By Murad Batal Al-Shishani (12/22/2010 issue of the CACI Analyst)

On November 9, the Kavkaz-Tsentr website posted a video entitled “Address of Chechens Living Abroad to Organizers of fitnaht al-mujahedin”, showing unidentified people, one of whom was speaking in Chechen. He delivered a message connected to the recent split among Chechen rebels and the renunciation of the bayat (oaths of allegiance) to North Caucasus rebel leader Doku Umarov by rebel leaders in Chechnya.

By Richard Weitz (12/22/2010 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Russia’s growing alienation and isolation from Europe’s NATO-dominated security order was evident when President Dmitry Medvedev delivered a speech in June 2008 proposing a restructuring of Europe’s security architecture. In place of “a bloc politics approach that continues by inertia,” the Russian President raised the idea of convening a summit of European governments to draft a new legally binding European security treaty that would establish equal and indivisible security throughout the continent. At the recently completed Astana OSCE summit, Medvedev acknowledged that his efforts to restructure Europe’s security order had failed.

By Stephen Blank (9/1/2010 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Many factors have been cited for Russia’s failure to intervene in the rioting in southern Kyrgyzstan. An overlooked factor appears to be the strong opposition from, and coordination between, Tashkent and Beijing.