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Crisis Group's Russia & North Caucasus Project Director Ekaterina Sokirianskaia discusses the key findings our recently released report, Chechnya: The Inner Abroad, and the future potential for violence that stems from the precarious and asymmetrical relationship between Russia and its small border republic.

Jennifer Leonard, Crisis Group's Deputy Director in Washington DC, gave her testimony to the Helsinki Commission at the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, during the hearing Wanted: Foreign Fighters - The Escalating threat of Islamic State in Central Asia on 11 June 2015.

In this interview, Crisis Group’s Central Asia Project Director, Deirdre Tynan, speaks about the main findings of Crisis Group’s report, Syria Calling: Radicalisation in Central Asia, and explains that the Islamic State is fostering new links among radicals within the region.

The Islamic State (IS) is attracting Central Asians to Syria and fostering new links among radicals within the region. Unless the five Central Asian governments develop a credible, coordinated counter-action plan, including improved security measures but also social, political and economic reforms, growing radicalism will eventually pose a serious threat to their stability.

Growing tensions in the Ferghana Valley are exacerbated by disputes over shared water resources. To address this, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan urgently need to step back from using water or energy as a coercive tool and focus on reaching a series of modest, bilateral agreements, pending comprehensive resolution of this serious problem.

The recent bombings in the south of Russia could prove a precursor to more violence and instability in the Caucasus if Moscow does not abandon repression for political dialogue.