 RFE/RL Caucasus Report 9/3/2010 6:17:07 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 . |
 Abkhazia: Refugee Return 'Impossible' The de facto prime minister of Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia says the return of Georgian refugees to Abkhazia is not possible in the current political circumstances. More  Armenian Opposition Rally In Key Yerevan Square Banned Yerevan city authorities have banned the opposition Armenian National Congress (HAK) from holding a rally in a main square but will allow it to take place at another location. More  Is Armenia Russia's Partner Or Pawn? Richard Giragosian argues that a new agreement may deal a further blow to Armenian sovereignty by deploying additional Russian border guards to Armenia's other borders, with Iran and Georgia, if not Azerbaijan. More  Monster Azerbaijani Flag Is No More...For Now We blogged yesterday about the unfurling of a huge new flag in Azerbaijan, which sits atop the world's tallest unsupported flagpole. More  Nagorno-Karabakh Marks Anniversary Authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh today marked the 19th anniversary of the disputed enclave's de facto secession from Azerbaijan and pledged Baku will never resume control of their territory. More  Russia Intensifies Focus On Misuse Of Funds In South Ossetia No less a figure than Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev has arrived in Tskhinvali in connection with the ongoing investigation into the embezzlement of funds Moscow provided for postconflict reconstruction in the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia in the wake of the Russian-Georgian war. More Azerbaijan Unfurls Huge National Flag With much pomp, the Azerbaijani government has unfurled a huge new flag, one of the largest in the world. More  Tense Days As Medvedev Visits Baku Moscow has sought to regain influence in the strategically important South Caucasus, and observers say Dmitry Medvedev's trip to Azerbaijan may lend insight into the Kremlin's long-term goals in the region. More  Umarov Names New Daghestan Front Commander Self-styled leader of the Caucasus emirate Doku Umarov has named a commander from southern Daghestan to succeed Magomedali Vagabov (aka Seyfullakh Gubdensky) as emir of the Daghestan front. Vagabov had occupied that post for only five weeks before being killed in a counterterrorism operation in the village of Gunib in central Daghestan. More  Azerbaijan Says Five Killed In Karabakh Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry has announced that three Armenian and two Azerbaijani soldiers have been killed in clashes near the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. More  Experts Point To More Flaws In Georgian Constitutional Amendments The Georgian authorities appear determined to enact as swiftly as possible constitutional amendments that many opposition politicians are convinced are designed to prolong Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili's hold on power after his second term expires in January 2013. More  Is There A Foundation For Peace Between Russia And Georgia? In order even to begin thinking about possible solutions, one must first imagine a Russia that is capable of genuinely recognizing Georgia's right to choose its own government and its own political course. But no such Russia is anywhere in sight. More  Russian Rights Activist Battles On In Chechnya A decade after Russia launched the second war in Chechnya, supposedly to bring order to a lawless region, Chechens are still being abducted, tortured, and killed -- this time mostly by the Kremlin-installed authorities who are firmly in charge. Kheda Saratova is one of the handful of human rights activists left who continue to risk their lives in Chechnya. More  Following The Tracks Of The 'Disappeared' on Georgia's Abkhaz Border As the world marks the International Day of the Disappeared on August 30, Georgia's tiny Tsalenjikha District, along the Abkhaz-Georgian administrative border, remains fraught with anxiety over the fate of its missing persons. More  Kadyrov Is Warned: 'You Can Run, But You Can't Hide' Precisely what happened during the fighting early on August 29 in Chechen Republic head Ramzan Kadyrov's home village of Tsentoroi remains unclear. But the version promulgated by insurgency websites is far more credible than the contradictory accounts Kadyrov himself has given. More  Russia's 'Federation' Myth Having created a "management vertical" and having destroyed all vestiges of federalism and the first sprouts of local self-government, the Kremlin nonetheless must hang on to the old banner of the Russian "Federation." More |
