TURNING OVER A NEW LEAF IN TBILISI?
Georgia's president appears to be enlisting precisely the wrong kind of support to help him implement a new drive against government corruption.
Georgia's president appears to be enlisting precisely the wrong kind of support to help him implement a new drive against government corruption.
As many as a million Armenians - almost a quarter of the population - have left the country in recent years, most simply to seek employment.
As Baku revels in a much-publicised "oil rush", questions are being asked about the true extent of the legendary reserves awaiting exploitation in the Caspian Sea basin.
Pork barrel politics in the isolated the North Caucausian republic of Kabardino-Balkaria is fermenting serious opposition to the government as well as unrest among the ethnic groups.
A Chechen human rights advocate offers a bleak perspective on his peoples' fate within the Russian Federation.
Assaults and a suspected firebombing have left the staff of two Armenian newspapers worrying about a politically-inspired clampdown on the media
While Russian bombardments continue, Chechen commanders and fleeing refugees claim that guerrilla fighters have scored key victories around the capital, destroying several Russian tanks and providing a route in and out of the city.
Armenia needs to resolve its regional problems and build a Caucasus-wide security system or it will be forced to make the difficult choice between local alliance with the United States - or with Russia.
Russia may never persuade the Chechen people - tens of thousands who are struggling to survive refugee camps here - that it bears no ill will towards the civilian population of the embattled Caucasian republic.
The Unity Party's election objectives appear to have been reached in Sunday's Russian parliamentary polls, driven as much by tanks in Chechnya as by the party's actual policies.