On October 7 in Baku, BP signed a production sharing agreement with Azerbaijan’s State Oil Company (SOCAR) for the exploration and development of the Shafag and Asiman gas blocks in Azerbaijan’s Caspian offshore sector. The new CEO of BP, Robert Dudley, witnessed the signing during... MORE

In yet another sign of a serious split within the ranks of the North Caucasus insurgency, three top Chechen rebel field commanders have renounced their oath of allegiance to Doku Umarov, the Chechen rebel leader and “emir” of the North Caucasus Emirate. They then proceeded... MORE

After a split occurred in the North Caucasus armed resistance movement among the Chechen Jamaat, media and pseudo-analysts once again started to actively talk about Chechen connections with al-Qaeda. Over the course of eleven years of war in the North Caucasus, journalists and politicians from... MORE

A high-profile Muslim religious service with government permission, held by Turkey’s leading ultranationalist party in an ancient Armenian church has sent shockwaves through Armenia and its worldwide Diaspora, further reducing the prospects for Turkish-Armenian reconciliation. The resulting uproar will make the Armenian government more cautious... MORE

The second annual meeting under the US-Georgia Charter on Strategic Partnership was held on October 6 in Washington. Led by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Prime Minister Nika Gilauri, respectively, the delegations held an ‘’omnibus’’ meeting –- that is, one encompassing the Charter’s four... MORE

On October 4, the Ingush sector of the North Caucasian Islamic insurgency announced a drastic change in tactics. The insurgents declared in a videotaped statement they would temporarily cease attacks against Ingushetia’s law enforcement personnel, although reiterated that local informants who corroborate with the Russian... MORE

NATO officials have recently once again attempted to bridge differences with Russia in the run-up to the November NATO summit in Lisbon. President, Dmitry Medvedev, was invited to Lisbon for a parallel NATO-Russian Council summit. NATO’s Secretary-General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, during an interview to Interfax... MORE

Thirteen months into his tenure, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen travelled to Georgia, the number one troop-contributing country on a per capita basis to NATO’s mission in Afghanistan. Rasmussen’s October 1 visit coincided with the death of four Georgians (a colonel and three NCOs) in... MORE

On September 28 in Khasavyurt, Dagestan, Interior Ministry Major-General Viktor Knyazhev announced that a temporary contingent of the ministry’s Internal Troops had been deployed to Dagestan. The general stated the purpose of the deployment was to help the local law enforcement agencies to stabilize the... MORE

Insurgency-related violence continued during the last several days in the aftermath of clashes between security forces and rebels in Chechnya’s southern Vedeno district, during which three servicemen and a policeman were killed. During a security sweep in the Dagestani cities of Makhachkala and Kaspiisk, 15... MORE