Sovereign Yakutia: Is Independence Possible for the Largest National Republic within the Russian Federation?

“Sakha” is the endonym of the Yakuts, a Turkic people whose ancestors migrated to what is now Yakutia in the 14th-15th centuries, partly displacing, partly assimilating the Evenks, who had moved into the area earlier and who spoke the language of the Tungus-Manchurian group, and the aboriginal Yukagir tribes. In the 17th century Russians entered Yakutia and after decades of armed struggle conquered it. In the 18th century, most Yakuts were nominally Christianized, resulting in the spread of Russian names and surnames among them.

The Influence of Anti-Semitic Ideology on Russia’s Legal Practices

The active synthesis of old communist ideology with far-right nationalist and anti-Semitic views in Russia has been going on for a long time, since Soviet era (for example, through the activities of the so-called unofficial nationalist and conservative “Russian Party” in the late Soviet period). We will consider only three examples of individuals from the Russian security services who played a significant role in promoting anti-Semitic ideology in the post-Soviet period, giving it a pseudo-intellectual character. The analysis of these three consecutive cases shows a gradual increase in the tolerance of the Russian state of open anti-Semitism on the part of influential figures with background in security services. This situation, as we will analyze in the second part of the paper, has also begun to influence legal practice in Russia.

Russian Buddhists and the war in Ukraine

There is no single structure uniting all Buddhist communities in Russia. Each of the three autonomous republics whose indigenous populations are traditionally Buddhist - Kalmykia, Tuva and Buryatia - has its own structure of Buddhist clergy.

Radicalized and Confused? The Russian Factor in the Latvian Electoral Politics

In 2022-2023, the current and future status of those residents of Latvia who hold Russian citizenship was hotly debated. Many residence permits were revoked, and some people who have not declared their intention to obtain a permanent residence permit or who have not passed the Latvian language exam are even getting ready to be forcefully removed from the territory of Latvia. These legislative measures have drawn further attention not only to the Russian citizens living in Latvia, but also to the ethnic Russians (or Russophones) who have Latvian citizenship and can participate directly in the Latvian political process. How has their electoral behaviour changed after February 2022 and which political forces can now claim to represent their interests?

Political Geometry of Armenia: Between Russia, Iran, and the EU

The Eurasian Economic Union declared 2024 the year of IT technologies. This sector has long been well-developed in Armenia, with Armenian IT companies maintaining a close cooperation with Silicon Valley. Thus, Iran will have a unique opportunity to develop its IT technologies, which seemed quite impossible not so long ago.

Kalmykia: Ethnic Separatism in the Lower Volga Region

Located in the very southeast of Europe, Kalmykia, a subject of the Russian Federation in the lower Volga region, has almost never been in the spotlight of the global community.

“The Middle Eastern Front” of the Russian-Ukrainian War: A View from Jerusalem

As the fighting in Gaza develops, Russia's position is becoming increasingly clear: Moscow almost openly supports Hamas as a satellite of Iran, Russia's closest partner in the Middle East. This significantly sets the current situation apart from the relatively balanced approach demonstrated by Moscow during, for instance, the IDF's Operation Protective Edge in 2014, and Russia’s subsequent policy of presenting itself as an “impartial mediator” between all participants in the Middle East conflict.

Anti-Semitiс Conservatives in the Russian Orthodox Church and Their Influence on State Ideology

Currently, Russia is in the process of forming a new state ideology, one that holds conservative values. The Russian Orthodox Church plays a significant role within this ideology. Consequently, the political significance of conservative circles within the Russian Orthodox Church concerning the Jewish question is becoming pronounced.

War In Ukraine and the Potential For Inter-Ethnic Conflict in Tuva

It is no secret that the Russian authorities mobilized mostly people from the provinces for the war in Ukraine in an effort to avoid growing discontent in the capital cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg. But a number of other population groups experience the feeling of disproportionate use of their human resources for military purposes.

BESA Post-Soviet Conflicts Research Digest No. 2 (November 2023)

In November 2023, the BESA Post-Soviet Conflict Research Program published a series of texts, half of which focus on the recent surge of anti-Semitism in the region of interest, and the rest on the recent dynamics of military supplies in the South Caucasus, Russian-Georgian relations, and the electoral behavior of Kazakhstan's Russian-speaking minority.