Today, August 19, marks 20 years since the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union. Although it could be argued that the USSR was already collapsing well before August 19, 1991, it’s also fair to say that the coup attempt by hardliners that took place on that day to preserve the Union ultimately hastened… [Read more]

Russia has arguably emerged as a key beneficiary of the current political crises in the Middle East and North Africa, mainly because events there have undermined the United States’ geopolitical position, sown divisions with NATO, and driven up oil prices. At the same time, the Japanese earthquake will probably increase Japan’s dependence on Russian energy… [Read more]

Monday’s twin bombings in the Moscow Metro demonstrate that the war in the North Caucasus is neither over nor just a conflict in a peripheral part of Russia. The Moscow attacks came just four months after the Moscow-St Petersburg railway was bombed, showing that Islamist terrorists are capable of carrying out their threats to take… [Read more]

The Circassians are shaping up to be another headache for the Kremlin in the North Caucasus. President Dmitri Medvedev recently described rising violence in the region as Russia’s biggest domestic problem. Not long after that, bombs exploded on the Moscow-St Petersburg Nevsky Express train, killing at least 25 people. Chechen separatist rebels were quick to… [Read more]

Russia’s annual Caucasus military exercises, which began on Monday, carry added significance this year, since Moscow last week suffered a blow to its regional strategy with the near-assassination of the President of Ingushetia, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov. A bit of background here: Ingushetia is an ethnic republic within Russia, tucked in between Chechnya to its east and… [Read more]