Commentary

When Russian leaders speak of security threats, they tend to mention NATO expansion and the U.S. missile defense program in Eastern Europe “But the unremitting violence in Russia’s North Caucasus region — a sliver of land sandwiched between the Black and Caspian seas and inhabited primarily by Muslims whose lands the Russian Empire conquered in…

The history of Sevastopol illuminates contemporary geopolitical tensions. “The city of Sevastopol lies at the end of a narrow waterway leading inland from the cool waters of the Black Sea. The majestic approach to the city—about three miles long—forms a watery nave leading to the inner sanctum, a deep harbor secreted well away from the…

The tiny village of Ushguli lies in an emerald-green valley in the far north of the Republic of Georgia. “Hemmed in by the snow-capped peaks of the Caucasus mountains, it’s a jumble of slate buildings flanking a glacier-fed stream. When I last visited, local elders showed me around the medieval stone towers that dot the…

Managing Moscow After the Georgia Crisis “On August 8, as world leaders gathered in Beijing to watch the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, Russian tanks rolled across the border into Georgia. The night before, Georgian forces had responded to attacks by secessionists in South Ossetia, an ethnic enclave in northern Georgia, by pummeling civilian…

But war could ignite further disputes in the region. “Following a series of provocative attacks in its secessionist region of South Ossetia late last week, Georgia launched an all-out attempt to reestablish control in the tiny enclave. Russia then intervened by dropping bombs on Georgia to protect the South Ossetians, halt the growing tide of…

Three months ago, the presidents of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria celebrated the creation of a new organization, the Community for Democracy and Human Rights. “The presidents promised to democratize their governments, protect ethnic minorities and bring peace and prosperity to their countries. But no head of state greeted the new organization, because no one…

A New Look at Russia’s Chechen Impasse “It is hard to think of a more likely pair of candidates for historical enmity than the Russian government and the Chechens. In the nineteenth century, Russia’s expansion into the Caucasus was slowed by the opposition of local mountain peoples, of whom the Chechens were among the most…

Georgia’s image in the West is belied by the reality on the ground. “It is an old culture squeezed into a tiny new state. That is the way visitors to post-Soviet Georgia often describe the place. Resting on the southern slopes of the Caucasus Mountains, hemmed in by the Black Sea, Turkey and its south…