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Independence for Kosovo may cause major challenges for Georgian diplomacy, Mikheil Saakashvili, president of Georgia, stated about that during presentation of a newly appointed Foreign Minister of Georgia - Davit Bakradze at the Ministry today, APA reports quoting Novosti-Gruziya. “We should all understand that Georgia is in a very, very difficult period in terms of the foreign situation. The fact that the process of recognizing Kosovo will be launched next week means that our country will face a very serious storm. But our country, if we work well, will avoid any storms. It is possible if everybody understands that we...

The outcome of conflicts between Georgia and its breakaway regions will depend on how the West handles Kosovo's claims for independence, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said in an interview published Thursday. Russia says if talks on Kosovo's final status were to give the province independence from Serbia, that would be a powerful precedent for South Ossetia and Abkhazia -- Moscow-backed separatist regions that are de facto independent from Tbilisi. A referendum on independence will be held Sunday in South Ossetia. Asked in an interview with Izvestia about the Georgian regions, Ivanov said: "It is hard to say how events will...

By Andrei P. Tsygankov Program Chair, International Studies Association 2006-07 Associate Professor, International Relations / Political Science San Francisco State University Russia’s decision to impose tough sanctions against Georgia after the “spy scandal” was met with almost a universal condemnation in the West. Western policy makers used a more cautious language, than most of the media, and even warned Tbilisi against offensive actions and rhetoric. Yet they insisted on immediate cessation of the sanctions, and the special representative of the NATO Secretary-General Robert Simmons extended his support for Tbilisi during his demonstrative trip to Georgia in the midst of the...

The London meeting of the Contact Group, which launched the negotiations toward defining Kosovo's status (Interfax, February 1, 2), is being assessed by the post-Soviet secessionist leaderships cautiously. They do not seem to assume that the outcome in Kosovo would necessarily set an international precedent to legalized secession. This is Russian President Vladimir Putin's professed assumption. On January 30-31, Putin called for the post-Soviet enclaves' international recognition and came close to promising Russian recognition if, as expected, Kosovo is granted independence (see EDM, February 2, 6). In the Contact Group's meeting, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov reiterated Putin's...