

The North Caucasus looks and feels more and more like Russia’s neighbor than a constituent part of the state. As the people in the region have become disappointed in local leaders and the Kremlin, many of them turn to Islam as their last hope to achieve structure and peace.

Alexey Malashenko and Johannes Regenbrecht gave a comparative assessment of the European and Russian strategies in Central Asia.

Although it is South Ossetia and Abkhazia that have been receiving most of the world’s attention this fall, Russia’s own north Caucasus region should not be ignored. In fact, Carnegie’s Alexey Malashenko predicts that this area of Russia is likely to experience serious turbulence in the coming year.