Armenia’s emptying democracy
30-11-2005

Sabine Freizer
Armenia’s constitutional referendum reveals a flawed political system ruling over disaffected citizens whose faith in western-sponsored democracy is being sorely tested, reports Sabine Freizer in Yerevan.

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Chechnya: elections vs reality
25-11-2005

Charlie Devereux
David Hayes
A Russian-sponsored vote in the ruined north Caucasus republic is an evasion of its people’s real needs, says a new human-rights report.

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Azerbaijan’s unfinished election
8-11-2005

Sabine Freizer
Ilham Aliev’s ruling party declared victory before the votes were counted, but the opposition can still challenge some of its fraudulent results, reports the International Crisis Group’s Sabine Freizer in Baku.

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Georgia’s Byzantine politics
3-11-2005

Susan Richards
The sacking of the French-born foreign minister has opened a new phase in Georgia’s troubled post-rose-revolution history. In Tbilisi, Susan Richards assesses the challenge facing a defiant Salome Zurabishvili.

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Musa Shanib in the Caucasus: a political odyssey
12-10-2005

Thomas de Waal
The meteoric career of an intellectual, nationalist dissident in the north Caucasus is emblematic of the region’s troubled post-Soviet condition, writes Thomas de Waal of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting.

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Abkhazian futures
23-8-2005

Andrew Mueller
A small, little-known corner of the southern Caucasus resists Georgia, relies on Russia, and is resolute for independence. Andrew Mueller reports from Abkhazia.

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Baku-Ceyhan: the geopolitics of oil
17-8-2005

Chris Smith
The oil pipeline connecting Azerbaijan and Turkey via Georgia is operating after years of protest. Chris Smith asks whether it will heal or intensify the conflicts of the southern Caucasus.

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Tbilisi, Georgia: the rose revolution’s rocky road
15-7-2005

Neal Ascherson
The liberating unity Georgians discovered in late 2003 is dissolving under the pressure of political disputes, energy shortages, and regional turmoil. In Tbilisi, Neal Ascherson finds a country more at home with its past than its future.