Daghestan
Chechnya far from peaceful and far less under Russian control
April 15, 2010By Paul Goble Tomorrow, the Chechen authorities will celebrate the first anniversary of the end of the Russian “counter-terrorist operation” (KTO) there not because Chechnya has become less violent during the intervening months –...
The rule of law, Russian-style: Guilty until proven innocent
April 14, 2010By Brian Whitmore with contributions of Elena Polyakovskaya, Murtazali Dugrichilov, and Andrei Babitsky At first, Aisha Makasharipova says she wasn't sure why she was being followed. A resident of Makhachkala, the capital of the Russia's North Caucasus...
Twin bombings kill 12 in Daghestan as Moscow mourns blast victims
March 31, 2010At least 12 people have been killed by twin bombs in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Daghestan, including a top police official. Nine police officers, including a local police chief, are among the dead in the blasts that rocked the town of Kizlyar...
Russia: Call for restoring minority language component in schools
February 23, 2010By Paul Goble Inspired by the UN’s declaration of February 21 as International Native Language Day, some 100 scholars and activists met over the weekend in Chuvashia and demanded that Moscow reverse course and restore the non-Russian language...
New Georgian War Could Destroy Russia
August 12, 2009By Paul Goble A new war with Georgia, something Russian officials and commentators are increasingly talking about, could have the same impact on the Russian Federation that the invasion of Afghanistan had on the USSR, according to Yuliya Latynina,...
More than 300 Killed in North Caucasus Conflict So Far in 2009
July 06, 2009By Paul Goble Conflicts in Russia’s North Caucasus claimed more than 300 deaths during the first half of 2009, roughly half of whom were identified as militants, just under a third siloviki, and a fifth peaceful civilians, figures that...
Russia Would Be Better Off Without Non-Russian Areas
July 01, 2009By Paul Goble In recent statements, some of which eerily recall writer Valentin Rasputin’s 1989 proposal that Russia should leave the Soviet Union, some Russian nationalists are now arguing that their nation both as a people and a state would...
A New and More Dangerous ‘Red Belt’ Emerges in Russia
June 20, 2009By Paul Goble A new “red belt” is emerging in Russia, the result of the coming together of economic problems, political difficulties between Moscow and the regions, and ethnic challenges to central control, according to a new map of social...
Foreign Role in North Caucasus Far Smaller than Medvedev Implied
June 15, 2009By Paul Goble President Dmitry Medvedev’s statement in Daghestan last week that foreign forces are behind anti-Russian movements there is leading some Russian commentators to overstate the role of such forces there and thus to misunderstand the...
Daghestan Now Has 50 ‘Permanent Representations’ across CIS
May 26, 2009By Paul Goble Daghestan now has 50 “permanent representations” in Russian regions and CIS countries to help promote trade and to support the rights and interests of Daghestanis living there, the latest in a remarkable evolution of...