At a June 2 meeting of the mixed monitoring commission in Tskhinvali, the Georgian delegation demonstrated its lack of confidence in Major-General Svyatoslav Nabzdorov, demanding that he be recalled by Russia. Nabzdorov is the Russian commander of peacekeeping forces in South Ossetia. He is being... MORE

Russian soldiers continue to die in Chechnya, as the unpopular conflict shows no sign of changing from its dirty and unpredictable nature. Separate recent incidents in Grozny, causing injuries to a platoon commander and conscript soldier from the interior troops, and in the Chechen village... MORE

A pair of bombings over the last several days-one targeted at people, the other at infrastructure-would seem to highlight the ongoing terrorist threat that Russia is facing. Yet investigators are reportedly leaning toward the theory that the blasts were the result of criminal-commercial disputes rather... MORE

Last week's demonstration of force by the Georgian central government on the administrative border with the breakaway region of South Ossetia sparked a vigorous debate among Russia's policy-makers, media and the analytic community. At the heart of the ongoing political discussion is the issue of... MORE

Kakha Bendukidze, one of Russia’s leading industrialists, is in Tbilisi today to accept appointment as minister of economics in the government of Georgia. President Mikheil Saakashvili and Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania decided to appoint Bendukidze during the May 27-29 visit to Tbilisi by a group... MORE

Torture in prisons, mistreatment of prisoners, illegal arrests and abused police discretion have reappeared on the agenda only five months after the Rose Revolution, the leaders of which publicly pledged to put an end to the violence and abuse by the law-enforcement bodies. Georgian human... MORE

The first conference on Russian business investment in Georgia held on May 28-30 was a logical consequence of warming Georgian-Russian political relations after the recent "rose revolutions" in Tbilisi and Ajaria. Continuous economic hardship requires Georgia to seek foreign investment from wherever it is offered.... MORE

Georgian Internal Affairs Ministry troops, backed up by a special-forces unit, armored vehicles and helicopters, entered the so-called Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone on both sides of the demarcation line at noon on May 31. Tbilisi's move was an instant response to the 10 AM warning by... MORE

Following a meeting on May 27 with Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Alvaro Gil-Robles, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov declared that the issue of Chechnya "is dropping off the politicized agenda of our relations with the Council of Europe just as it has... MORE

Speaking at a rally and a news conference on the occasion of Georgia's National Day (May 26), President Mikheil Saakashvili reached out to Abkhazia and South Ossetia with proposals for mutually acceptable political arrangements between the central government and the two breakaway areas. "We propose... MORE