Carnegie Moscow Center
When the Middle East Quartet meets in Moscow, they will most likely devote their time to looking for ways to influence the parties involved rather than trying to settle the actual conflict.
Magomedov, the new president of Dagestan, is a compromise figure selected to help calm the region. There is every chance that he could be a success for the Kremlin, with the apparent support of Dagestan’s parliament.
A year after his enthronement, Patriarch Kirill has re-energized the Russian Orthodox Church, shored up his own support base, and laid the foundations for a new – if politically controversial – role for the Church in state and society.
The Armenia-Azerbaijan-Russia presidential summit in Sochi is unlikely to change the situation with Karabakh, but may reignite the stagnated negotiation process. Russian involvement is key to its presence in the Caucasus.
The imminent departure of Mintimer Shaimiev as president of Tatarstan may mark the beginning of the end for the aging titans of Russian regional politics, but it will bring little if any real change to one of Russia’s most important ethnic republics.
As the war in Afghanistan begins to enter a new phase, it is important to reexamine some of the premises of U.S. policy in the Central Asian region and to consider whether the conditions in the region have changed in the last decade.
While the U.S.-led NATO operations in Afghanistan have resulted in somewhat enhanced security capacity for Central Asian countries, their long-term security challenges seem to be increasing, given the current situation in Afghanistan and the growing instability of Pakistan.
A suicide bomb attack that killed 19 people and wounded at least 58 in Ingushetia was likely intended as retaliation for President Yevkurov’s determination to intensify his fight against Islamic extremists.
Questions remain whether Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov ordered the recent murders of human rights activists in Chechnya, or whether the crimes were an attempt by his opponents to discredit his leadership.
The recent spike in violence in the North Caucasus undermines the Kremlin's claim that its anti-terrorism policies in the region are succeeding.