 RFE/RL Caucasus Report 8/13/2010 5:49:48 PM 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 . |
 Military Base Attacked In Ingushetia Unknown assailants today launched an attack on a military base in the Sunzhensk district of Ingushetia in southern Russia. More  Armenian Central Bank Revises Up Economic Outlook Armenia's Central Bank has revised upward its forecast for economic growth this year, despite expecting a slight slowdown in the economic recovery in the second half of the year. More  Aliyev's Azerbaijani Empire Grows, As Daughter Joins The Game A single holding company controls nearly every aspect of Azerbaijan's airline industry and operates its own bank to boot. One of the bank's owners? President Ilham Aliyev's 21-year-old daughter. More  Chechen Commanders Rebel Against Umarov The contradictory statements posted to the Internet earlier this month in which Doku Umarov first announces and then retracts his decision to step down as commander of the North Caucasus insurgency have resulted in a split in its ranks. More  Azerbaijani Plane Crew Criticized Over Evacuation Delay The head of the Istanbul airport says the crew of an Azerbaijani plane that went off a runway failed to comply with emergency procedures for evacuating passengers. More  Azerbaijani Scientist Released From Iranian Prison An Azerbaijani scientist has arrived in Baku after being released from an Iranian jail after serving a two-year sentence for espionage. More  Turkmen Oil Enters BTC Pipeline BP Azerbaijan has announced that Turkmen oil is now flowing through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline. More  Closer Military Ties With Armenia To Boost Russia's Regional Clout Russia looks set to strengthen its foothold in the South Caucasus by means of a new defense agreement with Armenia that will formally make it a guarantor of the country's security and pave the way for more Russian arms supplies to Yerevan. More  Displaced Georgians Protest Evictions Georgian Ministry of Refugees official Mariam Esaiashvili told RFE/RL that the ethnic Georgian families -- most of whom fled fighting between Russian and Georgian forces in 2008 -- were warned one month ago to vacate the building, which they occupied without official permission. More  Chechen Rebels Claim Gazprom Blast Chechen rebels have claimed responsibility for a small explosion three days ago near the Moscow headquarters of Russia's gas giant Gazprom. More  Medvedev Sacks Daghestan Minister Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has dismissed the interior minister of the North Caucasus republic of Daghestan. More  New Blueprint Proposed For Georgia, Abkhazia, South Ossetia Writing in "The Moscow Times" to mark the second anniversary of the Russia-Georgia war, Moscow Carnegie Center Director Dmitry Trenin proposed a new approach to resolving the deadlock between Georgia and the breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. More  Russia Deploys Missiles In Abkhazia Russia says it has deployed antiaircraft missiles in the Georgian breakaway region of Abkhazia, in a move greeted with alarm in Tbilisi. The move comes just days after a visit by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to the region, on the second anniversary of Russia's brief war with Georgia. More  Georgia's Lonely Unilateralisms RFE/RL correspondent Ahto Lobjakas argues that Georgia appears resigned to a ritualistic contest of wills with Abkhazia and South Ossetia from which the latter may hope to gain respectability by association -- and taint Tbilisi's in the process. More  Armenian Ruling Party Slams Church Service In Turkey President Serzh Sarkisian's Republican Party (HHK) today spoke out against Armenian participation in a landmark service to be held in a 10th century Armenian church in southeastern Turkey next month. More  Georgian Privatization Plan Falls Short The Georgian government's plan to raise some 170 million laris ($92.3 million) this year by privatizing state property is unlikely to be realized. More  Armenia Seeks Long-Range Weapons Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian says the Armenian government plans to acquire long-range, precision-guided weapons for possible armed conflicts with hostile neighbors. More  Four Jailed In Azeri Academy Killings An Azerbaijan court has handed down heavy jail sentences to four men found guilty of abetting a gunman who shot dead 12 people at the State Oil Academy in Baku last year. More  Eight Armenian Officers Discharged Eight Armenian officers have been discharged from the army and more than a dozen others demoted following seven noncombat shooting deaths last month. More  Interview: 'Many Americans Love Rumi...But They Prefer He Not Be Muslim' Ibrahim Gamard is a California-based sheikh of the Sufi Mevlevi order and has spent his life translating the poetry of the 13th-century Sufi mystic, Rumi. Murtazali Dugrichilov of RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service spoke to Gamard about why Rumi is so popular in the West and the problems of modern-day Sufism. More  Medvedev Visits Abkhazia On War Anniversary Russian President Dmitry Medvedev made a surprise visit to the Georgian breakaway region of Abkhazia today on the second anniversary of Moscow's invasion of Georgia. More  Azerbaijani Exclave Cracks Down On Street Vendors Police in the Azerbaijani exclave of Naxcivan detained some 30 women this week for selling food on the streets in violation of health regulations. More  Former Armenian Officials Jailed For Accepting Bribes Two former senior Armenian Environment Ministry officials have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms for corruption. More  The Little War That Actually Didn't Shake The World What were the results of the Russia-Georgia war of early August 2008? At first it seemed as if the war would overturn everything in the region and create a new global reality. But nothing of the sort actually happened. More  Following U-Turn, Umarov Turns On Udugov Two days after publicly disavowing as "completely falsified" the video clip in which he announced his resignation, self-styled emir of the North Caucasus Doku Umarov has ordered the "temporary suspension" of Movladi Udugov as director of the North Caucasus emirate's press service. A statement accused Udugov of "violating discipline" by the unauthorized posting on the website of materials "not intended for public distribution." More |
