Early this week Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili sent a formal letter to Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev calling upon him to be more tolerant toward the opposition's demands and offered to personally mediate in negotiations with the opposition forces. Georgian emissaries have reportedly worked with all... MORE

Last week the Georgian and the Greek-Armenian communities clashed in Tsalka, a multi-ethnic district in Georgia's southern Kvemo Kartli region. The confrontation broke out after a group of burglars assaulted the Kaloerovs, an ethnic Greek couple in Tsalka's village of Avralo on March 16. The... MORE

Sergei Bagapsh, the self-styled president of Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia, arrived in Moscow on March 11. The visit, originally scheduled for March 3, was postponed as many as three times. The trip was reportedly rescheduled due to Bagapsh's 56th birthday, holidays in Moscow, persisting... MORE

The Georgian Parliament passed a resolution on March 10 that requires Russia unconditionally to withdraw its forces from Georgia no later than January 1, 2006 -- unless Moscow reaches agreement with Tbilisi before May 15, 2005, on a "reasonable timeframe" for the troop withdrawal (see... MORE

On March 10, the Georgian parliament unanimously (158-0) approved a resolution that orders Moscow to withdraw Russian bases from Georgia no later than January 1, 2006. Analysts have already predicted that the landmark resolution will be yet another irritant in Georgia's prickly relationship with Russia.... MORE

While a proposal to sell Georgian gas trunk lines to the Russian gas giant Gazprom remains on Tbilisi's agenda, the Georgian government has made a different move that would increase Russian control over the Georgian electricity system. On March 5, Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli... MORE

A flurry of statements by Georgian officials in recent days suggests that Tbilisi is once again considering the high-risk proposition of selling the country's gas transportation system to Russia's monopoly Gazprom. The idea is deeply controversial in Georgia's decision-making circles. The individuals pushing for such... MORE

Russia's military and political pressures on Georgia, Moldova, and the Baltic states figured prominently in discussions on the eve and the sidelines of the Bush-Putin summit in Bratislava, but there was no indication that U.S. President George W. Bush raised those issues in his meeting... MORE

Last week two events highlighted the unstable situation in the Georgian armed forces. The army's supreme command shuffled its top personnel yet again and "Justice and Freedom," a military watchdog group, released a report criticizing the government's performance in the field of defense from January... MORE