Latest Articles about Georgia
RUSSIA DOUBLING ITS TROOPS IN GEORGIA’S ABKHAZIA REGION
From April 29 through May 3, Russia sent additional troops to Georgia’s Abkhazia region on the pretense of “peacekeeping” and ostensibly on behalf of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The Russian government announced its move through the mass media, but it did not inform... MORE
RUSSIA’S STRANGE “PEACEKEEPING” OPERATION IN ABKHAZIA
Despite the CIS cover, this operation has been a purely Russian one from 1994 to the present. Since 2002 CIS meetings have abandoned even the pretense of discussing this operation, let alone prolonging its “mandate.” Nor did Moscow seek CIS member countries’ approval of the... MORE
ANNEXATION AND MILITARIZATION OF ABKHAZIA CONTINUE APACE
Russia has again challenged Georgia and the West in Abkhazia, this time with military action. Its first challenge had been President Vladimir Putin’s April 16 decree, authorizing direct official relations between Russian government bodies and the secessionist authorities in Georgia's Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions... MORE
RUSSIA OFFERS GEORGIA A STICK AND A CARROT
On Sunday, April 20, an unarmed Georgian reconnaissance drone was shot down over the territory Abkhazia. The Georgian authorities alleged that a Russian Air Force MiG-29 fighter had downed the drone. The jet, according to Georgian radar data, took off from an airbase near Gudauta... MORE
RUSSIA MOVES TOWARD OPEN ANNEXATION OF ABKHAZIA, SOUTH OSSETIA
On April 16 Russia’s outgoing president Vladimir Putin signed a decree authorizing direct official relations between Russian government bodies and the secessionist authorities in Georgia’s Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The decree also treats as valid the secessionist authorities’ “legislation” in the respective territories, which looks... MORE
THE PRO-MAP FACTION SUCCEEDS AT NATO SUMMIT
NATO’s recently concluded summit in Bucharest highlighted the political weight of the new member countries from Central and Eastern Europe in the alliance’s decision-making processes. Aligned with the United States, Canada and two small West European countries, the new members formed the critical mass that... MORE
UKRAINIAN AND GEORGIAN MEMBERSHIP PROSPECTS INTENSELY DEBATED AT NATO SUMMIT
Midway through the NATO summit in Bucharest on April 2 to 4, Germany and France seemed to have blocked the approval of Membership Action Plans for Ukraine and Georgia (MAPs). The summit representatives have until April 4 to agree on substitute language regarding Ukraine’s and... MORE
EXTRANEOUS CONSIDERATIONS BLOCK GEORGIAN AND UKRAINIAN MAPS AT THE NATO SUMMIT
In on-the-record interventions and, especially, at off-the-record policy conferences, German officials laid out a whole collection of arguments against Membership Action Plans (MAPs) for Georgia and Ukraine at the upcoming NATO summit. Several West European governments share some of those arguments to one degree or... MORE
GEORGIA OFFERS FAR-REACHING AUTONOMY TO ABKHAZIA
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has proposed a reunification of Abkhazia with the rest of Georgia on terms of far-reaching autonomy and with the assistance of international guarantors (Civil Georgia, Rustavi 2 TV, March 28). All elements of a political settlement are to be placed on... MORE
NATO MEMBERSHIP ACTION PLANS: “NOT IF BUT WHEN”?
Ahead of NATO’s April 2-4 Bucharest Summit, the alliance is preoccupied with maintaining the principles on which it interacts with aspirant countries. The core principles may be summed up as: the open door, membership action plans on the road to that open door, merit-based assessment... MORE