The Karategin (literally “black mountains”) Valley—also called Rasht Valley, located in the West-Central part of the country—is a very special region of Tajikistan. During the 1992–1997 Tajikistan Civil War, the Karategin was a stronghold for the Islamic opposition and became the site of numerous battles... MORE

August ended with fresh casualties among both civilians and law enforcement personnel in Ingushetia. According to independent estimates, there were 44 casualties in Ingushetia in August—19 killed and 25 injured. Of the 19 people killed, nine were law enforcement officers, seven were rebels and three... MORE

Kazakhstan has experienced a rise in militant activity carried out by Salafist groups on its territory and periphery since late 2011. The Salafists’ rejection of secularism and other types of Islam and their call for a return to the ways of the Salaf, or pious... MORE

Two recent events seem to have shaken the Haqqani Network to its core—the death of Badruddin Haqqani and the group’s designation as a “Foreign Terrorist Organization” (FTO) by the United States. According to a Pakistani journalist based in the Tribal Areas, the death of Badruddin... MORE

On September 6, the Memorial human rights organization unveiled an extensive overview of the human rights situation in Dagestan. At the Moscow International Book Fair, Memorial presented a book titled “The New Course of Magomedov?” which was compiled from extensive data collected by activists in... MORE

Kazakhstan is hosting the international peacekeeping exercise Steppe Eagle 2012, amidst growing speculation that the country plans to deploy a company of peacekeepers abroad. Astana ultimately resisted the West’s efforts to persuade the country to send peacekeepers to Afghanistan, but is now turning to consider... MORE

At time when leaders in China and Japan were expecting to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the normalization of relations between the two states with a series of celebrations across both countries, instead leaders in both states are working to contain the latest nationalist flare-ups... MORE

The late patriarch Deng Xiaoping said famously about U.S.-China relations: “There are limits as to how good—or how bad—Sino-U.S. ties can become.” Can the same be said for China and Japan? While relations between the two most powerful Asian countries have apparently been heading toward... MORE

Zerkalo Nedeli, an influential Ukrainian weekly, has accused the country’s Defense Minister Dmytro Salamatin of misinforming President Viktor Yanukovych over a contract to deliver armored personnel carriers to Iraq. Salamatin reportedly lied when he wrote to Yanukovych last month, citing Iraq’s ambassador to Kyiv that... MORE

ANGOLA Operation Shows China Testing Overseas Security Role On August 25, officials from the Chinese Ministry of Public Security (MPS) escorted 37 suspects back to China for violent crimes—including human trafficking, kidnapping, robbery and blackmail—against Chinese émigrés in Angola. The MPS made the arrests in... MORE