The Azerbaijani leadership is showing its impatience at the continuing diplomatic deadlock over the disputed province of Karabakh. The signals coming out of Baku indicate that the Aliev administration is prepared -- at least in words -- to try to resolve the long-running conflict with... MORE

The hostilities continue in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia. This week the Georgian and Ossetian sides are accusing each other of firing at villages in the conflict zone. On August 12, beginning 5:30 a.m., Ossetian separatists were shelling ethnic-Georgian-populated villages and moving their heavy... MORE

The latest escalation in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia re-ignited a heated policy debate in Moscow on what should be the Kremlin's stance in the conflict. Significantly, Russia's policies vis-a-vis Tbilisi and the renegade authorities of South Ossetia are being sharply criticized by both... MORE

The preparations for the October 3 presidential elections in Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia region are gaining momentum and presenting political surprises. Sergei Shamba, the former foreign minister, has kept his promise to stay in politics after his party, United Abkhazia, refused to nominate him as a... MORE

For the first time in more than a decade, Georgia is now mustering the will to uphold the principle of the inviolability of recognized borders under international law. Moscow's policy has largely succeeded in obliterating the Russia-Georgia border in the Abkhaz and South Ossetian sectors,... MORE

On July 31, a Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry statement approvingly confirmed that a Russian company has begun maintenance work on the Sochi (Russia)-Sukhumi (Abkhazia) railroad. That railroad is legally Georgian, but is controlled by Russia and the Abkhaz. The Russian move violates the March 2003... MORE

On July 22 Georgia's Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources ordered British Petroleum (BP) to suspend construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline in the Borjomi valley of Western Georgia. The U.S.-backed and BP-led strategic $3.6-billion, 1750-km pipeline is intended to transport 800,000 barrels of crude... MORE

On July 28 in Moscow, South Ossetia's leader Eduard Kokoev told a news conference that "Abkhazia, Karabakh, and Trans-Dniester are ready to render military assistance to South Ossetia" against Georgia. (NTV, July 28). Coincidentally or not, Trans-Dniester's self-styled "foreign affairs minister" Valery Litskay was in... MORE

After the Rose Revolution, relations between the Georgian government and local media have increasingly caused concern, because the government has attempted to tame the press by administrative measures under the plausible excuse of establishing the rule of law. Consequentially, some Georgian television stations and newspapers,... MORE

The upcoming October 3 presidential election in the self-proclaimed republic of Abkhazia has caused a flurry of re-grouping among local political forces. The incumbent, Vladislav Ardzinba, cannot run for another term. New candidates are declaring their intentions and the front-runners seem to change daily. Sergei... MORE