Insurgent violence has continued unabated in the North Caucasus this week, with five federal servicemen dying in a shootout with insurgents in Chechnya yesterday (February 4) and Russia’s security services again accusing Georgia of aiding militants in the North Caucasus.A source in Chechnya’s security apparatus... MORE

Azerbaijan recently achieved a major public diplomacy success in late January by organizing the first Russian-Azerbaijan Humanitarian Forum in Baku, which assembled more than 100 representatives of the Russian intelligentsia. Rectors of universities, heads of news agencies, high profile journalists and writers, composers and artists,... MORE

On February 1, the Paris-based Eutelsat, Europe’s number one satellite television operator, disconnected Georgian Public Broadcaster’s First Caucasus TV Channel from its satellite, after a one-week successful transmission test. Eutelsat also declared that it was backing out of its own contract offer to the Georgian... MORE

Armenia and Turkey have moved to the brink of reversing a universally welcomed thaw in their relations, with differing interpretations of a landmark fence-mending agreement signed in October 2009. Yerevan is threatening to annul the two “protocols” over Ankara’s continuing linkage between their implementation and... MORE

Since Turkey and Armenia finally signed the groundbreaking protocols for the normalization of their relations in October 2009, their progress has been far less impressive. The Turkish and Armenian governments’ inability or unwillingness to counter domestic opposition stalled the parliamentary ratification process. Recently, both parties... MORE

Part TwoThe long-term military implications of the Russian-Georgian war are addressed by Viacheslav Tseluiko. He warns that the popular conclusions regarding the weakness of the Georgian army during the conflict should not be taken as decisive evidence of the inability of Georgian forces to counter... MORE

The Center of Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST) in Moscow has published a collection of essays devoted to the Russia-Georgia conflict in August 2008 (Mikhail Barabanov, Anton Lavrov, Viacheslav Tseluiko, Tanki augusta: Sbornik statei Moscow: Tsentr Analiza Strategii i tekhnologii, 2009., 144 pp., PDF:... MORE

Armenia is due to send a small contingent of troops to Afghanistan next month, in what will be a largely symbolic boost to the NATO-led multinational force fighting the Taliban insurgency. The deployment, approved by the Armenian parliament last month, has a primarily political significance.... MORE

Moscow has moved to revive its gas partnership with Turkmenistan and started unprecedented gas imports from Azerbaijan. However, Russia now faces Iranian competition in its gas dealings with both Caspian nations. This month, Russia’s gas giant Gazprom restarts gas imports from Turkmenistan. On December 31,... MORE

Municipal elections in Tbilisi and other Georgian cities in the spring will undoubtedly see another round of opposition demonstrations, with Russia ready for some overt involvement for the first time. Moscow is openly advertising its support for former Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli, leader of the... MORE