Latest Articles about The Caucasus
ARMENIAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION SCHEDULED FOR FEBRUARY
Armenia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) has set the date for the upcoming presidential election, which will seal the end of President Robert Kocharian’s ten-year rule. The vote, scheduled for February 19, is increasingly shaping up as a two-horse race between Kocharian’s long-time chief lieutenant, Prime... MORE
IMEDI TELEVISION: USE AND MISUSE OF A GEORGIAN TELEVISION CHANNEL
The anti-government Imedi TV was taken off Georgia’s airwaves, along with the pro-government Rustavi-2 TV and other television channels, on November 7 when Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili declared a 15-day state of emergency. The move helped end the rallies and disturbances in downtown Tbilisi, instigated... MORE
GEORGIA AND UKRAINE: SIMILAR REVOLUTIONS, DIFFERENT TRAJECTORIES
The ongoing political crisis in Georgia shares similar roots with the September 2005 crisis in Ukraine (see EDM, September 8, 14, 16, 2005). The Georgian crisis began when former defense minister Irakli Okruashvili accused President Mikheil Saakashvili of money laundering, misuse of power, and instigating... MORE
BADRI PATARKATSISHVILI’S GEORGIA OPERATION
Georgia reckons with the possibility of Russian hostile operations between November 2007 and April 2008 in connection with four major political deadlines: First and second, Russia’s parliamentary and presidential elections (December and April), which might again be accompanied by some military operation of choice, as... MORE
SAAKASHVILI: DEFIANT AND READY FOR ACTION
Last Saturday evening, November 3, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili granted me a two-hour interview in his office, which is a few minutes’ walk from parliament. Demonstrators have been protesting in front of the building, demanding his resignation. On Friday, November 2, an estimated 50,000 protesters... MORE
AZERBAIJAN’S LEADERS FEAR SPREAD OF RADICAL ISLAM, ESPECIALLY IN MILITARY
On October 27 Azerbaijani law-enforcement agencies announced they had foiled a terrorist plot targeting the U.S. and British embassies, as well as the Baku offices of several major oil companies. The plot was discovered following a theft in a Defense Ministry military unit. Lieutenant Kamran... MORE
GEORGIAN OPPOSITION ON A FREE RIDE, part two
Billionaire businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili has turned his Imedi Television, which broadcasts across the country, into a stronghold of political opposition to the government. Along with that move in 2006, he sold a 49% stake in Imedi TV to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. In October 2007,... MORE
GEORGIAN OPPOSITION ON A FREE RIDE
On Friday, November 2, at least 50,000 people (as estimated by most local and foreign observers at the scene) demonstrated in downtown Tbilisi for regime change and early presidential elections in Georgia. The number decreased to some 12,000 on November 3. The demonstrations were peaceful... MORE
CHECHENS AMONG RUSSIAN “PEACEKEEPERS” DURING INCIDENT IN GEORGIA
On October 30 an APC-borne Russian “peacekeeping” unit attempted to take control of the Ganmukhuri youth camp, situated within Georgian-controlled territory near the Georgian-Abkhaz demarcation line. Firing warning shots the Russian soldiers disarmed, bound, and beat bloody the three Georgian policemen who guarded the youth... MORE
SOARING TRADE BOOSTS RUSSIAN-ARMENIAN ECONOMIC TIES
Armenia’s trade with Russia has increased dramatically this year, paralleling the growing Russian economic presence in the country, which has sparked concerns about Armenia’s economic independence and even national security. The almost 62% year-on-year rise in Russian-Armenian trade registered in the first eight months of... MORE