Today in 1994, a journalist working for the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper was killed in his office after opening a booby-trapped briefcase. Dmitry Kholodov had been told it contained documents exposing corruption in the armed forces. Kholodov covered high-level corruption in the Russian military and had several times been to hot spots in the Caucasus. The [...]
Tag: Caucasus
October 17, 2011
June 29, 2011
Russia, France plan joint holiday resorts in turbulent North Caucasus
Russia and France are set to undertake an ambitious joint project to build resorts in the volatile North Caucasus region, which includes both Chechnya and Dagestan. North Caucasus Resorts and Caisse des Depots et Consignations holding signed an agreement on June 17 during the St. Petersburg Economic Forum. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and French leader [...]
June 29, 2011
Father Of Murdered Chechen Sisters Detained As Suspect
GROZNY, Russia — The father of two teenage girls shot dead on June 27 in northeastern Chechnya has been taken into custody as a suspect, RFE/RL’s North Caucasus Service reports. The bodies of the two girls, Zhamila, 14, and Milana, 19, were found in the yard of a private house in their home village of [...]
June 29, 2011
Security Officials Deny Umarov Is Hiding In Ingushetia
The Republic of Ingushetia Security Council categorically rejected on June 27 claims by security officials in neighboring Chechnya that self-proclaimed Caucasus Emirate leader Doku Umarov has returned to the Caucasus after undergoing medical treatment in Turkey and may be hiding in the mountainous Jeyrakh district of southern Ingushetia. Top Ingush security officials insisted on June [...]
June 28, 2011
Designer Eyes Plant Site in Ingushetia
Yevkurov and Yudashkin visiting the studio of Ingush designer Ahmed Shadiyev, who works with fish-skin leather. Prominent fashion designer Valentin Yudashkin is looking at Ingushetia, in the North Caucasus region, with hopes of starting a large-scale sewing factory, which would bring potential growth opportunities to the region’s economy. Ingush President Yunus-Bek Yevkurov met last week with Yudashkin, who was invited [...]
June 28, 2011
OIC top diplomats to discuss new name and emblem of organization
Participants of a session of foreign ministers of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) member states in Kazakhstan will discuss a new name and an emblem of the organization among the other issues. The top diplomats and other high-ranking officials are set to discuss policies and changes in the Middle East and Africa, the [...]
June 27, 2011
Russian Human Rights Group Says Its Activists Threatened
NIZHNY NOVGOROD/GROZNY, Russia — A Russian human rights organization says its activists in the North Caucasus republic of Chechnya and the city of Nizhny Novgorod are under threat, RFE/RL’s Russian Service reports. The Interregional Committee Against Torture’s (MKPP) regional director in Grozny, Supyan Baskhanov, and researcher Magomed Alamov, were reportedly summoned by police and warned [...]
June 27, 2011
June 26, 2011
Berlin Holds 2 in Caucasus Case
Berlin police have confirmed the arrest of two Russian citizens on suspicion of belonging to a North Caucasus terrorist group, news reports said. One unidentified suspect, aged 35, is accused of being a courier for Jamaat Shariat from September 2008 to last August, Interfax reported Friday, citing Rheinische Post. He purportedly transported documents from Germany to the Czech Republic that contained information about the recruitment of new members and purchases [...]
June 26, 2011
Armenia And Azerbaijan Blame Each Other For Peace Talks Failure
Talks on June 24 in the Russian Volga River city of Kazan were billed as crucial for trying to resolve the decades-long conflict surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh, the mountainous, mostly Armenian-populated region inside Azerbaijan. But Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenia’s Serzh Sarksyan failed to agree on a set of “basic principles” that could have marked the [...]
June 25, 2011
Russia Watches The Arab Spring
Russian policy toward Libya over the past few months has been a study in ambivalence. Earlier this month, Kremlin emissary Mikhail Margelov met with the Libyan opposition and declared them “serious and responsible people.” He also held talks with Qaddafi government officials about the dictator’s possible exit. Meanwhile, with striking inconsistency, Moscow dispatched chess champion [...]
June 24, 2011
Stakes High as Medvedev Seeks to Tackle Karabakh Quandary
The stakes are higher than ever before when President Dmitry Medvedev hosts talks about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia in Kazan on Friday. Judging from a recent war of words in the South Caucasus, the risk that a smoldering dispute over the Armenian enclave on Azeri territory will erupt into open hostilities has risen to new heights. Peace talks mediated by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, led [...]
June 24, 2011
Russian commandos hold training exercise in North Caucasus
Russian special operations units have held a training exercise in the North Caucasus to practice covert operations. The exercise culminated in an exhibition in the town of Aksai, under the Southern Military Command.One of the commando teams’ mock missions is to locate an enemy convoy and capture a prisoner before destroying it.
June 23, 2011
Kazan Summit: Time For Breakthrough In Nagorno-Karabakh Peace Process?
When the presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia meet this week, flanked by U.S. and French diplomats, they’ll attempt to budge a geopolitical bolder — and not let it fall back on them. That’s the metaphor of choice for Thomas de Waal, a South Caucasus analyst at Washington’s Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who has [...]