This is a legacy website featuring a collection of work by the Carnegie Endowment’s global network of scholars on topics including Russia, Ukraine, Eurasia, and the post-Soviet states. This site is a product of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace based in Washington, D.C. For more recent work by Carnegie scholars in this field, please visit Carnegie Politika.
Islam may not have been the primary motivation behind the Tsarnaev brothers’ bombing in Boston; what they wanted was to make headlines.
Chechnya is outwardly much more quiet than in previous years, but a low-level Islamist insurgency continues in and around the region that takes dozens of lives each year.
If proven to be part of a Caucasian-based jihad, the Boston Marathon bombings would be the first time Islamist actions from that region had been perpetrated against the United States.
The Boston Marathon bombing offers evidence of the importance of Moscow and Washington sharing intelligence on security issues.
It is important not to assume there is a link between the Tsarnaev brothers and the motivations behind Chechen separatist or Islamist groups.
There is little Russia could have done to help the United States prevent the Boston bombings, but Washington and Moscow should restart and enhance international antiterrorist cooperation.
The Russian government’s ability to resolve a host of problems in its preparations for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games will be a decisive factor in shaping its reputation at home and abroad.
For the foreseeable future, the Commonwealth of Independent States should remain Russia’s significant foreign policy priority. Its policies toward individual CIS countries will be shaped by Russian leaders’ practical interests and needs, and also by the changing environment.
Joseph Stalin, the Soviet leader responsible for the deaths of millions, still commands worryingly high levels of admiration in some post-Soviet countries.
Despite the support by some political parties in Europe, human rights organizations have been unable to prevent high-profile events taking place in autocratic countries.