(2002 est. pop. 2.2 million). A southern Russian republic, Dagestan is bordered by Azerbaijan to the south, Georgia to the west, and the Caspian Sea to the east. Although Dagestan translates as "land of the mountains," the republic...

The Republic of Dagestan IPA: [dæɡɪˈstɑːn (IntEng), ˈdeɪɡəstæn (AmEng)] (Russian: Респу́блика Дагеста́н; Avar: Дагъистанлъул ДжумхIурият, Daɣistanłul Džumħuriyat), older spelling Daghestan, is a...

About 50 women occupied a central square in this provincial Russian capital on Friday, declaring a hunger strike and vowing not to leave until authorities tell them what happened to their missing children.Police tried to break up the protest, staged by a group calling itself...

More than 500 militants in Chechnya and other parts of Russia's troubled North Caucasus mountain region have surrendered to authorities as part of an amnesty that expired Monday, an official said.Authorities offered the amnesty last summer as part of efforts to restore peace and some...

Russian authorities arrested former world chess champion Garry Kasparov on Saturday and sentenced him to five days in prison after he helped lead a protest against President Vladimir Putin that ended in clashes with police.Kasparov, one of President Vladimir Putin's harshest critics, was charged with...

President Vladimir Putin on Thursday dismissed the president of the war-battered republic of Chechnya and named its widely feared prime minister Ramzan Kadyrov as acting president.The dismissal of Alu Alkhanov came after days of speculation that he was engaged in a power struggle with Kadyrov,...