On August 12, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili announced his country's withdrawal from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). However, recent Gallup Polls reveal widespread support for some type of formal relationship among almost all CIS populations, even Georgians.

Georgia and Russia have agreed to an EU-sponsored peace plan to end five days of fierce fighting in Georgia that has killed at least several hundred people and left thousands homeless.

MERAB PACHULIA

Over the past 10 months, most of opposition leaders have not enjoyed public support because they failed to solve important political issues and fell short of expectations of those who were strongly opposed to the government.

ALEXANDER ISKANDARYAN

The presidential election in Azerbaijan is of little interest in terms of influence on the political situation in the country and in the South Caucasus as a whole. The election returns are quite predictable, incumbent President Ilham Aliyev has no serious rivals and his easy victory was assured. 

DAVID BERDZENISHVILI

Russia’s decision to recognize the independence of Georgia's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia has been made not only by the Russian President and the Russian political establishment, but also, regrettably, by the majority of the Russian citizens. Few people in Russia criticized their authorities.

ROVSHAN IBRAHIMOV

When holding the military operation in South Ossetia the Georgian government tried to solve the problem of territorial integrity. If the military operation in South Ossetia had been successful, Saakashvili would have again recieved wide support from the Georgian population and his country could have been integrated into the Western community. 

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. 

ZAAL ANJAPARIDZE

Ex-chairwoman of the Georgian Parliament Nino Burjanadze who had scandalously quitted President Mikheil Saakashvili’s team right before the May 21, 2008 parliamentary elections, returned to politics the very way that was most expected from her cautious and pragmatic mind.

RAJAB SAFAROV

The Iranian Parliament plays one of the key roles in the government power system. It is significant that in those elections the turnout was high – over 60%, which is by 10% higher than in 2004.

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.

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).