Liz Fuller writes the Caucasus Report blog for RFE/RL.
Saakashvili announcing the date of early elections to a nationwide audience on November 8 (AFP) November 15, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Both the Georgian opposition and the international community have construed President Mikheil Saakashvili's decision to hold preterm presidential elections on January 5, 2008, as a concession to the opposition's multiple political demands. But it may equally have been part of Saakashvili's larger strategy aimed at neutralizing any challenge to his authority and, depending on just how deep popular dissatisfaction and resentment runs, may likewise be a calculated risk.
Doku Umarov proclaimed himself amir in a video sent to RFE/RL (RFE/RL) November 15, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Adducing the Chechen Republic Ichkeria (ChRI ) Constitution adopted in March 1992, the ChRI parliament in exile ruled on November 6 that ChRI President and resistance commander Doku Umarov has effectively relinquished his presidential powers by proclaiming a North Caucasus emirate of which he claims to be the leader. A statement signed by ChRI parliament Chairman Zhaloudi Saralyapov and posted on November 6 on chechenews.com affirmed that the authorities of the president and government chairman now devolve upon the Chechen parliament.
Has Doku Umarov's declaration of a North Caucasus emirate split the resistance? (RFE/RL) November 1, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- In the two years since the raids on police and security facilities in Nalchik, the capital of the Kabardino-Balkaria Republic, the North Caucasus resistance has not launched a single major attack that has made world headlines.
Levon Ter-Petrossian -- preparing for a comeback? (file photo) (ITAR-TASS) October 26, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- The possibility that Levon Ter-Petrossian, who served as Armenian president from the fall of 1991 until his forced resignation in February 1998, may announce his candidacy for the Armenian presidential ballot due in early 2008 has not only sent waves of shock and alarm through the incumbent Armenian leadership. It has also triggered speculation in Azerbaijan that the United States may back a presidential bid by Ter-Petrossian in the hope that he would adopt an unequivocally pro-Western position and help to undercut Russia's influence in the South Caucasus.
Irakli Okruashvili may be out of the picture, but the ripples from his attack on the president continue to be felt (ITAR-TASS) October 26, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Former Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili's sensational televised retraction on October 8 of the accusations he leveled against President Mikheil Saakashvili two weeks earlier may have shocked the Georgian opposition that had rallied to protest his September 27 arrest. But Okruashvili's subsequent announcement that he is abandoning politics, at least for the time being, does not appear to have had any measurable impact on the momentum for political change for which his arrest served as catalyst.
Former Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili (file photo) (InterPressNews) October 4, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- The September 27 arrest of former Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili -- just 48 hours after he publicly accused President Mikheil Saakashvili of corruption, protectionism, and proposing the liquidation of a political opponent -- was hardly surprising. But the Georgian authorities could not have anticipated that Okruashvili's detention would serve as a catalyst for large-scale antigovernment protests.
September 27, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- As Russia celebrates the 450th anniversary of the "voluntary incorporation" of three of its present-day North Caucasus republics into the Russian Empire, historians are contesting the notion that a 1557 alliance between Muscovy and Karbarda constituted imperial accession.
Former President Levon Ter-Petrossian has given a biting evaluation of his successor's administration, saying it has turned Armenia into a third-world country.
Ingush President Murat Zyazikov (ITAR-TASS) Over the past three months, Ingushetia has been the scene of almost daily violence that has targeted, on the one hand, local police and security forces and perceived collaborators with the republican authorities and, on the other hand, innocent civilians regardless of their nationality (see "Ingushetia: Militant Attacks Increase As Cracks Emerge Within Leadership," rferl.org, August 1, 2007).
(RFE/RL) September 7, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- More than five years after Azerbaijan first embarked on talks intended to culminate in membership of the World Trade Organization (WTO), those talks remain suspended pending the adoption by the Azerbaijani parliament of the necessary legislation on trade liberalization.
Even though Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian is hardly the most popular politician at the moment, he is widely seen as the favorite for president.
(RFE/RL) August 29, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Three journalists from the Republic of Mordovia recently addressed an open letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin protesting a campaign undertaken by the republic's prosecutor to close down "Erzyan mastor," the last non-state-controlled publication in Erzya, one of two closely related Mordvin languages.
Journalists are not alone in turning to President Bagapsh directly (file photo) (ITAR-TASS) August 28, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- The leader of Abkhazia recently met in Sukhum(i) with a group of independent journalists who issued a statement in July deploring what they termed official harassment and restrictions on media freedom in the breakaway Georgian region.
Daghestan has 14 official languages and experts feel 13 of them are in danger of dying out.
Since a career FSB general took over as president, he has appointed his relatives and allies to prominent positions as the economy nosedives and corruption skyrockets.
Ramzan Kadyrov's first 100 days in charge are a classic example of Rabelais's observation that appetite comes with eating: in Kadyrov's case, the appetite for unlimited power and money.
(RFE/RL) July 2, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Senior political figures in Russia and in the unrecognized republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia have expressed concern in recent days that the escalation of tensions in the South Ossetian conflict zone herald a new attempt by Georgia to restore what they consider its hegemony over that unrecognized republic by force of arms.
Oskanian: "Azerbaijan is showing clear signs of a change of position" (OSCE) June 22, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Visiting Yerevan on June 5, Spanish Foreign Minister and OSCE Chairman in Office Miguel Angel Moratinos told journalists that there were grounds to anticipate progress toward resolving the 19-year Karabakh conflict at imminent talks between the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The current war in Chechnya that began in the fall of 1999 has, to a far greater degree than the 1994-1996 conflict, been accompanied by systematic, widespread, and egregious human rights violations committed by both the Russian military and pro-Moscow Chechen forces.
A major sticking point seems to be whether potential partners are willing to support Prime Minister Serge Sarkisian's 2008 presidential bid.
Load more
