On September 2, Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili released an eight-page “open letter to the public” in which he outlines the reasons for why he intends to leave the position of head of government before the expiration of his term. Ivanishvili said he needs to... MORE

President Serzh Sargsyan has decided that Armenia should join the Russia-led blocs, the Customs Union and the Eurasian Union, as part of a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Sargsyan unveiled this decision to his own country from Moscow, alongside Putin, on September 3, and... MORE

The Georgian authorities’ decision to dismantle a mosque minaret in the village of Chela on August 26 triggered an incident in the Samtskhe-Javakheti and Adjara regions where tensions between Christians and Muslims have surfaced for the first time in many decades (https://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=26386). Locals said that... MORE

On September 3, in Moscow, Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Serzh Sargsyan of Armenia jointly sank Armenia’s association, trade and visa liberalization agreements with the European Union, which were due to be concluded at the Vilnius summit in November.  Instead, Sargsyan announced his decision... MORE

Among the six countries in the European Union’s Eastern Partnership program, Azerbaijan under its President Ilham Aliyev seems uniquely impervious to Russian forms of leverage and, consequently, unique in receiving respectful treatment from the Kremlin. These two factors are closely connected in Russian President Vladimir... MORE

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s working visit to Azerbaijan on August 13 (see EDM, April 14) resulted in several agreements of unprecedented scope in the oil and gas sector. Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Putin witnessed the agreements’ signing. These are documents of general intent, merely sketched... MORE

Russian President Vladimir Putin paid a one-day working visit to Azerbaijan on August 13, his first visit to that country since 2006. Two warships of Russia’s Caspian Flotilla anchored in the port of Baku on August 12, demonstrating military muscle (as in 2006) as an... MORE

Last week, Georgia marked the five-year anniversary of the start of the short military conflict with Russia over South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The conflict ended in Georgia’s defeat and the recognition of the independence of its former autonomies by the Russian Federation. The mourning ceremonies... MORE

On August 1, Tbilisi City Court acquitted former Defense and then Interior Minister Bacho Akhalaia on charges that involved exceeding official powers, illegal confinement and torture in three separate cases. However, Akhalaia remains in custody, awaiting trial on separate, unrelated cases. The court’s verdict follows... MORE

Data just released by Georgia’s state agency for statistics (GeoStat) show a pronounced economic downturn. The robust growth that Georgia was experiencing until the October 2012 elections has petered out following the regime change. In June 2013, the economy contracted for the first time since... MORE