Russian and Georgian Civic Communities Try to Help Refugees to Re-Claim Their Homes in South Ossetia and Abkhazia

Just like the past conflicts, the recent war in the Caucasus produced a vast number of refugees—people who were forced to abandon their property and look for shelter in Georgia and Russia. But with the military action a thing of the past, most of the South Ossetian refugees have been able to return home, while their Georgian counterparts are still reluctant to come back, fearing retribution.
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Russia Attempts to Prove that It Can Still Collaborate with NATO and the EU

As exotic and irrelevant as it may appear in the contemporary context, the very real piracy that presently exists as one of the most profitable businesses in Somalia had so far been drawing little attention from the media. But all this changed recently, when a Ukrainian ship carrying military cargo was captured and held for ransom there. The story then developed according to an unpredictable scheme, when it became the setting for Russia’s first major attempt to come back to the international stage in its newly-assumed status of a major global power.
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Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko’s Political Ship Is Sinking

When Russian forces destroyed Georgia’s army and sank its Western-donated navy during a five-day-long war in August in order to protect South Ossetia and Abkhazia from Mikheil Saakashvili’s suicidal policies, many in the West argued that this would send a signal throughout the post-Soviet space that the former Soviet bloc countries should seek NATO’s protection from Russia’s aggressive policies. However, the actual message that politicians in states like Azerbaijan and Moldova are deciphering is antithetical.
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Russia Profile Weekly Experts Panel: A New Arms Race?

President Dmitry Medvedev announced last Thursday that Moscow would spend billions of dollars on purchasing new weapons, space and CI4 systems to make the Russian military a modern fighting force. Medvedev made it clear that this would be in response to the United States arming of Georgia. Medvedev also said that Russia would use force anywhere its citizens’ lives are in danger. At the same time, both Vladimir Putin and Medvedev sent out signals to the West that indicate Russia’s willingness to engage constructively on strategic issues. Is Moscow indicating its readiness to engage the West in a new arms race or in a new round of cooperation?
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Russia Was Too Swift to Recognize the Independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia

It is natural for any nation to rally around the flag at a time of war, and to support the troops and the commander in chief. During the conflict with Georgia, Russians did exactly that. Democracies, however, have a healthy practice of going back and reviewing the way their leaders behaved in the face of animosity.
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Three Hours with Vladimir Putin

Speaking Thursday to the visiting group of Western experts and journalists, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin vigorously defended Russia’s policy over the conflict in the Caucasus, and blamed the United States for pushing Georgia into a war. Yet the tone of his remarks signaled Russia’s willingness to continue engagement with the West, and not a turn to an overall confrontation heralded by numerous observers in the past weeks.
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By Displaying the Georgian Trophies the Russian Army Acquired in South Ossetia, the State Is Sending a Propagandistic Message That Is Too Much to Stomach

At the Central Museum of the Armed Forces in Moscow this week, Russians from toddlers to pensioners looked with curiosity at lurid photographs of singed Georgian corpses, perused the belongings of dead Georgian soldiers and read patriotic speeches by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. It’s all part of a new exhibition devoted to the brief war last month over the Georgian separatist enclave of South Ossetia.
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Despite Their Turbulent Past, Armenia and Turkey are Beginning to Take Baby Steps Toward Each Other

On the surface, it appears that Armenia and Turkey, whose trenchant relations stand out as the most bitter in the Southern Caucasus, are now making gestures of reconciliation toward one another, precisely by holding a soccer match between their teams. However, the prospects of a brighter future for both nations are inescapably viewed – and thus, impeded — by the ghost of an ever-present past, as the issues of the “Armenian genocide” and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict remain unresolved.
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The Cases of Transnistria and Nagorno-Karabakh Require Regional Attention, First and Foremost

The recent crisis between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia has created speculation over possible further eruptions over the “frozen conflict” territories of the former Soviet Union, namely the regions of Transnistria and Nagorno-Karabakh. However, instead of continuing the recent trend in conflict resolution, rather than seeing them as a playground for grander, political pursuits between international powers, the troubled regions of the CIS need a new localized approach in solving their impending crises.
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For a Journalist, Covering the War in South Ossetia Was No Easy Task

Covering the short August conflict between Russia and Georgia was an exercise in sifting through propaganda and hyperbole and dissecting it for fragments of truth. As the dust settles on the war, the question of guilt and responsibility remains one of the most hotly debated, with the Russians upset that much of the international community has bought Georgia’s version that the spat occurred as a result of a Russian provocation.
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