Latest Articles about Middle East

RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES FEAR ISLAMIC INSURGENCY IN VOLGA REGION

During the 2000 presidential campaign, Acting President Vladimir Putin explained to journalists why he had launched a ruthless military campaign in Chechnya. Referring to the Chechen rebels who had invaded the neighboring republic of Dagestan in summer 1999, Putin said they had entered Dagestan not... MORE

THE RUNAWAY TRAWLER AND RUSSIA’S WOUNDED PRIDE

Throughout last week, the Russian public was transfixed by the flight of the trawler Elektron, which defied orders from the Norwegian Coast Guard and fled to Murmansk. This TV "reality show" appeared to have a happy ending, since the crew received a warm welcome and... MORE

RUSSIA PRESSING FOR EXCLUSIONARY NAVAL GROUPING IN CASPIAN SEA

On October 24, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov briefed President Vladimir Putin on Lavrov's just-completed visit to Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. In the briefing's televised part, Lavrov reported on his effort to advance Moscow's proposal for a joint naval force of the Caspian Sea... MORE

GAZPROM’S ACQUISITION OF SIBNEFT SEEN AS DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD

On October 17, Gazprom's Board of Directors approved the acquisition of a controlling share in Sibneft, Russia's fifth-largest oil producer. The deal is a major victory for the Kremlin, which in recent years has built an ever-expanding state-controlled energy giant. With shipments of some 550... MORE

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RUSSIA-BELARUS UNION

On October 21, a draft version of the Constitutional Act of the Union State of Russia and Belarus was drawn up, based on two houses: a House of Representatives (103 members, including 28 from Belarus); and a House of the Union (36 senators and 36... MORE

Is al-Zawahiri’s Letter to al-Zarqawi a Fake?

On October 6, U.S. intelligence in Iraq revealed the existence of a 13-page letter, dated July 9, 2005, from al-Qaeda's number two Ayman al-Zawahiri and addressed to al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The message contained a number of interesting features, including a request... MORE

The Salafization of the Iraq Conflict

An interesting note posted on a jihadi web forum complements a recent analysis by U.S. Maj. Gen. Richard Zahner on the course of the insurgency in Iraq. In an interview published by The Washington Post on September 28, leading military intelligence officer Gen. Zahner neatly... MORE

KABARDINO-BALKARIA FACES LONG-TERM GUERRILLA WAR

Russian authorities are hailing their handling of the October 13 rebel attack on Nalchik, the capital of the Caucasian republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, as a "great success." Russian Minister of Internal Affairs Rashid Nurgaliev called the attack an "act of desperation" on the part of the... MORE

“MULTICULTURALISM” FORUM GATHERS MOSCOW’S SUPPORTERS

On October 15 in Moscow, officials from the presidential administration and other Kremlin-connected figures hosted a "Forum on Democracy and Multiculturalism in the Euro-East." The participants included representatives of Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Transnistria, and Karabakh, activists of pro-Russia parties and associations from several post-Soviet countries,... MORE