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 ...

TODAY: Merkel condemns activist murder; explosive violence in Caucasus; South Ossetians encouraged to disarm.  Medvedev merciless on Yushchenko; Venezuela and Russia tighten relations; military may scrap underperforming missile.  'Absolutely unacceptable' is how Chancellor Angela Merkel described the recent murders of NGO worker Zarema Sadulayeva and her husband  and instructed Medvedev that 'actions must also follow'.  Medvedev has ordered Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov to punish those responsible for the slayings.  The end of last week andthr beginning of this week are particularly bloody in the Caucasus, with over twenty people killed in different shootouts.  The New York Times reports that South Ossetian citizens, for whom 'a weapon is an essential part of daily life', are being ...

We are pretty impressed with the latest article from Sarah Mendelson of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) published by Foreign Policy.  It is exceptionally easy to whine and moan about conditions of injustice and human rights violations in Russia, while it is altogether another task to begin debating ideas as to how the international community can take concrete steps to help improve the situation.  Mendelson has not yet drank the kool-aid, and recognizes just how far away we really are from having either the Obama or Medvedev administrations actually care about what is happening in the North Caucasus, but it is rare to even see the hypothetical policies discussed.

Moreover, the North Caucasus embodies many of the

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TODAY: Putin promises to fortify Abkhazia with new base; Ukraine still smarting from Medvedev blow.  EU urges Russian leadership to work on safety of human rights advocates.  Lawyers in Russia beware - it is not just their clients who face prison terms.On a one-day visit to Abkhazia, Vladimir Putin assured the breakaway state that Russia would provide, 'systemic economic, political and, if needed, military support', worth between $350 million and $500 million (reports vary on the exact sum) over the next two years.  A significant amount will be allotted to 'the development of our military base and strengthening of Abkhazia's state border next year', the Prime Minister told reporters.  A new naval base which will ...

TODAY: Shock reverberates around Chechyna NGO worker murder; Kadryov reacts with attack on Estemirova.  NATO-Russia relations warming up; new kind of space race? Medvedev pulls no punches on Ukraine leadership. 'Merchant of Death' won't be extradited. Art attack. 'We thought that after Natalya's [Estermirova]death there would at least be a lull', says the deputy director of Human Rights Watch in Russia on the murder of Save the Generation director Zarema Sadulayeva and her husband.  The organization's former director was also murdered in 2005, the Washington Post reports.  'Is a death squad roaming Grozny under official sanction or are these horrible but unrelated killings?' asks the Times.  'Why aren't Western governments doing more to ...

Celestine Bohlen has an op/ed in the New York Times on the latest murders in Chechnya:

Now, the bodies of Zarema Sadulayeva and her husband, Alik Djabrailov, who worked with an organization that helped young people in Chechnya, have been discovered in the trunk of their car in Grozny, after the human rights group Memorial reported they had been kidnapped.

Why aren't Western governments doing more to hold Moscow accountable? Instead of letting the Kremlin off the hook, they could shame Russia into stopping the murders and jailing the killers. President Medvedev's outraged comments -- rare for a Kremlin leader -- may prove to be the crack in the omertà in the Putin-Kadyrov regime. He could be held to his promise of an uncompromising investigation into Ms. Estemirova's death.

In the past, the West has chosen to mute its criticism

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TODAY: Human rights activist and husband murdered; Medvedev has idea for military abroad; Georgia suggests the Kremlin seeking justification for incursion.  Ukraine-Russia ties on the rocks; reports to be submitted about bribery.    President Medvedev has submitted a bill to the State Duma that would allow for the deployment of Russian troops almost anywhere overseas.  A Georgian Foreign Ministry spokesman has said that the new law is an attempt 'to place the aggression perpetrated against Georgia last year within a legal framework'.  The Ministry also says that Russia has not honored the terms of the cease-fire agreement and called Medvedev's thanking of Sarkozy, who helped to broker the peace deal, 'a cynical move'.  The Washington Post reports ...