 RFE/RL Caucasus Report 10/15/2010 6:08:07 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 . |
 Georgian Parliament Approves Controversial Constitutional Amendment Georgia's parliament has passed constitutional changes that will reduce the powers of the president in favor of the prime minister. Critics say this will allow President Mikheil Saakashvili to hold on to power by seeking the premiership after his second term ends in 2013. More  America For The Hard-Working At the press conference announcing indictments against 44 members of an Armenian-American criminal syndicate operating in 25 U.S. states, prosecutors repeatedly said that in its scope and efficiency the organization put “to shame” any classical mafia-style criminal structure. Reading the indictment, though, things seem a bit more prosaic. More  Satirical Blog In Azerbaijan Blocked The administrators of the "Scorpion" blog, who requested anonymity for security reasons, issued a statement on October 13 saying that the blog might have been blocked because its satirical commentaries, photos, videos, and caricatures have annoyed some government officials. More  Russian Foreign Ministry Lambastes Georgian Abolition Of Visas For North Caucasus Residents The announcement by Georgia that residents of Russia's seven North Caucasus republics may visit Georgia for 30 days without a visa has, predictably, met with a negative reaction from the Russian Foreign Ministry. But Georgian opposition politicians too have questioned the wisdom of that move, as have some North Caucasus political figures. More Armenian-Americans In Fraud Case U.S. law enforcement authorities have announced charges against 44 members of an Armenian-American criminal syndicate in a $100 million fraud case. More  Five Years On, Militants In Kabardino-Balkaria Take On New Role Five years after the multiple attacks by inexperienced, young fighters from the Yarmuk jamaat on police and security facilities, the trial of the 58 men identified as the surviving perpetrators is nowhere near its end. More  Daghestan Faces Multiple Threats, But Not Civil War No Russian Federation subject is currently riven by a greater number of political, economic, and religious conflicts than Daghestan. Yet there is no consensus as to which of those conflicts poses the most immediate and serious threat to the cohesion of that multiethnic and economically polarized society, let alone how to combat them either individually or collectively. More  Daghestan's Jamaats Decimated But Defiant -- And Still Deadly In recent months, Daghestan has overtaken Ingushetia as the most unstable and violence-prone North Caucasus republic, with militant attacks and counterattacks by security forces occurring almost on a daily basis. More  Abkhaz Prosecutor Identifies Two Possible Motives For Mosque Shooting The Prosecutor-General's Office of Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia has identified two possible motives for the drive-by shooting in Gudauta in which one man was killed and two wounded as they left the building that serves as the local mosque. More  Iran Speaker Praises Armenia Ties Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani has praised his country's deepening relations with Armenia and described them as important for regional security during an official visit to Yerevan. More  Iranian Defense Minister In Baku Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi arrived today in Baku on a two-day visit to discuss expanding bilateral military cooperation and regional security. More  Armenian-Turkish Relations Depend On People, Not Protocols Richard Giragosian says that the best hope for real normalization is on the lowest level, people-to-people exchanges instead of state-to-state negotiations. More  Armenian Ruling Party: No Karabakh Bill Armenia's ruling Republican Party (HHK) says it will reject an opposition bill obliging Yerevan to formally recognize the breakaway Azerbaijani region of Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent state if it is voted on in parliament. More  One Year On, Turkey-Armenia Rapprochement Stalled On October 10, 2009, Armenia and Turkey signed two protocols aiming at normalizing relations. The signing of what many political pundits termed a “historic” deal took place in Zurich. But a year on, the future of the protocols remains unclear, as no parliamentary ratification of the documents has taken place in either country. More  Is Khloponin The Right Man For The North Caucasus? The Kremlin envoy's penchant for 19th-century imperialist policies, his clear pro-Russian and pro-Cossack stance, allied with his spectacular ignorance of the troubles that plague the North Caucasus, may prove disastrous for the future of the Russian Federation. More |
