Today's headlines speak of the bleak but sadly not unfamiliar news of another human rights activist being murdered in the North Caucasus.  On Sunday, businessman and rights defender Maksharip Aushev was killed when 60 rounds of bullets were sprayed into his car along a highway in the province of Kabardino-Balkaria.  Aushev is the third human rights activist to be murdered in the trouble spot in a little over three months, following the murder of Memorial's stalwart Natalya Estemirova in July and childrens' charity officer Zarema Sadulayeva and her husband in August. The Guardian adumbrates Aushev's trajectory into the sphere of human rights advocacy, prompted by the experience of his own son and nephew being kidnapped, followed by ...

Kafkaesque. The former Russian oil tycoon, who stood up to Putin, is back before his judges. Here is the story. [The following is a translation of an article published in the French publication Le Point.]

Le Point, October 15, 2009

Accused Khodorkovsky, Stand Up!

From our special envoy Marc Nexon

He stands up, opens his spiral notebook and pulls out 3 sheets of paper he has scribbled with his fine handwriting. He pats the microphone installed in his glass cage. "Can you hear me?" he asks, addressing the judge. Then he starts with a clear voice: "I know that in his eyes I embody absolute evil, but I would like to ask quietly a few questions to the witness of the prosecution..."

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One criticism that you not likely to hear about the Russian government is its lack of enthusiastic applications of new media technologies.  The Prime Minister posts his topless photos at a much more timely rate that the White House page is updated, the President has impressive blogs and video podcasts, they've got a school of bloggers to push the official government line and drown out online dissent, and now, Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's envoy to NATO, has got himself a pretty robust Twitter feed in English and Russian going on right here.This is particularly fun stuff to read, and not just because Rogozin's essential professional function is to be like a Russian version of John Bolton before ...

Right when Dmitry Medvedev probably feels like he is riding high, earning the first major concession from the United States toward Russia in more than a decade with the withdrawal of the missile plan, acting the role of a democrat president at the UN and G20, and riding an equities boom, there just had to be something to come along and undermine.  That something is named Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen leader most recently seen in the news following the long series of unsolved human rights murders.Chechnya and the North Caucasus in general has been falling apart at a rapid rate over the past number of months, so one could understand that Kadyrov may be looking for a useful distraction or excuse for an expansion of state repression.  Why not default to the time honored tradition?"We're ...

TODAY: EU chief has faith that Russia will not stand in the way of sanctions against Iran; US reproaches Russia on human rights; hope for WTO bid?  Yushchenko suggests NATO bid would receive popular backing; ethnic haters charged; new accusation for Berezovsky; chess matches and political clashes. Drama at the Bolshoi. EU foreign policy head Javier Solana has said that he does not believe that China and Russia will oppose new sanctions against Iran.  US diplomat Douglas Griffiths has told the UN Human Rights Council that 'in Russia we are concerned about killings with impunity of human rights defenders and journalists in the North Caucasus'.  First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov has said that Russia ...

The French think tank IFRI has published a 22-page report on the Eastern Partnership initiative (EaP) and Georgia which finds that significant problems and obstacles exist for the establishment of a successful neighborhood policy.  We still think the EU has the best chance of working on conflict resolution in the Caucasus, but there appears to be a lack of political will to do the heavy lifting.

The EU's markedly more visible involvement in Georgia allows a greater understanding of the wide range of activities that it was undertaking in the lead up to the 2008 war. With the introduction of the EaP in May 2009, the EU has an opportunity to breathe new life into its relations with the countries to its East rather than just "showing commitment" to them. The EaP must be used to its fullest extent by all ...

Here goes a little piece from openDemocracy about Russia's triple-pronged security mess, with confrontations broiling from Ukraine to Georgia to the North Caucasus.  The authors assume that the leadership is playing with fire in terms of dealing with all three.

It will be difficult to help Russia deal more effectively with its own problems in the North Caucasus.  Russia needs new political, economic, and social strategies to address underlying problems.  In addressing violence in the North Caucasus, heads of state agreed in the 1999 OSCE Summit Declaration that it was "important to alleviate the hardships of the civilian population" and that a "political solution is essential."  These priorities are just as compelling today.  Europe and the US should exercise leadership in the EU and G20 meetings on aid to NGO's and humanitarian aid in the North Caucasus.

These actions,

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Russia may raise electricity prices more than the 5% planned following the Sayano-Shushenskaya power station disaster, says Reuters.  Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has stated that the country's gas problems with Russia have been almost entirely resolved.  According to the Moscow Times, Putin will accept Ukraine only purchasing as much gas as the country can afford.  Gazprom has confirmed that talks are underway with Japan regarding a gas link to the Far East.  To get up to speed on nuclear projects in central, eastern and southeastern Europe, look here.  The crisis has affected a number of projects in that region.  Vladimir Putin has apparently told Bulgarian counterpart Boyko Borissov that Bulgaria needs to make a decision on the Burgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline.  Rosneft reported profits of $1.61 billion for the second-quarter of 2009, falling beneath the ...

Boris Nemtsov has an aggressive piece running in the Wall Street Journal today criticizing the Russian government's handling of the escalating violence in the North Caucasus.  Agree with him or not, he is pointing at a very important problem which has the potential to become much larger.One of the biggest myths perpetrated by Vladimir Putin's propaganda machine is that during his 10-year rule over Russia, the former president and current prime minister succeeded in "pacifying" the North Caucasus. Nothing could be further from the truth. What we are witnessing today is the start of the third Caucasus war in 15 years, following the two Chechen wars of 1994 and 1999.  (...)

Another important reason for the Kremlin's Caucasus failure is the elimination of democratic procedures. "Elections" in which Mr. Putin and his party receive 100% of the vote on a 100% turnout in Chechnya, Ingushetia and

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From Masha Lipman in the Washington Post:

The upsurge of violence in North Caucasus is a consequence of outrageous abuses of authority by local leaders and the Kremlin's irresponsible policies. Politically, the Russian government has no worries; it has no political opposition to challenge its policies, and people at large wouldn't hold the Kremlin to account for the rising violence in North Caucasus. As long as the violence stays away from their homes, they pay little if any attention to developments in this restive region. In a sense, many Russians don't regard North Caucasus as part of their country, and it is not uncommon to hear people say on radio shows or in private conversations that the Caucasus republics should be let go.

That, of course, is not a solution. First, the North Caucasus republics are not seeking independence. Why would they, if allocations from the Russian budget sustain them? And, second, their

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