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.
While Russian military reform, aimed at creating a modern military institution, has proven relatively successful, the Putin leadership’s strategic thinking remains outdated.
Inter-religious and interethnic relations are rapidly deteriorating in Russia, but the authorities lack the programs to cope with them, the mechanisms to create new programs, and the realization that both are urgently needed.
Politicization and internal disengagement have increased tension within both Russian Orthodoxy and Islam in Russia, and secular and religious authorities are consciously facilitating these societal divisions in an effort to strengthen their positions.
The recent terrorist attack in Tatarstan has put an end to the illusion that this Russian region, unlike the North Caucasus, will be able to avoid the radicalization of Islam.
The Russian authorities should understand that the radical Islamists are not bandits but rather religious and political opposition. The Kremlin should work to open dialogue between the Muslim community and the state, as well as the inter-Islamic dialogue between the advocates of traditional Islam and their opponents.
Turkey is attempting to position itself as a more than a regional power, with activity in all its neighboring regions. It remains to be seen, however, whether Turkey has enough forces to be present in so many places.
To forge an effective partnership with Moscow, the EU must first understand Russia’s political, economic, and security designs, and how best to deal with another round of Putin.
Each of the three previous four-year presidential terms in Russia—two of Vladimir Putin and one Dmitry Medvedev’s—has been marked by a different policy toward the West, and the new Putin’s six-year period opening in 2012 is likely to follow that pattern.
Russia's Muslim community is divided, with much of its clergy fighting over leadership. This divide suits the Kremlin, which has no interest in a unified or strong Muslim minority.
The voting results of the South Ossetian presidential election reflect the maturity of society in this republic.