1,625 Georgian military servicemen are taking part in a large-scale international military training, alongside US forces, known as Immediate Response at the site of the fourth infantry brigade of Vaziani base.

The 10-year Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) between the Russian Federation and the European Union, which served to deepen and broaden relations between the parties, expired on November 30, 2007.

Days before the NATO summit in Bucharest began, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili rolled out a new peace initiative for breakaway Abkhazia.

Setting aside growing tension on a number of issues, Putin and Bush appeared eager to end their presidential relationship on a high note.

Speaking today at NATO's summit in Bucharest, Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said the alliance wants to welcome Ukraine and Georgia as members someday.

Davit Bakradze, the Georgian foreign minister: “As a result of an agreement between the presidents, [direct] air traffic will be resumed between Russia and Georgia in the nearest future, it is expected that flights will resume from the second half of March.”

The foreign policy priorities of the presidential candidates. Most put Euro-Atlantic and NATO integration front and center, but good relations with Russia is, for some, another major consideration.

Georgian voters will have to answer a question if Georgia should become a member of NATO at the January 5th plebiscite, which will be held alongside the presidential poll.

Georgia says it will move to formally ask Russian peacekeepers to leave the breakaway region of Abkhazia following reports that they seized and beat five Georgian police officers.

What Europe does want to do is to support democratic reforms in former Soviet states like Georgia and Ukraine, and push for change in autocracies like Belarus.

Far from offering the warm embrace shown Moscow by his predecessor, Jacques Chirac, the 52-year-old Sarkozy has been nothing short of blunt in expressing his views on Russia.

Interview with Ambassador Per Eklund, Head of Delegation of the European Commission to Georgia and Armenia.

Interview with Jaroslaw Walesa, the member of parliament of Poland.

Tashkent is now facing a difficult geopolitical dilemma: which force should it rely on? Uzbekistan’s strategic partnerships with the United States and Russia are acquiring special importance under these conditions.

SERGEI MARKEDONOV

I believe that the withdrawal of the Russian railroad troops from Abkhazia and the UN Security Council meeting, which was held on July 21 at Georgia’s request, cannot be directly linked to each other. 

ALEXANDER RONDELI

I do not think there is a relation between the UN Security Council meeting where the Russian fighter jets’ violations of the Georgian airspace were discussed and the withdrawal of the Russian railroad troops from Abkhazia.

VITALY PORTNIKOV

The holding of “Sea Breeze” military exercises and Ukraine’s joining NATO should be regarded as two different processes. Some people want to unite them, but Kyiv has not applied for the NATO membership yet. Ukraine has not received the NATO Membership Action Plan and, apparently, will not recieve it in December.

SERGEI BAGAPSH

What will Abkhazia do, if Georgia joins NATO? Abkhazia will do nothing. Let Georgia join NATO even tomorrow. We do not care about that.

EROSI KITSMARISHVILI

Currently, there are several negative points in the Russian-Georgian relations. The first one is Georgia’s bid for the NATO membership, the second one is Tbilisi’s conflict with the breakaway territories – Abkhazia and South Ossetia. There are also the problems of the bilateral relations.

TEMUR IAKOBASHVILI

It is impossible to settle the conflicts, on which I am working, without Russia’s participation, especially today when the situation has become so strained that the so-called "frozen conflicts" have got "unfrozen".

ZAAL ANJAPARIDZE

Almost all significant political forces in Georgia, including the ruling party, say that there are sufficient reasons for making the compromises with Russia that would not infringe upon Georgia’s national interests.

KONSTANTIN ZATULIN, ALEXANDER KONOVALOV, TATYANA PARKHALINA, OLES DONIY, LEONID KOZHARA, IVAN ZAETS, ANDREW KUCHINS

"Why do the Central and Eastern European countries seek to join NATO? For many of them it is a way to join the EU. Many countries took this as institutionalization of independence from Moscow. For many countries it was a way to return to Europe," Tatyana Parkhalina.

STEPHEN BLANK

In advance of NATO’s Bucharest summit Russia has decided to employ the traditional Soviet tactics of intimidation and blackmail to block NATO’s enlargement.

DMITRY MEDOEV, GURAM GUMBA, SERGEI ARUTYUNOV, SERGEI MARKEDONOV

"If to look at a map, one can realize that in the event of the conflict in Abkhazia the Georgian party is doomed to defeat, as has happened before. This is why Abkhazia has a very good chance of becoming independent," Sergei Arutyunov.

GIGA BOKERIA

No democratic Georgian government will ever agree with Abkhazia’s independence, because in this territory a few people with the assistance of the large neighboring state and the military aggressively hoisted the flag of ethnic nationalism.

ANDREY GROZIN

ALEKSANDR RAHR

GHIA NODIA

On July 24 Tbilisi hosted the first meeting of the State Committee on the status of South Ossetia. The Committee is intended to work out an approach to resolving the argument about South Ossetia’s status that would be acceptable both to Georgia and South Ossetia. 

