Prior to its start, the European Union’s May 21–22 Eastern Partnership (EaP) summit in Riga was widely anticipated, given that the previous summit in Vilnius had been overshadowed by the war in Ukraine and newly evident Russian expansionism. Russia’s aggressive policies caused concerns in those... MORE

On May 30, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko appointed Mikheil Saakashvili, former president of Georgia, as chairman of the state administration (governor) of Ukraine’s Odesa province. On the preceding day, Poroshenko conferred Ukrainian citizenship to Saakashvili “as a matter of national interest of Ukraine.” The cabinet... MORE

At the Eastern Partnership summit, held on May 21–22, in Riga, Latvia, the European Union delayed granting Georgia (along with it Ukraine) visa free travel rules for its citizens. Although Georgians were highly hopeful that their country would be granted a visa waiver for travel... MORE

On May 11, an unprecedented two-week military exercise, “Noble Partner 2015,” began at the former Russian military base, Vaziani, in the suburb of the Georgian capital of Tbilisi. Russia withdrew its last military forces from Vaziani in 2007 (Civil Georgia, May 11). Georgian and United... MORE

On April 30, Georgia’s National Service of Statistics (NNS) finally released the preliminary results of the 2014 census, the first census held in the country since 2002. Although, few expected demographic growth in the last 12 years, the results were still shocking. Since 2002, Georgia’s... MORE

Information published earlier this month on the website of the de facto parliament of the separatist Georgian region of South Ossetia caused a diplomatic scandal between Yerevan and Tbilisi. Reportedly, the chairman of the South Ossetian parliament, Anatoly Bibilov, met with the speaker of Armenia’s... MORE

Last week (May 1), Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili submitted his new cabinet appointments for approval by the parliament. The pro-Western Republican Party, which is part of the ruling Georgian Dream coalition, made substantial gains in the new cabinet. One of the leaders of the... MORE

On April 22–24, Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka paid his first ever official visit to Georgia. The visit was filled with pageantry and emotional declarations, as President Lukashenka met with Georgian President Giorgi Margevlashvili, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, and the head of the Georgian Orthodox Church,... MORE

Abkhazia, a former autonomous region of Georgia, was recognized as an “independent state” by Russia following the five-day Russian-Georgian war in August 2008. A couple weeks ago (April 10), the “prime minister” of Abkhazia, Artur Mikvabia, officially presented the self-proclaimed republic’s newest deputy prime minister,... MORE

The sixth meeting of the World Forum on Energy Regulation is scheduled to be held on May 25–28, in Istanbul, and is being organized by the office of the prime minister of the Turkish Republic. The competitive and dynamically expanding nature of the energy sector... MORE