 RFE/RL Caucasus Report 16.06.2009 A review of RFE/RL reporting and analysis about the countries of the South Caucasus and Russia's North Caucasus region.For more stories on the Caucasus, please visit and bookmark our Caucasus page . |
 Violence Intensifies In Russia's North Caucasus Two police officers were severely wounded by unknown attackers in Ingushetia on June 15, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. More  Georgia Slams Russia For Shutting Down UN Mission Tbilisi has strongly condemned Russia's decision to veto a United Nations Security Council resolution aimed at extending the UN Observer Mission in Georgia. The move brings to an end two weeks of heated negotiations, and means the withdrawal of the last international monitoring mission on Georgia's breakaway territories. More  U.S. Seeks Progress On U.S. Broadcasts In Azerbaijan Philippe Gordon, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasian affairs, met with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov and civil society groups in Baku, RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service reports. More  Azerbaijanis Question State Spending On Soccer Team Azerbaijani media and state oil workers have questioned the government's payment of nearly $1 million to bring the Spanish national soccer team to Baku for a friendly match. More  Blasts Near Georgian-Abkhaz Border Halt Rail Traffic Explosions in the western Georgian city of Zugdidi overnight have halted trains on the Zugdidi-Tbilisi railway, RFE/RL's Georgian Service reports. More  Russian Constitutional Court's 'Unconstitutional' Decision A new Russian Constitutional Court decision represents the opening round of a new Moscow campaign against the Russian Federation's so-called ethnic republics, and thus is certain to provoke new tensions between the central government and the peoples and governments of these republics. More  Former Official Says Moscow Punishing Ethnic Republics A former regional official says the Russian Constitutional Court's directive this week to 11 of its "ethnic republics" ordering them to eliminate all references in their constitutions to "sovereignty" is an attempt to punish those entities, which enjoy greater autonomy from Moscow, RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service reports. More  U.S. Envoy Upbeat On Turkey-Armenia Relations In Armenia on the first stop of his first tour of the region, the new top U.S. diplomat for Europe and the former Soviet Union sounded optimistic about prospects for the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations. More Inspired by The Atlantic's mock "World Leaders" Facebook group, RFE/RL presents a Facebook-style summary of last week's events. More  Top Judge In Russia's Volatile Ingushetia Shot Dead Gunmen firing automatic weapons have shot a top judge in Russia's troubled republic of Ingushetia as she was driven through town, Russian news agencies said, the latest attack in the mainly Muslim North Caucasus. More  East-West Corridor Still Functioning, Integrating Whether Turkey will be persuaded to sign on remains to be seen, but whatever the outcome, confidence in the transformative power of the East-West Energy and Transport Corridor should remain high. More  Israeli President To Talk Business In Azerbaijan Israeli President Shimon Peres will discuss business and energy issues in Baku during his visit to Azerbaijan at the end of the month, RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service reports. More  What Armenia Can Do To End The Karabakh Dispute The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan involving the region of Nagorno-Karabakh has lasted more than 20 years and displaced 1 million people. But whose interests are served by destabilization and rising tensions in the South Caucasus? More  Yerevan Election Compounds Political Polarization In Armenia Perhaps inevitably, the May 31 Yerevan municipal-council elections have resulted in an even greater degree of political polarization than before. In a scenario that recalls last year's disputed presidential poll, the most prominent opposition faction contesting the ballot, former President Levon Ter-Petrossian's Armenian National Congress (HAK), condemned the election as "the dirtiest in Armenia's history." More  Islamic World Reacts To Obama Address Initial responses to U.S. President Barack Obama's "new beginning" speech were generally but not universally positive. They ranged from a broad welcome by government officials and moderate Islamic leaders to outright rejection by Islamist groups. More  Kadyrov Orchestrates Public Denunciation Of Second Chechen President For the second time in four months, Chechen television screened on May 29 a grandiose four-hour live talk show intended to vilify, and to demolish lingering public support for, the concept of an independent Chechen state. On both occasions, Chechen Republic head Ramzan Kadyrov presided over the proceedings and steered the discussion in the desired direction. More  Georgian Opposition Deplores 'Politicization' Of Army The Georgian opposition staged a demonstration outside the Georgian Defense Ministry on June 2 to protest what they termed reprisals by the authorities against army officers both before and after the purported mutiny on May 5 by a tank battalion at the Mukhrovani base east of Tbilisi. They also issued a formal appeal to the international diplomatic community to monitor closely both the investigation into the mutiny, and what they termed "alarming processes" within the armed forces. More  Nagorno-Karabakh: War, Peace, Or BATNA? When the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan meet in St. Petersburg, they are expected to reach a breakthrough on the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the military phase of which was ended 15 years ago by what has become the world's longest self-maintained cease-fire. More |
