On June 27, Georgian Prime Minister Irakly Garibashvili signed a historic Association Agreement between Georgia and the European Union (EU). People in Tbilisi celebrated this event as a national holiday. Political forces in the country unanimously agree on the necessity and benefits of association with... MORE

On June 15, Georgia held local elections. Hundreds of seats on the councils (sakrebulos) of 59 counties (municipalities) and positions for 59 county governors (gamgebeli) and 12 city mayors were contested at the polls. Twenty-four political parties and electoral blocs participated in the election campaign... MORE

During June 2014, Russian ministers and high-level officials descended on Baku to pursue Russia’s lengthening agenda with Azerbaijan. At the beginning of the month, Economic Minister Alexei Ulyukaev came to discuss economic cooperation and invited Azerbaijan to join the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union (Interfax-Azerbaijan, June... MORE

Against the backdrop of the quickly unfolding situation in Ukraine—the annexation of Crimea and the guerrilla war in eastern Ukrainian—there are growing fears in Georgia that Russia will also use similar techniques, including elections or referenda, to annex Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Georgian politicians and... MORE

The latest Russia-Ukraine crisis has once again revealed the fragility of the energy security environment in Central and Eastern Europe. In particular, Russia’s repeated threats to cut its natural gas supplies, which transit through Ukraine, put pressure on European consumers dependent on Russia’s energy exports.... MORE

On June 1, Alexander Ankvab, the separatist president of Georgia’s breakaway region of Abkhazia, resigned. His first term was to expire in 2016. The Abkhazian parliament scheduled early presidential elections for August 24, 2014 (IA Regnum, June 1). Ankvab’s resignation followed four days of chaos... MORE

In a surprising turnaround of previous policy, Russia’s Lukoil announced on May 16 that its oil will soon be delivered to Europe via the 1,093-mile-long, 1.2 million-barrel-per-day Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline. The BTC pipeline transports oil from Azerbaijan’s offshore Caspian Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli oil field, via Baku’s... MORE

On May 22, Alexander Lukashevich, the spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), grimly declared that there would be consequences for Georgia if it signed the Association Agreement (AA) with the European Union, which is scheduled for June 27. In a somewhat lukewarm... MORE

Against the backdrop of the events in Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey have agreed to cooperate more closely in economic, transport and energy safety spheres.The first tripartite summit of the presidents of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey took place in Tbilisi on May 6 (Civil Georgia,... MORE

On April 30, while speaking at an event hosted by the Washington-based think tank the Atlantic Council, Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Alasania said that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) should deploy defensive alliance assets—specifically, anti-aircraft and anti-armor capabilities—in Georgia. He said such a step... MORE