Liz Fuller writes the Caucasus Report blog for RFE/RL.
Will the new leader of the North Caucasus Republic of Adygeya be able to surmount the obstacles that frustrated his predecessor?
Many Georgians were fearing a cold winter (epa) January 5, 2007 -- Following the announcement in early November by Russia's state-controlled gas monopoly Gazprom that it planned to raise the price of natural gas supplied to CIS countries in 2007, Georgia and Azerbaijan have both sought to secure alternative supplies.
Azerbaijan's various fractious opposition parties continue to struggle to unite to form a strong alternative to the ruling party.
Mediators in the Karabakh conflict have warned that upcoming elections in Armenia and Azerbaijan could scupper chances of reaching a peace settlement.
Moves this week to curtail broadcasting by an independent TV and radio group have cast doubt on the future of independent media.
Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili was recently dismissed and named economy minister. The move was widely seen as a demotion for the hawkish minister.
Voters in Georgia's breakaway Republic of South Ossetia will head to the polls on November 12 to choose a new president and to participate in a referendum on the unrecognized republic's independent status. The same day, residents in mainly Georgian-populated areas who don't recognize the authority of the republican government will vote in an alternative poll. RFE/RL regional analyst Liz Fuller explains how the ballots are part of an evolving standoff between Russia and Georgia.
Moscow is revising its view that the Chechen rebels are a spent force numbering no more than a few dozen die-hard fighters.
(RFE/RL) PRAGUE, October 5, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Ever since May 2004, when Ramzan Kadyrov was named deputy prime minister of the pro-Moscow Chechen government following the death of his father, Akhmed-hadji Kadyrov, in a terrorist bombing, many observers have assumed that Ramzan would be named Chechen leader upon reaching the minimum age of 30.
Fourteen supporters and allies of a fugitive former have been charged with treason and with plotting a coup to bring him to power.
Former Foreign Minister Salome Zourabichvili could profit from the opposition disarray (file photo) (epa) PRAGUE, September 1, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- President Mikheil Saakashvili's August 26 decision to bring forward the date of elections for local and municipal councils and mayors of major towns and cities has triggered a storm of protest from Georgian opposition parties, including those that earlier announced their intention to boycott that ballot. And the apparent willingness of the ruling National Movement to "bend the rules" to permit parliament deputies to participate in mayoral elections has only made things worse.
The parliamentary elections in November 2005 brought many people out onto the streets in protest at what they believe was an unfree and unfair campaign (ITAR-TASS) The Democratic Party of Azerbaijan is the third opposition party to be rent by infighting this year. By the end of the year, it seems, its leader will have left to found a new movement.
Boris Yeltsin (right) and Aslan Maskhadov at peace talks in the Kremlin on August 18, 1996 (ITAR-TASS) PRAGUE, August 30, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- On August 6, 1996, as OSCE Grozny Mission head Tim Guldimann was seeking to mediate talks between Chechen resistance fighters loyal to acting President Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev and the Russian military, the Chechen forces launched a major attack on Grozny, taking control of the city within days.
The pro-Moscow Chechen president and prime minister are jockeying for position as the Kremlin ponders who should run the restive republic.
Last week, Georgian military and police units moved into the Kodori Gorge. The offensive has raised tensions with the breakaway republic of Abkhazia -- and with neighboring Russia.
(RFE/RL) PRAGUE, July 26, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Haci Mammadov, former head of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Azerbaijani Interior Ministry, confessed on July 25 to having murdered opposition journalist Elmar Huseynov last year at the behest of then-Economic Development Minister Farhad Aliyev.
Georgia is fighting in the Kodori Gorge in a bid to crush a militia commanded by the region's former governor.
(RFE/RL) PRAGUE, July 24, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Some Georgian opposition politicians and several Russian observers have interpreted the July 21 dismissal of Georgian Minister for Conflict Resolution Giorgi Khaindrava as a victory for the "party of war" personalized by Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili.
A failed attempt to elect a new chairman of the Musavat party's governing council brought to a head a confrontation within Musavat's leadership that has simmered since the 2003 presidential election.
PRAGUE, July 19, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- The Georgian parliament passed on July 18 by 144 votes (of a total of 235, and in the absence of opposition deputies) a resolution calling on the government to take immediate measures to expedite the withdrawal from South Ossetia and Abkhazia of the Russian peacekeeping contingents that have been deployed there since 1992 and 1994 respectively.
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