Latest Articles about The Caucasus

MASKHADOV’S CEASEFIRE OBEYED IN CHECHNYA, NOT IN DAGESTAN

On January 15, the Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov issued a special order to stop all military operations both inside and outside Chechnya until the end of February (EDM, February 4; Caucasus Times, February 4). According to an officer at the commandant's headquarters in Chechnya,... MORE

ARMENIANS COUNT THEIR LOSSES AS THEIR CURRENCY GROWS STRONGER

Armenia's national currency, the dram, has appreciated dramatically against the euro and especially against the U.S. dollar over the past year, hitting hard a large part of the country's population. The real causes of this phenomenon have been a matter of serious contention in recent... MORE

NEW GROUP OF GEORGIA’S FRIENDS FOUNDED

Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria founded the "New Group of Georgia's Friends" on February 4 in Tbilisi. The specification "new" differentiates it from the decade-old "Group of Friends of Georgia," originally comprised of the United States, Germany, Britain, and France. That old group... MORE

CHECHEN REBELS START A TEMPORARY CEASEFIRE

On February 3, the Kavkazcenter website reported that Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov had ordered rebel fighters to lay down their weapons for one month. It also published a statement from warlord Shamil Basaev ordering fighters to obey Maskhadov's decree and halt all offensive military... MORE

AZERBAIJAN’S PRESIDENT IN IRAN

Some flowery rhetoric from Tehran notwithstanding, Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliev's January 24-26 official visit to Iran turned out to be a routine event that confirmed the tension-free relations between neighboring countries, without evidence of rapprochement at U.S. expense. Such a rapprochement had been the subject... MORE

WHO IS BEHIND YARMUK JAMAAT: BALKARS OR KABARDINS?

On January 27, Russian troops and local police forces surrounded an apartment building where members of an underground Islamist organization known as "Yarmuk Jamaat" were hiding in Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria. The troops stormed the building, and seven rebels, three men and four women,... MORE

RUSSIA CLAIMS STRATEGIC VICTORY IN GEORGIAN PRIVATIZATION ROUND

When Tbilisi recently completed the privatization of several Georgian industrial giants, Russian companies had become owners of several strategic economic entities in Georgia. All indications suggest that the Russian firms are not finished with their Georgian acquisition plans. Evraz Holding has taken ownership of 70.8%... MORE