Window on Eurasia: Destruction of Chechen Mosques Opens Way for Radicals

Publication Date: Monday, June 13, 2005

Approximately 300 of the 350 mosques in Chechnya have been destroyed or heavily damaged as the result of the Russian invasion of that republic. That devastation in turn has reduced the influence the traditionally tolerant mosque-based Chechen Islam and allowed radicals, including Wahhabis, to expand their influence there.  {read more}

Kremlin Urged to Emulate Patriarch in Honoring Stalin's Victims

Publication Date: Wednesday, May 4, 2005

Patriarch Aleksii's continuing efforts to honor those Orthodox Christians who died for their faith in Soviet times – people his Church refers to as "the new Russian martyrs"—has been recommended as a model for how the Russian government might honor the memory of all those who died in Soviet-era repressions.  {read more}

For Post-Soviet States, ‘Islamism’ is the ‘Zionism’ of Today

Publication Date: Wednesday, May 4, 2005

Moscow, following the lead of Tashkent, is now using the term “Islamism” against Muslims in much the same way that the Soviet regime used the term “Zionism” against Jews  – as a justification for official actions of whatever kind against Muslims it does not like, according to a leading Russian specialist on Islam.  {read more}

Window on Eurasia: Moscow’s Approach to Islam Seen Threatening Russia’s Future

Publication Date: Wednesday, May 4, 2005

Moscow’s confrontational approach toward the rapidly increasing Muslim population of the Russian Federation already has helped to generate Islamic fundamentalism there and if continued may ultimately threaten both that country’s territorial integrity and even the survival of Russian culture as such.   {read more}

Window on Eurasia: Russians Identify Their ‘Friends’ and ‘Enemies’

Publication Date: Wednesday, May 4, 2005

Window on Eurasia: Moscow in 2002 Secretly Authorized Police to Shoot Demonstrators

Publication Date: Tuesday, May 3, 2005

The Russian Interior Ministry in October 2002 issued an order, restricted „for official use only,” to militia offices around the country permitting them in undefined special circumstances to use lethal force against protesters even if the latter are unarmed and to confine suspects of various kinds in "filtration points”  {read more}

Window on Eurasia: Two Faces of Vladimir Putin

Publication Date: Tuesday, May 3, 2005

President Vladimir Putin’s colorful suggestion last week that if Riga continues to press its territorial demands against the Russian Federation, Moscow won’t give Latvia land but rather only „a dead donkey’s ears” attracted widespread attention not only in Moscow but internationally as well.   {read more}

Window on Eurasia: A NIMBY Protest at Moscow’s Three Faiths’ Square

Publication Date: Tuesday, May 3, 2005

Residents of Moscow’s Otradnoye district last week demonstrated against the planned construction of a Russian Orthodox Church on the only parkland near their homes, the latest of a series of „Not in My Back Yard” (NIMBY) protests in the Russian Federation against houses of worship of various faiths  {read more}

Window on Eurasia: A NIMBY Protest at Moscow’s Three Faiths’ Square

Publication Date: Tuesday, May 3, 2005

Residents of Moscow’s Otradnoye district last week demonstrated against the planned construction of a Russian Orthodox Church on the only parkland near their homes, the latest of a series of "Not in My Back Yard” (NIMBY) protests in the Russian Federation against houses of worship of various faiths.  {read more}

Window on Eurasia: In Russia, Even an Amnesty Can Be Cruel

Publication Date: 5/2/2005

Moscow granted amnesty to significantly fewer prisoners on the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe earlier this month than on any earlier occasion over the last 50 years, a reduction that has generated protests and predictions of greater unrest in Russia’s penal institutions and more crime on the streets as well.   {read more}