When Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics” (DPR, LPR) and ceremoniously signed association treaties with these Moscow-backed separatist Ukrainian regions on February 21 (see EDM, February 22), Georgia’s own Russian-occupied territories—South Ossetia and Abkhazia—quickly welcomed the decision (Mfa.rsogov.org, Mfaapsny.org,... MORE

On February 22, just two days before Russian tanks and missiles started crossing the Ukrainian border, President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and President Vladimir Putin of Russia signed a declaration in Moscow vowing to upgrade their bilateral relations to an allied level (Azertag, February 22).... MORE

Husseini’yon: A Profile of the Iranian-backed Militia Threatening Azerbaijan Rami Jameel  The Iranian-backed Shia Islamist militia, Husseini’yon, has emerged in recent years as an insurgency in what has been a low intensity conflict between Iran and Azerbaijan. [1] Although the vast majority of people in... MORE

On February 22, a day after the Kremlin announced it was recognizing eastern Ukraine’s separatist Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics” as “independent,” Berlin declared it would indefinitely halt the certification of the Russian Nord Stream Two natural gas pipeline (Kyiv Post, February 22). And though... MORE

Over the last 30 years, demographic shifts in each of the post-Soviet countries have changed power relations both within and between them. The most obvious changes are in the size of the populations of each state, with declines in nine of the fifteen and increases... MORE

On February 1, the first day of the legislative spring session, the Georgian parliament adopted a resolution in support of Ukraine that fell short of mentioning the Russian Federation. The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party had tabled this resolution, which lawmakers adopted with 74 votes... MORE

In mid-December 2021, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev received an invitation from his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy (Trend.az, December 15, 2021), and within a month, he was paying a working visit to Kyiv amidst the security crisis around Ukraine and a large-scale cyberattack on Ukrainian government... MORE

Relations between Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan underwent acute conflict and tension in September–October 2021. However, since mid-October, the two countries have endeavored to manage the frictions and reduce the disagreements in their relationship. Recently, on January 26, 2022, Azerbaijani Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov... MORE

On January 17, the government of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian appointed a ten-member working group to handle the reconstruction of the railway tracks connecting Yeraskh (Ararat province of Armenia) and the northwestern tip of Azerbaijan’s Nakhchivan exclave (Arka.am, January 17). The group will also... MORE

On January 22, civil society activists from the The Shame Movement and multiple other pro-Western non-governmental organizations (NGO) gathered near the Embassy of Ukraine in Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi. While the rally was joined by many public figures and representatives of political parties, not a single... MORE