Fatima Tlis
Fatima Tlisova is a Human Rights Fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Tlisova is an independent journalist from the North Caucasus. She has worked for ten years as a correspondent for a number of independent Russian papers as wells and international media, including the Associated Press, “Novaya Gazeta”, RFE/RL, BBC and has also served as chief of the North Caucasian bureau of the Russian news agency Regnum. Fatima is a regular writer for IWPR (London) and for the Jamestown Foundation (Washington DC). In her reports and analyses Tlisova has covered how Russian official policy has undermined human rights and exacerbated problems of the North Caucasus region. Fatima’s work has receiving the Rory Peck award and the German Zeit-Stiftung award for her professional and brave reporting on the conflict in the North Caucasus and her efforts to help fellow journalists.
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Articles by Fatima Tlis
The Kremlin’s Octopus of International Propaganda—Obvious and Hidden Tentacles
Russia is rapidly expanding its global propaganda empire, and while some of its mouth pieces and media outlets are broadly recognized as closely tied to or owned by the Kremlin,...
Former Editor-in-Chief of Lenta.ru Launches New Media Project From Latvia
Galina Timchenko’s new Russian-language news media project, the website Medusa (medusa.io), was launched on October 20, in Riga, Latvia. Timchenko’s project became an intriguing topic in the Russian press after...
Moscow Continues Campaign to Suppress Circassian National Aspirations
On December 22, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s representative in southern Russia, Vladimir Ustinov, gave his annual speech on growing security threats in the North Caucasus, addressed to the Federation Council...
Moscow Uses Commission on “Historical Falsification” to Deny Circassian Rights
“The main goal of the ‘Special Presidential Commission against falsifications of the history of the Russian Federation causing harm to Russian national interests’ is to identify and fight against conscious,...
Moscow Uses Commission on “Historical Falsification” to Deny Circassian Rights
“The main goal of the ‘Special Presidential Commission against falsifications of the history of the Russian Federation causing harm to Russian national interests’ is to identify and fight against conscious,...
Moscow Continues Campaign to Suppress Circassian National Aspirations
On December 22, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s representative in southern Russia, Vladimir Ustinov, gave his annual speech on growing security threats in the North Caucasus, addressed to the Federation Council...
Circassian Opposition to the Kremlin Mounts in the Northwest Caucasus
The authorities and opposition movements in the Circassian republics of the northwestern Caucasus have returned to negotiations after a series of protest demonstrations and violent attacks targeting the leaders of...
Support for Circassian Nationalism Grows in the North Caucasus
Rising tensions in Kabardino-Balkaria (KBR) involving two neighbouring republics Karachaevo-Cherkessia (KChR) and Adygeya (EDM, November 25) have led to violence. On December 1, the headquarters of the “Khasa” Circassian in...
Circassians in Karachaevo-Cherkessia Plan Mass Protest
Circassians in the Republic of Karachaevo-Cherkessia have called for a national demonstration to protest against the denial of their civil, political and ethnic rights. Two demonstrations are set to take...
Moscow Excises “Separatist” Articles from Constitutions of Circassian Republics
The parliament of the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria has ratified changes in the republican constitution at the request of the Russian Prosecutor-General. Final agreement was reached on November 10 after prolonged...
The Role of the Russian Orthodox Church in the North Caucasus
On August 15 the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS reported that "unknown suspects desecrated the Orthodox holy cross in the mountains of Adygeya." The report came from Maikop the capital city...
Youth Activists Unravel Kremlin Status-Quo in the Circassian Heartland: “The Wind of Freedom is Approaching!”
Is the conflict between youth and elders in the Circassian national movements just a generational dispute or is it the beginning of a revolutionary change in the Circassian regions of...
Exclusive Interview with Anzor Astemirov, March 2009
Journalist Fatima Tlisova recently conducted an interview with Anzor Astemirov, who was the leader of Islamic militants in Kabardino-Balkaria and more recently became had of the Sharia courts for the...
Markelov Assassination Tied to Release of Budanov?
Mountains of flowers covering fresh bloodstains have become a familiar sign of the times in Moscow. A memorial consisting of bouquets and burning candles was spontaneously erected by people on...
Is Krymshamkhalov’s Murder a Political Assassination?
In Karachay-Cherkessia, the unstable republic in Russia’s North Caucasus with a population of less than 450,000, the political year and preparations for elections to the local parliament began with a...
Circassian Congress Calls for Unification of Circassian Republics in North Caucasus
An extraordinary congress of Circassian people took place on Sunday, November 23, in Cherkessk, the capital of the North Caucasus republic of Karachaevo-Cherkessia. The congress date had been announced and...
Events in Ingushetia Spin Out of Moscow’s Control
The Kremlin does not control Ingushetia and that is why control of the republic may be transferred to Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov. Yet this sort of “Chechenization” will only further...
Moscow’s Favoritism Towards Cossacks Mocks Circassian History
On July 19, the Circassian republic of Adygea marked the 90th anniversary of the 131st motorized rifle brigade of Cossacks located in Maykop, the region’s capital. Although this Cossack brigade...
Kremlin Backing of Cossacks Heightens Tensions in the North Caucasus
Moscow is boosting its programs to support Cossack communities in the Caucasus. The Russian president’s advisor for Cossack affairs, General Gennady Troshev, recently toured the republics of the North Caucasus...
What’s Behind Putin’s Plan for a Botlikh-Georgia Highway?
Translated from the Avar language, Botlikh means “a place where the army stopped.” On the Kremlin’s initiative, this small village in the Dagestani mountains and home to 10,397 ethnic Avars...
Karachaevo-Cherkessia: A Small War with Big Repercussions
During the past few months, the Karachaevo-Cherkessia Republic (KCR) has remained below the mass media’s radar. In the meantime, the events unfolding in the republic illustrate a growing confrontation between...
Astemirov Strikes Back: Background and Implications of the Kyarov Assassination in Kabardino-Balkaria
Before his assassination in Nalchik last Saturday (see Eurasia Daily Monitor, January 14), Colonel Anatoly Kyarov was in charge of a special unit that targeted the leader of the Kabardino-Balkarian...
Understanding the Roots of the Conflict in Ingushetia
Ingushetia today is quite clearly a republic at war. First of all, it has been declared a counter-terrorist operation zone - an ominous sign, given that both Chechen wars are...
Kremlin Backed Anniversary in Kabardino-Balkaria Fails to Deter Insurgents
During the past week, the republic of Kabardino-Balkaria has been in the Russian news for three separate and important reasons. First, there has been a marked increase in the activity...
The Challenges of the Sochi Olympics and Russia’s Circassian Problem
Although it has been a month since the Russian city of Sochi was awarded the 2014 Winter Olympics, the euphoria generated by this event in Russia has yet to subside....
Who’s Who in the KBR Jamaat
Yesterday’s report about the killing of Ruslan Gidzhiev, a person that the Kremlin is portraying to the Western media as the "spiritual leader of the group Yarmuk," once again highlights...