SERGEI KARAGANOV

Сriticism towards Russia is not an attack, but a counterattack of a weakening West that defends its positions.

OLEG FESENKO, VITALY KULIK

Early in May the Tbilisi officials voiced that “it is necessary to carry on the political dialogue with the authorities of the Tskhinvali region”. But Mikheil Saakashvili’s government decided to negotiate with the “alternative President” of South Ossetia Dmitry Sanakoev, who is close to the Georgian government.

ALEKSANDR RAHR

As to the influence of the new French President upon the EU policy towards Russia, from now on Russia will have to consider the EU's opinion.

MERAB PACHULIA

Ambitions of the Georgian authorities to develop cooperation with NATO are largely supported by the population. There is a consensus on the benefits that the country could receive after acquiring membership of the Alliance, though contradictions remain.

ZAAL ANJAPARIDZE

Members of the “National Forum” and some other opposition parties fear that Georgia may join NATO without Abkhazia and South Ossetia, thus losing those territories for good.

GHIA NODIA

Abkhazia, an unrecognized republic of Georgia, held December 6 a “national gathering” to express its will to gain independence.

VLADIMIR ZHARIKHIN

The economic preferences, which some of the CIS countries have due to the Russian authorities’ decision, such as gas delivery at a cut price, etc. have nothing to do with the CIS Charter.  It is a matter of the bilateral relations. 

THIERRY DE MONTBRIAL

Thierry de Montbrial, director of the French Institute of International Relations, is perhaps the best French expert on Russia and far from the last one in Europe. A talk with him enables one to get a clear idea of the current situation in Europe, which is being torn by disputes over its borders, asking the question, who, why and for what reason can be considered a European?

SERGEI MARKEDONOV

The Georgian minister on conflict settlement, Giorgi Khaindrava, called the recent meeting between the leaders of Abkhazia and South Ossetia a "statehood game." While Georgian officials continue to describe political developments in the breakaway republics in this way, Abkhazia is taking a number of very important political steps that may give its cause a boost.

FYODOR LUKYANOV

The Russian government’s refusal to invite the Presidents of Poland and Lithuania to celebrate a 750-year anniversary of Kaliningrad can be interpreted as Russia’s desire to show the new Europe that it has more important and influential friends in the EU. The leaders of Germany and France Gerhard Schroeder and Jacques Chirac were invited to the celebrations of Kaliningrad's 750th anniversary.

ANATOLY BELIAYEV

Predictably, BP Azerbaijan has said that it does not want to export oil produced in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea via the Baku-Novorossiisk pipeline. This means that Russia, which is already losing its influence on the Caucasus, will suffer serious economic losses.

SERGEI MARKEDONOV

Russia's relations with Georgia are one of the most cute and problematic aspects of foreign policy in the Caucasus. Previously "fraternal," i.e. former Soviet republic, Georgia has become one of Moscow's most intractable partners in the former Soviet space.

VYACHESLAV IGRUNOV

The agreements on the closure of Russian bases in Georgia, which were reached after dramatic negotiations and moves, have cast a fresh light on Russia's role and future in the Caucasus.

SERGEI MARKEDONOV

The Russian military presence in Georgia has become the key issue of the Caucasian Big Game in the last few months. Discussions of the timeframe and speed of their withdrawal from Georgia overshadowed the problems of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

SERGEI MARKEDONOV

Many people in Russia see America's presence in the post-Soviet (Eurasian) area as virtually an attempt to end Russia's national sovereignty. Alexander Dugin, a prominent theoretician of Russian traditionalism, recently said the United States was trying to penetrate the "canonical territory" of Russian diplomacy. However, the military-political presence of the world's No.1 superpower in some ex-Soviet republics might become an important stabilizing factor.

Eurasian Home with a kind permission of Defence Academy of the United Kingdom publishes an analytical report on Russia's policy in Central Asia, written by Vladimir Paramonov and Aleksey Strokov.

Georgia has resolutely condemned Russia’s actions in Chechnya. Russia has severely criticized NATO actions towards Serbia. Later on the Georgian authorities tried to do the same thing in South Ossetia as the Russian authorities had done in Chechnya. Moscow decided to treat Georgia in the same way as NATO had treated Serbia.

The Russian foreign policy boringly runs around in circles: the row with Estonia on the historic past, the squabbles between Moscow and Kyiv over the Crimea and Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, the confrontation with Georgia because of its breakaway republics etc. After having made a full circle we are back to square one - another conflict with Georgia.

If NATO can bring Ukrainians rule of law and a decent living standard, it would already have justified its expansion. But judging by the way other Western reforms have been perverted in Ukraine, one couldn’t be blamed for having serious doubts. Probably with more candidness, Mr. Yushchenko pointed out that Ukraine can join any international organization that it likes.

The Georgian government has apparently been offering olive branches to the Russian government over the last two weeks, with the demotion of hawkish defence minister Irakli Okruashvili to the ministry of economy (he’s since resigned).