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Latest Articles about Georgia
MEDIA SPECULATION RISES ABOUT GEORGIAN MINISTERIAL CHANGES
After two days of media speculation, there are signs that the rumored imminent reshuffle of Georgia's power ministries may contain a grain of truth. On December 8 both Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania made statements that pointed toward a forthcoming reorganization.... MORE
ABKHAZ OPPOSITION CANDIDATE INCHES TOWARD PRESIDENTIAL POWER
Sergei Bagapsh, the opposition's presidential candidate in the disputed presidential elections in Georgia's breakaway region, Abkhazia, is inching toward securing the presidency. On November 26, the Abkhazian parliament officially decreed the October 3 presidential elections valid, "despite certain electoral violations" and declared Bagapsh president-elect. The... MORE
ABKHAZIA’S COUNCIL OF ELDERS CONVENES TO ADDRESS CURRENT CRISIS
Abkhazia's political polarization deepened suddenly on November 17, amid continuing attempts by presidential election loser Raul Khajimba and his Moscow backers to prevent the election's winner, Sergei Bagapsh, from taking office. Nodar Khashba, an Abkhaz-born Russian officer recently installed by Moscow as prime minister in... MORE
STANDOFF CONTINUES IN ABKHAZ PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
The month-long confrontation over the disputed presidential elections in Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia has claimed its first victim. Tamara Shakryl, 78, was a senior associate at the Institute for the Study of the Humanities, Abkhazian Academy of Sciences, and backed presidential candidate Raul Khajimba.... MORE
GAZPROM OR SHAH-DENIZ: GEORGIA’S CHOICE OF STRATEGIC PARTNERS
Russia's Gazprom is counting on three factors to rush Georgia advice, into a political decision to sell the country's gas transportation system to the Russian monopoly. Those factors are: the approaching winter, the urgent need for capital injections into that system, and fortuitously convergent support... MORE
MILITARY DETENTE, POLITICAL DEADLOCK IN SOUTH OSSETIA
On November 10, Georgia's Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania and Conflict Resolution Minister Giorgi Khaindrava reported to the cabinet of ministers' session that demilitarization of the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict zone is progressing in a satisfactory manner. Nightly incidents, in which Ossetian armed groups fire from hilltops... MORE
GEORGIAN GOVERNMENT PROPOSES CONTROVERSIAL TAX AMNESTY
The Georgian parliament and public are deeply divided about a government-proposed tax amnesty. The most controversial part of the bill, which focuses on "undeclared taxation duties and property legalization," is the list of affected taxpayers. During the October 27 cabinet meeting, President Mikheil Saakashvili asked... MORE
GEORGIAN PRIME MINISTER MEETS WITH SOUTH OSSETIAN LEADER
On November 5, Russia and the OSCE sponsored a meeting in Sochi between Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania and South Ossetian separatist leader Eduard Kokoiti. This was the first meeting between a top Georgian official and Kokoiti since his election as South Ossetian President in... MORE
RUSSIA TURNS UP THE PRESSURE ON ABKHAZIA
The aftermath of the October 3 presidential election in Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia has finally unmasked Moscow's policy towards Abkhazia. Ironically, Russia has presented itself as a player -- if not instigator -- of the current unrest in Abkhazia. On November 3, the two... MORE
NATO LEADER VISITS THE SOUTH CAUCASUS
On November 3-5, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer visited, for the first time in this capacity, the three South Caucasus countries. He conferred with the head of state, the defense minister, military leadership, and other top officials in each of the three capitals. The... MORE