Latest Articles about Georgia
Clinton in Georgia: Precious Few Deliverables
US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, paid a six-hour visit to Georgia on July 5, as part of a tour of five countries in five days. Her Georgia visit was the first by a top US official since Vice-President, Joseph Biden, visited exactly one year... MORE
Is Part of the Georgian Opposition Financed by Georgian Organized Crime?
On June 22, the German newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau published an article by Andreas Förster entitled “Georgian Mafia Planned a Coup,” in which it was stated that part of the Georgian political opposition received funds from Georgian organized crime networks in Europe to foment unrest in... MORE
More Disagreements Emerge Between Abkhaz and Russian Interests
On June 1, the head of Abkhazia’s state committee on tourism, Tengiz Lakerbaya, lashed out at Sochi Mayor, Anatoly Pakhomov, for publicly diminishing Abkhazia’ touristic value. The criticism followed comments made by Pakhomov on May 28, when he said that Abkhazia had once been popular... MORE
Georgia’s Political Landscape Reshaped After Local Elections
The Christian-Democrat Movement and the Alliance for Georgia laid a basis in recent local elections for the development of genuine opposition parties in Georgia. According to the final returns, these parties took the second and third place, with 12 percent and 9 percent, respectively, of... MORE
Georgia Returns to Stability and Growth After Local Elections
Candidates from Georgia’s governing party, the United National Movement (UNM), won the country-wide local elections on May 30, including the pivotal contest for the Tbilisi municipality, by large margins. The electoral process earned a positive net assessment from Western observers and also by the main... MORE
Dark But Short: Russia’s Shadow on Georgia’s Elections
Russia is casting its dark shadow on Georgia’s electoral campaign, but it is not the proverbial long shadow. Rather, it affects Georgia’s internal politics at its outer fringe, far short of beclouding the political system or any significant voter constituency. Russia’s recently acquired allies in... MORE
Georgian Pre-Election Polls Deflate Opposition’s Expectations
Georgia is holding country-wide local elections on May 30. International and local observers regard these elections as a critical test for Georgia, on four counts.This is the first electoral contest in the country since the August 2008 Russian invasion; and since 1990, this is the... MORE
Turkey: a Source of Strategic Reinsurance for Georgia
Following recent miscalculations regarding Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Armenia, US policy in the South Caucasus also suffers from an erosion of credibility with regard to Georgia. A recent spate of commentaries in US mainstream media has taken cognizance of Washington’s and NATO’s de facto strategic disengagement... MORE
Zurab Noghaideli’s National Council Bandwagons With Russia
On May 13 in Tbilisi, the political bloc “National Council” announced its intention to open representative offices in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The declared goals are to maintain liaison with Russia’s executive and legislative authorities and also with the Georgian diaspora in Russia (Civil Georgia,... MORE
Tbilisi’s Municipal Election: a Game on the Radical Opposition’s Turf
Georgia is holding local elections country-wide on May 30. The municipal election in Tbilisi is the main event in these elections. Many in the opposition and in Moscow regard the Tbilisi election as a possible trigger of upheaval for regime-change in Georgia.Most opposition groups, whether... MORE