The parliamentary elections that took place in Georgia on October 8, 2016
served as a multidimensional political test. The Georgian Dream party, which has “slimmed down” in the political sense (four years ago it was part of a coalition), now operates as a single party with no allies. It ...
The worst thing about Trump? Globally, people like him and his supporters are everywhere and their politics maddeningly banal, as the ethno-centric politics of hate in the Caucasian Republic of Georgia demonstrate frightening similarities to the same politics in the Unites States of America.
By Brian E. Frydenborg (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter @bfry1981) October 10th, 2016
Patrick Robert/Corbis/Getty; EPA
AMMAN — Amid all the talk ...
... Russia’s bilateral diplomatic relations with its neighbours. By the second decade of the 21
st
century, implementation of this task had moved from merely maintaining connections to “playing on multiple boards at once.” After the Russia–Georgia conflict in August 2008, Russia acquired two new foreign political partners: South Ossetia and Abkhazia, losing direct diplomatic contacts with Georgia. A formal, even mathematical, approach to this issue would state that the number of states ...
The European Union Association Agreements with Georgia and Moldova came into force on July 1, 2016. The agreements envisage harmonizing the legislation to bring the Associated Members closer to the EU norms and requirements. But what does the European Union have to offer Georgia other than European ...
On June 30, 2016, the Georgian city of Batumi hosted a Russian-Georgian expert meeting titled “Economic Cooperation between Russia and Georgia: Opportunities and Prospects”. The event is sponsored by the Russian International Affairs Council and
Georgian International ...
... supported the South Ossetia referendum and will hardly favor the sentiments. President Putin has always dodged the question of South Ossetia’s status within Russia, hiding behind general statements on the will of the people and responsibility of Georgian leaders for the loss of South Ossetia. The issue is neither rebuked, nor receives serious consistent support.
What is more, there are no good reasons for South Ossetia’s joining Russia. Moscow now has everything it wanted: it has established ...
... Azerbaijan as a potential opponent at the European market.
The South Caucasus region cannot be regarded as a vital oil and gas market for the Russian Federation. Currently Russia provides only its strategic partner with energy – Armenia, while Georgia is partly dependent on Azeri exports, and Azerbaijan is self-sufficient. Even if Georgia decides to reject Azeri exports in favor of Russia, the region will not account for any vital part of the Russian export ratio.
Russia does not export its ...
On April 4-5, 2016 the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) hosted working meetings within the project “Assistance to Russia-Georgia Dialogue” implemented by RIAC and the International Center for Conflicts and Negotiation (
ICCN
). The project is carried out with the support of the Human Security Division of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland.
The ...
... economic and political power, which is now embodied by the Russian Federation as the legal successor to the USSR. Of the 15 former republics of the Soviet Union, four have no diplomatic relations with one another (Armenia and Azerbaijan, Russia and Georgia). Unregulated border disputes are the bane of practically all Central Asian states. Russia and Ukraine have not broken diplomatic relations formally, but relations between the two countries are at their lowest ebb since December 1991.
The new ...
... Caucasus
When looking at the September Working Paper, it is necessary to bear in mind that in 2011, Jos Boonstra and Neil Melvin identified the main problem for Transcaucasia as the “vacuum” left by the withdrawal of the UN and OSCE missions in Georgia. Jos Boonstra and Neil Melvin regarded this “international presence” as a counterbalance to unilateral Russian domination – an a priori negative factor, in their view. The authors did not bother to understand the reasons behind ...