The French company, Total, and Azerbaijan’s State Oil Company (SOCAR) have announced a major gas discovery at the offshore Absheron field. According to Total, the first results from the exploration well, Absheron X-2, confirm a potential of “several trillion” cubic feet of gas (35.3 cubic... MORE

Insurgency-related violence was reported in Dagestan, Ingushetia and Kabardino-Balkaria this past week. An explosion in the center of Dagestan’s capital Makhachkala early today (September 9) injured four policemen. The blast took place shortly after midnight, when an apparent improvised explosive device that had been hidden in... MORE

On August 30, seven policemen, one person from the emergency situations ministry and a civilian died in a double suicide bomb attack in the Chechen capital Grozny that also left 23 people injured (https://kp.ru, August 31). Two perpetrators of the attack were quickly identified as... MORE

On September 2, a small demonstration took place in front of the Iranian embassy in Baku. The event, organized by the Baku branch of the World Azerbaijani Congress, focused on the ecological problems of Urmiyya Lake in Iran and the related demonstrations by thousands of... MORE

On September 3, the Russian security services killed four suspected rebels in the town of Baksan, Kabardino-Balkaria. Two servicemen, a woman and a child were injured in the special operation. This instance of killing suspects was unusual because it highlighted the Russian security services’ tactics.... MORE

On August 31, officials in Dagestan unveiled the plan to dispatch an additional 200 troops to fight insurgents in the republic’s Kizlyar district. The reinforcements are part of the 7,000-man military force that was created in Dagestan earlier this year. Dagestan’s territory was divided into... MORE

Georgia’s internationally renowned stage director, Robert Sturua, has been released by the Culture Ministry from his post as head of the Rustaveli National Theater in Tbilisi. In a nation so rich in theatrical and cinematographic talent, Sturua, 73, is perhaps the most celebrated among stage... MORE

Nabucco, the strategic project for transportation of Caspian gas to Europe, seems threatened by the non-strategic pipeline projects, ITGI (Interconnector Turkey-Greece-Italy) and TAP (Trans-Adriatic Pipeline). These are less advanced, compared with Nabucco, but are also less ambitious in scope, and consequently easier to source with... MORE

The ITGI (Interconnector Turkey-Greece-Italy) and TAP (Trans-Adriatic Pipeline), with planned capacities at 10 billion cubic meters (bcm) annually for each, require no further sourcing beyond Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz field, Phase Two. Both ITGI and TAP are headed for southeastern Italy. The Nabucco project, however, is... MORE

It has become a tradition that August is an especially volatile month in the North Caucasus. This year has not been an exception, with the situation in the North Caucasus becoming more aggravated, especially in those regions that were relatively quiet in the preceding time... MORE