On January 20, Abkhazia’s separatist government moved its so-called “border zone” with Russia almost seven miles (11 kilometers) deeper into Abkhazia. The measure is designed to widen the security area around the city of Sochi and tighten safety measures ahead of the Olympic Games (civil.ge,... MORE

Following the United National Movement’s complete hand-over of power to the Georgian Dream coalition, experts in Georgia have begun assessing the results of the decade of rule by former president Mikheil Saakashvili and his team of young reformers, who were attempting to institute deep changes... MORE

Moscow commentators have already denounced the Baltic countries for supposedly helping to organize the Ukrainian revolution (windowrussia.ruvr.ru/2014_01_24/Baltijskij-sled-na-kievskom-evromajdane-5748/), and they have condemned Estonia, along with Finland, for supposedly stirring up the Finno-Ugric nations of the Middle Volga region of the Russian Federation (apn.ru/opinions/article30878.htm). But Moscow and... MORE

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev highlighted the start-up of the largest European energy infrastructure project, involving: Shah Deniz Phase Two of field development and three dedicated pipelines to connect that Azerbaijani gas field with European Union territory. The... MORE

Full-scale investment approved at Shah Deniz, and supply contracts secured in Europe, make it possible for pipeline construction to proceed along the 3,500-kilometer Southern Gas Corridor, from Azerbaijan to European Union territory in Italy. The cumulative investments are estimated at $25 billion in the offshore... MORE

On December 11, 2013, Kazakhstan’s ambassador to Azerbaijan, Amangeldy Zhumabaev, told a press conference that his country was interested in transporting its goods along the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway currently under construction—particularly for transporting Kazakhstani oil and grain(Tengrinews, December 11, 2013).Zhumabaev said, “For us it is very... MORE

Georgia had a difficult year in 2013 by any standards. The conflict-ridden period of co-habitation between President Mikhail Saakashvili and Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili lasted until October 2013 and fundamentally destabilized the country’s fragile political and economic system. Co-habitation ended as Georgia elected Giorgi Margvelashvili... MORE

On December 18, 2013, the prosecution filed charges in a new case against Tbilisi mayor Gigi Ugulava, the last major holdout official from the opposition United National Movement (UNM). The prosecution now alleges, in essence, that Ugulava had misappropriated 48 million lari (some $25 million)... MORE

Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili, in office since November 2013, has heralded a resurgence in politically-motivated prosecutions against officials of the previous government and current opposition party, the United National Movement (UNM) (see EDM, November 22, 2013; January 7, 2014). Recent developments in several high-profile... MORE

Georgia’s Prosecutor-in-Chief Otar Partskhaladze had to resign on December 30, 2013, following disclosures that, in 2001–2002, he had served a sentence of one year and three months in a prison in Augsburg, Germany, for robbery and resisting the German police (Rezonansi cited by Interpressnews, December... MORE