Latest Articles about The Caucasus
Baku Emphasizes Economic and Humanitarian Assistance to Georgia
The Azerbaijani government recently announced further steps aimed at strengthening its strategic ally and neighbor Georgia and improving the post-war conditions there. This tangible help to Georgia, Baku believes, is more important than the political declarations often desired in the Georgian capital.Foremost, the Azerbaijani state... MORE
Militant Actions Shake Up Dagestan
The frequency of militant actions carried out by the members of the Sharia Jamaat in Dagestan increased drastically in late November and early December. Practically not a day goes by without news reports about armed assaults on police forces in the capital of Makhachkala and... MORE
KBR Authorities Again Vow to Catch Anzor Astemirov
Authorities in the Kabardino-Balkaria Republic (KBR) announced on December 5 that they are searching for the militants who murdered the head of the republic’s anti-organized crime directorate (UBOP), Anatoly Kyarov, back in January (North Caucasus Weekly, January 17). “The murder of Kyarov was unequivocally carried... MORE
Sharia Jamaat Threatens Dagestani Police, Officials, Clergy
The Associated Press reported on December 6 that police in Dagestan stormed a two-story 10-room hotel near the republic’s capital Makhachkala where armed militants were blockaded and that two rebels and a policeman died during the operation. The news agency quoted Dagestan’s Interior Ministry as... MORE
Kadyrov Performs the Hajj Pilgrimage
Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Muzdalifah, near Mecca, in Saudi Arabia on December 9. Ziyad Sabsabi, the Russian Federation Council member representing Chechnya, also took part in the meeting and told Interfax that Kadyrov and Abbas “unanimously noted... MORE
Ingush President Makes Opposition Lawyer His Adviser
Ingush President Yunus-Bek Yevkurov this week appointed Musa Pliyev, the lawyer for the family of the slain opposition website founder, Magomed Yevloyev, as an adviser on law-enforcement issues. Pliyev told the Moscow Times that Yevkurov signed the decree appointing him to the position on December... MORE
Moscow Wants the OSCE To Negotiate Directly with South Ossetia
In the wake of the OSCE’s year-end meeting, Russia is continuing to block the return of OSCE monitors to a South Ossetia ethnically cleansed of its Georgian population and occupied by massive Russian forces in breach of the armistice. The Russians have prevented the mission’s... MORE
Armenia Scrambling To Cushion the Effects of the Global Economic Crisis
Armenia’s decade-long economic recovery seems to be slowing down due to the increasingly visible effects of the global financial and economic crisis. The authorities in Yerevan are scrambling to minimize them by boosting government involvement in business activity and seeking hundreds of millions of dollars... MORE
Ukrainian and Georgian ANPs Are Also Testing NATO
The NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels on December 3 announced that Albania and Croatia were now completing their Membership Action Plans (MAPs) and would be welcomed at the NATO Summit in April 2009 as new members of the alliance. The ministerial communiqué takes note of... MORE
From MAPs to ANPs: the Background to NATO’s Compromise Decision
NATO’s ministerial meeting on December 3 decided to offer Annual National Plans (ANPs), instead of Membership Action Plans (MAPs), to Georgia and Ukraine. The old NATO-Ukraine Commission and the new NATO-Georgia Commission are to draw up and administer the ANPs (see EDM, December 5). A... MORE