Among others, Human Rights Watch, International Crisis Group, and Medicins Sans Frontiers have blamed Kyrgyz military and police forces for abusing the rights of ethnic Uzbeks in southern Kyrgyzstan in the aftermath of ethnic conflict. Cases of arbitrary detention, severe forms of torture and beating... MORE

The new First Deputy Defense Minister, Colonel-General Vladimir Popovkin (retired), who is in charge of rearming the Russian military, told journalists at the Farnborough international air show, in the UK, that spending on the procurement of new weapons will increase twofold. The authorities in Moscow... MORE

On July 15, a meeting between Dagestan’s Vice Prime Minister, Rizvan Kurbanov, and the relatives of a detained bus driver prevented a possible regional scandal –the blockade of the highway connecting Russia and Azerbaijan. Relatives of Usman Garisov, who was arrested on drug possession and... MORE

To hinder Iran’s uranium-enrichment program, the US has introduced sanctions that bar deliveries of gasoline and other refined oil products to Iran. The European Union is following the US lead in this case. Russia’s initial response is calculated to suggest that it does not consider... MORE

Viktor Ozerov, the Chairman of the Defense Committee of the Russian Federation Council, suggested during the recent operational-strategic exercise, Vostok 2010, that the key task is to provide the armed forces with “advanced weapons and military hardware.” Ozerov claimed that the first stage in Defense... MORE

On July 15, Moskovsky Komsomolets published a revealing report about a bitter conflict between the Russian interior ministry troops stationed in Chechnya and the Chechen Sever (“North”) battalion. Russian interior ministry sources told the newspaper that on February 4, 2010 during an operation against a... MORE

Attacks reported in Kabardino-Balkaria, Dagestan, Ingushetia and ChechnyaDespite Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin’s, announcement of a new plan to overhaul the economy of the North Caucasus, there was little sign of a let-up in insurgency related violence in the region this week. A large improvised... MORE

As Russia remains keen to protect its eastern frontiers, the country’s Far East Military District (MD) hosted major war-games. The drill was also aimed at assessing the effectiveness of the ongoing military reforms in Russia, and addressing some regional security issues. On June 29-July 8,... MORE

The French ambassador to Estonia, Frederic Billet, has asked the host country to look positively at the French sale of Mistral-class warships to Russia. The ambassador told Estonian media that the warship sale is meant to demonstrate the end of the Cold War with Russia;... MORE

This week, the new First Deputy Defense Minister, Colonel-General Vladimir Popovkin (Retired), described in an interview in the official government newspaper, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, his priorities in reforming the defense ministry and rearming Russia’s armed forces. Popovkin last month replaced Colonel-General Alexander Kolmakov, who was not... MORE