Latest Articles about Georgia

Israeli Bribery Case Dampens Georgia-Israel Diplomatic Relations
(Part One)Georgian-Israeli relations are in crisis, and the recent decision by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili not to pardon two Israeli businessmen jailed after a Georgian court found them guilty of bribery is not going to improve the situation in the near future. The incident has... MORE

Georgia’s Increasingly Assertive North Caucasus Policy Is Likely to Cause Waves Across the Region
On May 20, the Georgian parliament recognized the mass killings and deportations of Circassians from the North Caucasus in the nineteenth century as “genocide.” The resolution, which passed by a vote of 95 to 0, said that pre-planned “mass killings of the Circassians by Tsarist... MORE

Russia Pressures Kazakhstan’s Ties With Georgia
Kazakhstan is increasingly uncomfortable within the Customs Union with Belarus and Russia due to the constant attempts by the Kremlin to politicize the structure originally intended to boost trade relations and ensure free movement of citizens, goods and capital within the union. Recently, Grigoriy Onishenko... MORE

Regime Changers And Constitutional Parties In The Georgian Opposition
With the onset of warm weather, radical opposition groups in Tbilisi plan their seasonal regime-change campaign. Judging by their latest declarations, their tactic remains unchanged since 2007: instigating disorder in the capital’s streets to provoke the authorities into using force, hoping thereby to de-legitimize the... MORE

Lavrov Elaborates on Non-Use-of-Force Proposals in Sukhumi and Tskhinvali
On April 25 and 26, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov paid a “working visit” to the occupied Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which Russia unilaterally “recognizes” as states. He visited Russian army and border troop cantonments, met with the Moscow-installed local leaders, and used... MORE

Proposed Election Reforms Define Fault Lines in Georgian Political Landscape
Georgia is in the throes of difficult consultations among key election stakeholders over much touted reform in the electoral code. The electoral reform talks between the government’s representatives, Davit Bakradze, Chairman of Georgia’s Parliament, and a coalition of eight non-government oppositional parties was launched on... MORE

Georgia Opposition Groups And The Arab Unrest
Turmoil in the Arab world has elicited contrasting responses from the two sides of Georgia’s political opposition. Extra-parliamentary radical groups (themselves of varied colors) seem inspired to start yet another regime-change campaign. The parliamentary opposition, on the other hand, rejects the use of “revolutionary” methods... MORE

Russia’s WTO Membership On Track or Not?
On March 10, Russia and Georgia held their first meeting in a new round of negotiations over Russia’s World Trade Organization (WTO) bid. Maxim Medvedkov, Russia’s chief negotiator, and Tamar Kovziridze, the Georgian prime minister’s senior aide and long time negotiator over WTO issues, held... MORE

The Geneva Process: A Balance Sheet Since The Russia-Georgia War (Part Two)
Two and a half years into the armistice and fifteen rounds into the Geneva implementation talks (“Georgia & The Geneva Process: A Balance Sheet Since The 2008 War,” EDM, March 10), the Geneva process seems to be leading nowhere.The armistice agreements remain unimplemented in all... MORE

Frozen Conflict Paradigm Persists in the Geneva Process (Part One)
In October 2008, two months after Russia’s invasion of Georgia, a diplomatic process was launched in Geneva to implement the armistice agreements signed on August 12 and September 8 that year. Two and a half years later, the fifteenth round of negotiations concluded in Geneva... MORE