Kavkaz

SUKHUMI, Georgia Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made a surprise visit to the breakaway region of Abkhazia on Wednesday, pledging half a billion dollars to strengthen the defenses of the Moscow-backed rebel enclave. Russia recognized Abkhazia and another breakaway region, South Ossetia, as independent states last year after Russian troops …

The Armenian Diaspora of Georgia faces considerable problems, said Stepan Petrosyan , RA Deputy Minister of Diaspora today to a question of a representative of the Armenian community of Georgia, at the opening ceremony of the 7-th annual All-Armenian Youth Conference in the Armenian resort town of Tsaghkadzor. 

DAMASCUS, Syria Minister of Trade and Economy Amer Hossni Lutfi discussed yesterday with Armenian Ambassador to Syria Arshag Poladian the latest preparations for holding a Syrian-Armenian committee for commercial, economic, scientific and technical cooperation due to be held in Yerevan next month. 

Moscow/Tbilisi Russia and Georgia marked the one-year anniversary of the South Ossetia War on Friday with somber ceremonies in Georgia, and defiant statements from the Kremlin. Georgian officials organised midnight bonfires in towns across the former Soviet republic, and church bells rang in memorial of victims of the August 2008 …

MOSCOW – A year after fighting a war with Georgia, Russia strengthened the combat readiness of its troops in the rebel region of South Ossetia on Tuesday and warned the United States against rearming Georgia. “Provocations from the Georgian side … are not stopping,” Andrei Nesterenko, a Russian Foreign Ministry …

Russian businessman Vadim Brovtsev has been appointed as the new prime minister for South Ossetia, caught in the middle of a war between Russia and Georgia a year ago.South Ossetia is one of two regions that broke away from Georgia. Brovtsev heads a construction materials firm in Chelyabinsk, located in …

Ukraine sold 34 tanks (33 to Kenya and 1 to Georgia) in 2008, Kyiv said in a report issued for the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms. Georgia purchased 15 infantry fighting vehicles and 25 armored personnel carriers. U.S. bought 1 IFV-3. Azerbaijan bought 32 APC-70. Ukraine made some $800 …

PARIS Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili called on the U.S. and the European Union Tuesday to send a “clear message” to Russia to help prevent a repeat of last year’s war between Moscow and Tbilisi. 

TBILISI The Georgian Interior Ministry on Tuesday denied reports saying that “three mortar shots were made towards the South Ossetian village of Otrevi from the territory of the Georgian village of Plavismani on Monday evening.” An official of the country’s ministry called such reports “disinformation.” 

TSKHINVAL Shelling of the South Ossetian village Otrev from the Georgian territory causes concern of the South Ossetian population who “are afraid of the repetition of the August 2008 events,” spokeswoman for the South Ossetian Defence Ministry Galina Guchmazova told the Vesti news television channel in an interview. “Taking into …