Latest Articles about Georgia
SOLANA RETURNS EMPTY-HANDED FROM ABKHAZIA
The European Union’s High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana returned empty-handed from his June 6 talks with Abkhaz secessionist leaders in Sokhumi. Solana held talks with Georgian leaders first, while en route to Sokhumi; and briefed Georgian leaders afterward, before... MORE
EUROAPPEASEMENT: THE EU’S ANSWER TO RUSSIA’S ASSAULT ON GEORGIA
The European Union’s External Relations Council (known as GAERC, the EU’s policy making body at the level of ministers of foreign affairs) discussed Russia’s assault on Georgia in its latest monthly meeting in Brussels. Held on May 26 and 27, five days before Russia’s unlawful... MORE
RUSSIA DEPLOYS RAILWAY TROOPS TO ABKHAZIA
On May 30 and 31 Russia’s Defense Ministry sent railway troops into Abkhazia without informing Georgia, much less requesting its consent. The move involves some 400 personnel, mostly from the ministry’s Railway Troops and some from the military engineering troops. This deployment marks another move... MORE
UN MISSION CONFIRMS GEORGIAN, REJECTS RUSSIAN VERSION OF AIR CLASH
On May 26 the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) released its report on the downing of a unmanned Georgian aerial vehicle (UAV), which was reconnoitering Russian-controlled Abkhazia on April 20. Contrary to UNOMIG’s traditional tolerance of Russian pressures on Georgia, this report holds... MORE
A GEORGIAN CHARM OFFENSIVE IN MOSCOW
In an apparent attempt to defuse a tense diplomatic and military conflict with Russia over the breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the Georgian government is starting a major drive in Moscow to improve relations. The new Georgian ambassador to Moscow, Erosi Kicmarishvili, who... MORE
MOSCOW ENCOURAGES NORTH-SOUTH OSSETIAN IRREDENTISM AGAINST GEORGIA
On May 20 Moscow signaled officially that it was prepared to promote annexation of Georgia’s region of South Ossetia to the Russian Federation. The Russian government seems set to underwrite an ethnic irredenta there, seeking to put an Ossetian face on Russian state expansionism (as... MORE
GEORGIA HOLDS PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN A DANGEROUS SECURITY ENVIRONMENT
Georgia is holding parliamentary elections on May 21 against a backdrop of Russian military threats and economic and transport blockades overall Western passivity in the face of those pressures. These parliamentary elections are the latest challenge in the series of problems that have befallen Georgia... MORE
U.N. RESOLUTION ON ABKHAZIA SHOWS WHO’S WHO ON ETHNIC CLEANSING
On May 15 the United Nations General Assembly adopted a Georgian resolution recognizing the right of expellees to return to Georgia’s Abkhazia region. The voting was 14 countries in favor, 11 against, and 105 abstaining, with another 63 countries not voting. Adoption of the resolution... MORE
RUSSIAN JOURNALISTS USED AS CHANNEL FOR TBILISI-MOSCOW CONTACTS
Last week Georgia and its breakaway province of Abkhazia were close to a war that would surely have involved Russia. An armed conflict could escalate into an all-out war, engulfing the entire Caucasus. Russia has accused the Georgians of concentrating forces in the upper Kodori... MORE
THE WEST CAN RESPOND MORE EFFECTIVELY TO RUSSIA’S ASSAULT ON GEORGIA: PART III
International silence about the ethnic cleansing of Georgians from Abkhazia is a striking feature of the continuing debate on the Russia-Georgia conflict. Moscow’s overt moves in recent days to annex Abkhazia politically and militarily capitalize on that ethnic cleansing and would render it irreversible. The... MORE