Latest Articles about The Caucasus

RUSSIA BLOCKING OSCE’S ACCESS TO SOUTH OSSETIA

Russia’s August 26 official recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as “independent states” will change nothing on the ground, let alone the international legal status of the two territories. With or without such “recognition,” Russia did as it pleased in both territories for the last... MORE

RUSSIAN FORCES SETTING UP OCCUPATION ZONES IN GEORGIA

Russian forces remaining in Georgia have switched from the role of invasion troops to that of occupation troops, seizing chunks of territory in Georgia’s interior as well as key logistical nodes and arteries. The quick and smooth switch from the invasion to the occupation mode,... MORE

RUSSIAN TROOPS IN GEORGIA: PULLOUT, PULL-BACK, OR STAY PUT?

Russian troops were supposed to withdraw by August 22 from all of Georgia’s interior areas. That was Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s word to Nicolas Sarkozy, when the French president -- broker of the August 12-13 armistice -- telephoned Medvedev several times afterward for clarification. Some... MORE

RUSSIA NULLIFIES FRENCH-BROKERED ARMISTICE IN GEORGIA

The Kremlin has already nullified the agreement on cessation of hostilities in Georgia, which French President Nicolas Sarkozy had brokered with Presidents Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow and Mikheil Saakashvili in Tbilisi on August 12-13 (see EDM, August 13, 18). Russia has junked the six-point agreement... MORE

THE RUSSIAN-GEORGIAN WAR WAS PREPLANNED IN MOSCOW

Last week military tension in Georgia's separatist region of South Ossetia escalated into all-out war. The Ossetian separatists were provoking a conflict to give the Russian military a pretext for direct intervention. Late in the evening of August 7, a heavy mortar bombardment of Georgian... MORE