One after another, authorities in the North Caucasus republics are announcing the creation of volunteer units for fighting Ukraine. The Russian military command proposed the establishment of a Dagestani rifle company on the basis of the 136th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade, stationed in Buinaksk,... MORE

After implementing a number of trans-Eurasian energy and logistics mega-projects, such as the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan oil pipeline, Southern Gas Corridor and Trans-Caspian International Transportation Route, Azerbaijan has also strategically committed itself to policies designed to turn the South Caucasus country into a regional digital hub (see... MORE

On June 20, approximately 30,000 pro-European Georgians gathered in the capital city of Tbilisi, on Rustaveli Avenue, near the parliament, where every important political event in modern Georgian history had taken place over the last 35 years (Svoboda.org, June 20). The Monday rally was organized... MORE

On June 8–10, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov paid a two-day visit to Yerevan, where he met with Armenian leaders and attended a foreign ministerial session of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) (Armeniasputnik.am, June 8). His talks with the Armenian representatives and his statements... MORE

On June 3, the Georgian Ministries of Internal Affairs and Finance announced that all employees of the Border and Customs Department would begin operating each of the country’s physical border checkpoints continuously, in emergency mode, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (Businessfeed.ge, May... MORE

Although Turkey is no longer as dramatically active in the North Caucasus as during the 1990s, when it backed Chechen aspirations for independence, Ankara is quietly expanding its use of soft power mechanisms there. As Russian analyst Andrey Areshov writes, these overtures toward the region—increasingly... MORE

Russia’s large-scale re-invasion of Ukraine continues to send tremors across the wider region as well as inside the Russian Federation, including transforming the politics of Russia’s regions. Earlier plans by Moscow to amalgamate various federal entities and to create several large supra-regional metropolitan areas across... MORE

On June 3, at the Global Security Forum, in Bratislava, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili declared, “I will say without exaggeration that Georgia has always been a leader among Eastern European countries.” He added that Georgia had done its homework on joining the European Union,... MORE

*To read Part One, please click here. The unprovoked large-scale Russian military aggression against Ukraine, launched on February 24, is putting at risk the Kremlin’s ambitious plans related to economic exploitation of the Arctic region and the Russian High North. Not only are the Russian... MORE

Bilateral relations with Russia remain of crucial importance to Armenia, given the small South Caucasus country’s difficult security predicament. Yet these considerations extend beyond hard military factors. Russia monopolizes Armenia’s energy supply, exemplified, in particular, by Gazprom’s direct ownership of the Armenian pipeline and natural... MORE