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.
Georgia's president appears to be enlisting precisely the wrong kind of support to help him implement a new drive against government corruption.
A Chechen human rights advocate offers a bleak perspective on his peoples' fate within the Russian Federation.
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.
Georgia's NGOs are starting to flex their political muscles and are increasingly ready to tackle the government in the absence of a wide range of effective opposition parties.
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.
As the Russian bombardment of Grozny reaches a horrifying crescendo, vicious skirmishes are breaking out south of the capital where small Chechen units have retreated to their mountain strongholds.
Calls by senior figures in the powerful Union of Karabakh Volunteers for Armenian President Robert Kocharian to resign have intensified speculation that the Armenian military are pursuing a more active role in Armenian politics.
The Chechen government's efforts to communicate with Moscow - or indeed the West - are rebuffed. Negotiators are sidelined. And pleas for safe passage for the terrified civilians of Grozny are ignored.
