FEB. 1 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, visited Fiji to boost relations between the countries. Media speculated that the real purpose of the trip, the first by a Russian foreign minister to the Pacific island nation, was to persuade Fiji to support the independence of the Georgian breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
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(News report from Issue No. 75, published on Feb. 2 2012)
JAN. 21 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Alla Dzhioyeva, South Ossetia’s ex-education minister who beat a Moscow-backed candidate in a presidential election last year, demanded she be handed power. A re-run of the annulled election is scheduled for March 25. Political tension in the Georgian rebel state is potentially explosive for the region.
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(News report from Issue No. 74, published on Jan. 26 2012)
JAN. 18 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – In its annual growth forecasts, the World Bank said weakening markets in the West would hit the developing world in 2012. For 2012 growth forecasts for Central Asia and the South Caucasus were: Tajikistan 6%, Kyrgyzstan 5.5%, Kazakhstan 5.5%, Uzbekistan 8%, Turkmenistan N/A, Azerbaijan 3.1%, Georgia 5%, Armenia 4.3%.
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(News report from Issue No. 73, published on Jan. 19 2012)
JAN. 18 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili will travel to Washington to meet US president Barack Obama on Jan. 30, a White House spokesperson said. Mr Saakashvili considers the US to be a key ally. Georgia has pledged to almost double its troop deployment in Afghanistan to 1,700, the most from a non-NATO member.
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(News report from Issue No. 73, published on Jan. 19 2012)
JAN. 8 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Somali pirates freed 15 Georgian sailors and three Turkish sailors they captured in the Gulf of Aden in Sept. 2010, Georgia’s government said. Georgian officials did not say why the sailors were released or whether a $9m ransom was paid.
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(News report from Issue No. 72, published on Jan. 13 2012)
JAN. 6 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Taliban forces killed a Georgian solider in Afghanistan, the 12th to die supporting NATO operations, Georgia’s government said. The solider was the second Georgian solider to die in a week. Georgia’s troop deployment in Afghanistan is one of the biggest by a non-NATO member.
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(News report from Issue No. 72, published on Jan. 13 2012)
DEC. 30 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia exchanged 13 prisoners with the rebel state of South Ossetia, the largest swap since the end of a war in Aug. 2008. The OSCE and the European Union brokered prisoner swaps are considered an important step in restoring trust. In Feb. 2011, the sides exchanged 11 prisoners each.
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(News report from Issue No. 71, published on Jan. 5 2012)
DEC. 27 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – A Georgian court denied citizenship to Bidzina Ivanishvili, the country’s richest man and main political rival to President Mikheil Saakashvili. Mr Ivanishvili lives in Georgia and was born in the country but he currently holds Russian and French citizenship. He has said he will renounce both in order to become a Georgian citizen and enter politics.
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(News report from Issue No. 71, published on Jan. 5 2012)
JAN. 1 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – A blast killed a Georgian soldier in Afghanistan, the 11th to die supporting the US-led war, the government said. Georgia currently has 900 soldiers in Afghanistan, one of the biggest from a non-NATO member. One of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s main ambitions is to join NATO.
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(News report from Issue No. 71, published on Jan. 5 2012)
DEC. 10 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Political instability from a disputed Nov. 27 presidential election continues to stalk the Georgian breakaway region of South Ossetia.
After 10 days of protests the disqualified winner of the election Alla Dzhioyeva, a former education minister, agreed to call off further demonstrations.
In the deal Eduard Kokoity resigned as president on Dec. 10 and Ms Dzhioyeva will be allowed to challenge the Kremlin-backed candidate Anatoly Bibilov, the emergencies minister, in an election re-run in March. PM Vadim Brotsev will become the interim president.
Ms Dzhioyeva had shocked the Kremlin by winning around 56% of the vote in a second round run-off against Mr Bibilov. Both support close ties with Moscow but Ms Dzhioyeva ran a vigorous campaign against corruption while Mr Bibilov’s campaign appeared lacklustre and complacent.
A few days after the election, though, South Ossetia’s central election commission annulled the vote and banned Ms Dzhioyeva from a re-run for apparently bribing voters. She denied this.
South Ossetia, a mountainous sliver of land of 70,000 people, is awash with weapons and violence is never far below the surface. Since a 2008 war with Georgia, Russia has recognised the independence of South Ossetia and the other Georgian breakaway region of Abkhazia.
Politicians in Georgia have likened the in-fighting to two squabbling mafia groups.
But social and political tension in South Ossetia and Abkhazia matters. It can spread easily and warm up one of the South Caucasus’ so-called frozen conflicts.
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(News report from Issue No. 69, published on Dec. 14 2011)