Led by the Jamestown Foundation, a group of international analysts and journalists recently held in-depth talks in Tskhinvali with South Ossetian representatives Boris Chochiev and Murad Jioev. The discussion was held at the height of tensions fueled by overt and covert Russian activities in South... MORE

As the Eurasia Daily Monitor went to press, Russian media were reporting that a group of terrorists, including several female suicide bombers, had taken more than 400 people hostage, among them 200 children, in a school in the North Ossetian city of Beslan.

On August 25, Saakashvili fired the Chief of Staff of the Georgian Armed Forces, Givi Iukuridze, and replaced him with his Western-educated deputy, Maj. Vakhtang Kapanadze. Saakashvili explained the move as consistent with the desire to build "a new structure, which will meet NATO standards."... MORE

Alu Alkhanov, Chechnya's former interior minister, has been elected president of Chechnya with 74% of the vote. The chairman of the republican election commission, Abdul-Kerim Arsakhanov, said that the turnout was around 80% and that there were no reports of serious violations over the course... MORE

Armed clashes between Georgian and South Ossetian forces have resumed after a 14-year lull. On August 13, overnight gunfire began around 3:00 a.m. and left three Georgian civilians wounded. Three Georgian soldiers were killed and several others injured as a result of shelling in South... MORE

The Azerbaijani leadership is showing its impatience at the continuing diplomatic deadlock over the disputed province of Karabakh. The signals coming out of Baku indicate that the Aliev administration is prepared -- at least in words -- to try to resolve the long-running conflict with... MORE

The hostilities continue in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia. This week the Georgian and Ossetian sides are accusing each other of firing at villages in the conflict zone. On August 12, beginning 5:30 a.m., Ossetian separatists were shelling ethnic-Georgian-populated villages and moving their heavy... MORE

Dagestan is threatening to spin out of control. That, at least, is the claim of a pair of reports -- one in a Russian newspaper and the other on a Chechen separatist website. Nezavisimaya gazeta reported on August 10 that the mayor of the city... MORE

The Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed on August 10 that unnamed "foreign sponsors" have supplied Chechen separatists with funds to disrupt Chechnya's presidential election, scheduled for August 29. Sergei Ignatchenko, head of the FSB's public relations center, said the funds were specifically earmarked for increased... MORE

The latest escalation in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia re-ignited a heated policy debate in Moscow on what should be the Kremlin's stance in the conflict. Significantly, Russia's policies vis-a-vis Tbilisi and the renegade authorities of South Ossetia are being sharply criticized by both... MORE