Latest Articles about South Caucasus
LITTLE TO SHOW FROM FIRST YEAR OF GEORGIAN ARMY REFORM
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
TIME SHORT, OPTIONS NARROWING, CALL NEEDED FOR A NEW GEORGIA BMO
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
ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT PRESSED TO REIN-IN LAWLESS OLIGARCHS
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
GEORGIA UNDER GROWING RUSSIAN PRESSURE AHEAD OF BUSH-PUTIN SUMMIT
Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov's imminent visit to Tbilisi appears designed for Washington's consumption ahead of the George W. Bush-Vladimir Putin summit on February 24. Moscow wishes to avoid discussion of its ongoing threats to Georgia during the summit. Lavrov may briefly put... MORE
GEORGIA’S NEW PRIME MINISTER COMES FROM ZHVANIA’S TEAM
The mysterious death of Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania did not trigger an immediate political crisis as feared, but the incident has drawn additional attention to the continuing backstage discord in the ruling party. President Mikheil Saakashvili had to take this intra-party drama into consideration... MORE
MOSCOW MULTIPLYING EXTRANEOUS PRECONDITIONS TO TROOP WITHDRAWAL FROM GEORGIA
After a two-year interruption and ten years of futile talks, another round of Russian-Georgian negotiations on the withdrawal of Russian troops was held in vain on February 10-11 in Tbilisi. The Russian side advanced conditions that amount to a refusal to withdraw its troops from... MORE
OSCE DELEGATION BEGINS RECOMMENDATIONS FOR SETTLING KARABAKH DISPUTE
The week-long OSCE fact-finding mission on Karabakh ended February 6, leaving both Armenia and Azerbaijan impatiently waiting for the final report. Ten experts from Finland, Italy, Sweden, and Germany, as well as the co-chairs of the OSCE's Minsk group from Russia, France, and the United... MORE
WILL ZHVANIA’S DEATH UNDERMINE GEORGIA’S DELICATE POLITICAL BALANCE?
Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania was buried on Sunday, February 6, becoming the 101st distinguished Georgian to be interred in the Didube memorial in Tbilisi. As the Georgian people paid their last respect to Zhvania at the St. Trinity Cathedral in Tbilisi, confidants of Zhvania... MORE
ARMENIANS COUNT THEIR LOSSES AS THEIR CURRENCY GROWS STRONGER
Armenia's national currency, the dram, has appreciated dramatically against the euro and especially against the U.S. dollar over the past year, hitting hard a large part of the country's population. The real causes of this phenomenon have been a matter of serious contention in recent... MORE
NEW GROUP OF GEORGIA’S FRIENDS FOUNDED
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria founded the "New Group of Georgia's Friends" on February 4 in Tbilisi. The specification "new" differentiates it from the decade-old "Group of Friends of Georgia," originally comprised of the United States, Germany, Britain, and France. That old group... MORE