With its rapidly growing population of Muslim citizens and migrant workers Russia is claiming its role in the Islamic world. This volume analyzes the complexity of Russian Islam, the conflicts between the conservative clerical institutions and the grass-roots radicals as well as the highly visible Islamization of daily life in some Muslim-inhabited regions. Russia s experience with -native- Islam, whose roots go back to the Middle Ages, holds lessons for dealing with an evolving European Islam which is no longer based on immigration but is becoming a domestic phenomenon."

The modernization of the legal systems of the post-Soviet states is a paramount objective of the EU. Nevertheless, the transfer and the integration of norms of the acquis communautaire into the local legal systems have progressed at a different pace and within different scopes. This volume compares the legal systems of Russia and the 6 countries participating in the Eastern Partnership Program and assesses the status quo with special emphasis on business law.

Against the backdrop of its mineral wealth, Kazakhstan has been touted a Central Asian tiger state. In contrast to most other Central Asian countries, it was able to evade civil war and large-scale bloodshed and to assume a leadership position which won international recognition and respect. At the same time, the country could not evade the global financial crisis and its human rights record is far from being immaculate. This volume analyses the economic, political and social dynamic of modern Kazakhstan as seen by insiders and Western experts. Their opinions converge on the assumption that...