On April 10, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev paid a one-day official visit to Kazakhstan (President.az, April 10). This visit took place about six months after the first official visit of Kazakhstani President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev as the head of state to Azerbaijan in August 2022 (The... MORE

On April 5, United States Secretary of State Anthony Blinken issued a statement announcing that the US State Department has publicly sanctioned Georgian judges Mikheil Chinchaladze, Levan Murusidze, Irakli Shengelia and Valerian Tsertsvadze under Section 7031(c) of the visa restriction authority. “These individuals abused their... MORE

On March 30, Azerbaijan officially inaugurated its first embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel, after avoiding the move for three decades. Although the decision highlighted the importance of Azerbaijani-Israeli relations, it quickly became a catalyst behind the renewed war of words between Iran and Azerbaijan (Themedialine.org,... MORE

On March 20, at a joint press conference following his meeting with Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan in Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the West of attempting to undermine Russia efforts to develop the “3+3” cooperation framework in the South Caucasus (YouTube, March... MORE

Moscow had counted on the expansion of its north-south trade via the Caspian Sea to help end-run Western sanctions (Casp-geo.ru, August 3, 2022); however, the sanctions regime, which led the Russian government to seek to expand the capacity of this route in the first place,... MORE

Russian President Vladimir Putin rose to power by means of successfully carrying out a war against Chechnya. Much of his reputation to this day rests on the view of many Russians that he has suppressed secessionist violence in the North Caucasus. This view has gained... MORE

On March 25, the head of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II, in a letter to the spiritual head of global Christian Orthodoxy, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, called for defusing tensions in the Ukrainian Orthodox community. The letter stated: “The government of Ukraine has... MORE

The Iranian ambassador to Armenia, Abbas Badakhshan Zohouri, announced on the sidelines of the “Armenia-Iran Relations in Context of Common Interests” forum, which was held on February 10, that “Iran does not oppose the deployment of a civilian EU [European Union] monitoring mission to the... MORE

The Cossacks present broader and more serious challenges to the Kremlin than perhaps any other ethnic or regional group in the Russian Federation, challenges that increasingly affect the country as a whole. The Vladimir Putin regime recognizes this reality and has been taking various steps... MORE

On March 1, the Azerbaijani authorities held a meeting with the representatives of the Armenian community of Karabakh at the headquarters of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Khojaly district in Azerbaijan. Russian Major General Andrey Volkov, commander of the peacekeeping unit, mediated the session (Trend.az,... MORE