After banning imports of Georgian wine and some other food products last month (see EDM, March 28), Russian authorities now say the ban might extend to Georgia's famous "Borjomi" mineral water. Following an order from Gennady Onishchenko, Russian chief sanitary inspector, about 1 billion liters... MORE

Questions are flying about how the Georgian government operates two special bank accounts earmarked for developing the army and law-enforcement agencies. The funds were established shortly after the November 2003 Rose Revolution. Specifically, Georgian media mogul Badri Patarkatsishvili publicly charged the authorities with forcing Georgian... MORE

During a March 29 news conference at UN headquarters in New York, Revaz Adamia, Georgia's permanent representative to the United Nations, stated that Georgia would not oppose temporary UN governance for Abkhazia. His comment likely is a trial balloon to test the reaction of the... MORE

The rapid succession of crises this week in Georgia suggests that President Mikheil Saakashvili's government and its policies are at a critical juncture. On March 27 the government announced that it had prevented a nation-wide prison riot plotted by criminal kingpins. Minister of Justice Ghia... MORE

At Moscow's request, the United Nations Security Council excluded Georgia from the March 28 session that discussed prolonging the mandate of the United Nations Missions of Observers in Georgia. UNOMIG has been stationed in Abkhazia since 1994 as a passive, largely irrelevant bystander that never... MORE

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov's aide, Gennady Bukayev, told a joint session of North Ossetia's and South Ossetia's leaderships in Vladikavkaz on March 22 that Moscow has "decided in principle" to merge the two entities into a single one within Russia. The question is not... MORE

The winter now ending was almost certainly the last one during which Georgia had to face Gazprom's commercial blackmail and supply cutoffs. Within the coming months, Georgia will begin receiving Azerbaijani gas through the Shah Deniz-Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum (Turkey) transit pipeline and will also have an opportunity... MORE

Talk of possible independence for Kosovo, Serbia's separatist enclave, is markedly hampering the Georgian government's efforts to find a mutually acceptable model for the reintegration of its breakaway regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The Abkhaz separatists argue that the possible recognition of Kosovo's independence strengthens... MORE

Tensions are running high in Tsalka and Akhalkalaki, two regions of Georgia that are predominantly populated by ethnic Armenians. The latest problem began in Tsalka on March 9, when a trivial brawl at a restaurant between local Armenians and Georgians resulted in the death of... MORE

The Georgian Interior Ministry has announced that it has solved the killing of Sandro Girgvliani, the 28-year-old chief of the international relations division at the United Georgian Bank. On March 6, Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili told a news conference that four officers from the Interior... MORE