Irakli Okruashvili, Georgia's Minister of Defense has alleged the continued existence of widespread corruption within the military. On January 4, he named senior Ministry of Defense officials, whom he said were involved in misappropriating funds, and set the target of seeing them imprisoned within one... MORE

After last week's intense media speculation, yesterday Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili announced an overhaul of key ministries. That same day, December 14, Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania announced the structural and personnel reorganization planned for the rest of the ministries. "We are doing this to make... MORE

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

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 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

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

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

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

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