurgency campaign in Kabardino-Balkaria and Dagestan. There are reports about the killing of a militant or a group of militants from these republics practically every week (https://u-f.ru/News/u316/2014/01/31/669068).Despite this pressure, the rebel... MORE

Executive SummaryTo date, the besieged Ukrainian government has largely avoided deploying the Armed Forces against the Maidan protesters, even when the situation has devolved into serious street violence with the police. The Ukrainian military itself, on the other hand, has made it a point to... MORE

The 17th round of India-China Special Representative Talks (SR Talks) on boundary disputes between the two countries concluded in New Delhi on February 11. China was represented by State Councilor Yang Jiechi, and India by National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon. An anodyne press release issued... MORE

According to the leadership of Russia’s Ministry of Defense, combat training is intensifying in the Armed Forces, and in particular this trend is most notable in the Southern Military District (MD). It appears that changes to combat training and increases in the numbers of contract... 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