As anticipated (see EDM, July 11, August 4) Moscow has initiated an offensive military operation by proxy against Georgia in South Ossetia. Although the blow had been expected in upper Abkhazia and may yet materialize there, Russia shifted the direction of attack to the South... MORE

Military tension in Georgia's separatist region of South Ossetia has been building up for several months. In June the head of the OSCE Mission to Georgia Teri Hakala told me in Tbilisi that military clashes were happening on an almost daily basis, that OSCE monitors... MORE

Since July 31, Russian state television channels have been airing inflammatory stories about Georgian forces firing on South Ossetia’s administrative center Tskhinvali, inflicting civilian casualties and causing a refugee exodus to North Ossetia (Russian TV Channel One, Rossiya TV, NTV, Itar-Tass, July 31-August 3). The... MORE

Moscow and Sukhumi have thwarted the proposed consultations in Berlin that could have launched a negotiating process toward resolution of the conflict in Abkhazia. The German government had offered to host the consultations on July 30-31, acting informally as mediator between Tbilisi and Sukhumi. The... MORE

Presidents Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia, and Abdullah Gul of Turkey inaugurated on July 24 in Kars the construction work on the Turkish section of the Kars-Tbilisi-Baku (KTB) railroad. A project of inter-continental significance, connecting Europe and Asia through the South Caucasus,... MORE

The Georgian government seeks to fill some of the main gaps in Germany’s plan for political resolution of the Abkhazia conflict. Minister of Foreign Affairs Frank-Walter Steinmeier has in recent days presented the plan to European Union, Georgian, Abkhaz, and Russian leaders, in that sequence... MORE

Moscow refined at the last moment its method of killing Berlin’s plan for resolving the Abkhazia conflict. Rather than rejecting the plan outright, as it did initially, Moscow received German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier courteously and seemed prepared to discuss the plan, even terming it... MORE

Germany distributed its plan for a political settlement of the Abkhazia conflict within the European Union’s Political and Security Committee --- which includes 27 delegations --- simultaneously with Germany’s presentation of the plan in Tbilisi, Sukhumi, and Moscow. Drafted by the German Ministry of Foreign... MORE

German Minister of Foreign Affairs Frank-Walter Steinmeier landed in Georgia on July 17 to promote a German plan for resolution of the Abkhazia conflict. The plan's general outline had emerged through semi-official reports in the German press during the preceding fortnight. The German MFA's special... MORE