While a proposal to sell Georgian gas trunk lines to the Russian gas giant Gazprom remains on Tbilisi's agenda, the Georgian government has made a different move that would increase Russian control over the Georgian electricity system. On March 5, Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli... MORE

A senior U.S. diplomat has caused a stir in America's relations with Turkey and Armenia by publicly declaring that the 1915-1918 killings of some 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire was "the first genocide of the 20th century." The statements by Washington's ambassador in... MORE

Armenia's governing coalition has been thrust into fresh turmoil by a bitter row between two of the three political parties represented in it. The row between the Republican Party (HHK) of Prime Minister Andranik Markarian and the Orinats Yerkir (Country of Law) party led by... MORE

A flurry of statements by Georgian officials in recent days suggests that Tbilisi is once again considering the high-risk proposition of selling the country's gas transportation system to Russia's monopoly Gazprom. The idea is deeply controversial in Georgia's decision-making circles. The individuals pushing for such... MORE

Russia's military and political pressures on Georgia, Moldova, and the Baltic states figured prominently in discussions on the eve and the sidelines of the Bush-Putin summit in Bratislava, but there was no indication that U.S. President George W. Bush raised those issues in his meeting... MORE

While local and international analysts continue to debate the pluses and minuses of Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliev's January trip to Iran, the non-governmental research organization Far Center, based in Baku has released the results of its recent survey on religious freedom in the country. The... MORE

Last week two events highlighted the unstable situation in the Georgian armed forces. The army's supreme command shuffled its top personnel yet again and "Justice and Freedom," a military watchdog group, released a report criticizing the government's performance in the field of defense from January... MORE

Two months after Russia killed the OSCE's Georgia Border Monitoring Operation (BMO) -- and many months after Moscow had served advance notice of that move -- Georgia's Western partners are still bogged down in inconsequential talk about organizing a substitute operation. Only two months remain... MORE

The Armenian authorities have been under domestic pressure in recent weeks to end what many see as the virtual impunity enjoyed by the country's tiny class of millionaire businessmen with close government ties. The Armenian version of post-Soviet "oligarchs" are widely hated -- and feared... MORE