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☆ Georgia's flagship airline bans president over Russia flights criticism - TASS
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-21 | by ( Felix Light | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

TBILISI, May 21 (Reuters) - The founder of Georgia's national airline Georgian Airways has banned the country's president from using its services after she said she would boycott the airline over its resumption of flights to Russia, Russia's TASS news agency reported on Sunday. Russia announced this month it was lifting a four-year old ban on direct flights with Georgia and removing a decades-old visa requirement for Georgians travelling to Russia. President Salome Zourabichvili urged Georgian authorities to thwart the Russian initiative, an appeal they ignored. Many Georgians oppose any rapprochement with Moscow whose troops garrison two breakaway regions - Abkhazia and South Ossetia - that make up around one fifth of the country's territory. President Zourabichvili, whose position is largely ceremonial and whose relations with the government are strained, has warned that deepening ties with Russia could jeopardise the country's chances of the EU one day.

☆ Russia warns Armenia against allying with ICC after Putin arrest warrant - RIA
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( Andrew Osborn | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

LONDON, March 27 (Reuters) - Russia has warned Armenia of "serious consequences" if it submits to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC) which has issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin, the RIA news agency reported on Monday. The ICC issued the warrant this month, accusing Putin of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine, a move condemned by the Kremlin as a meaningless and outrageously partisan decision. RIA, a state Russian news agency, cited a source in the Russian Foreign Ministry as saying that Moscow regarded Armenia's ICC plans as "unacceptable". The ICC warrant has the potential to complicate Putin's global travel plans if a country he wants to travel to is an official party to the Rome Statute. Reporting by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Alison WilliamsOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Factbox: Britain calls out Russia, China in updated foreign policy review
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

LONDON, March 13 (Reuters) - Britain published an update to its foreign policy framework on Monday, which announced increases in defence spending and labelled China as a challenge while citing Russia as the most acute threat to Britain's security. The new strategy towards Russia will focus on denying it any benefit from invading Ukraine; contesting Russia's "malign" influence globally and degrading the country's capabilities threatening Britain, including preventing access to critical technology and materials. Britain said Russia's growing cooperation with China and Iran following the invasion of Ukraine are developments of particular concern. CHINABritain said China poses an "epoch-defining challenge" with implications for almost every area of government policy and the lives of British people. NUCLEAR PLANRecognising the growing importance of nuclear to its security, energy and economy needs, Britain said it would publish a Defence Nuclear Strategy later this year.

"It seems to me that all the countries located around the Russian Federation should draw their own conclusions about how dangerous it is to take a path towards engagement with the United States' zone of responsibility, its zone of interests." Putin casts the war in Ukraine as an existential battle with the West over the future of both Russia and its former Soviet and imperial satellites which since 1991 have been courted by the United States, NATO, the EU, and China. Washington and the broader West, Lavrov said, wanted to punish Russia because it was perceived as "too independent a player" which challenged the hegemony of the United States. Lavrov, Putin's foreign minister since 2004, said that events in Georgia were orchestrated from outside and motivated by a Western attempt to claw away Russia's traditional allies. They say they simply did not agree with the proposed law and want a Western future which Russia, that fought a war against Georgia in 2008, does not offer.

☆ Factbox: Why is Georgia in turmoil over a "foreign agents" law?
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Jake Cordell | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

TBILISI, March 9 (Reuters) - Ruling lawmakers in the South Caucasus country of Georgia on Thursday scrapped plans to introduce what critics called a Russian-inspired "foreign agents" law after two days of intense street protests in the capital Tbilisi. Here is a guide to what's going on:WHAT IS THE PROPOSED 'FOREIGN AGENTS' LAW? - Swathes of Georgian civil society, including election monitors, corruption watchdogs and independent media outlets would have been covered by the law. - Rights groups say the "foreign agent" tag is a designed to make it easier for the government to discredit its opponents. - It says it is modelled on the U.S. 1938 "Foreign Agents Registration Act", which primarily covers lobbyists and organisations directly working for or under the control of foreign governments.

☆ 'Europe is very much open for you': Germany backs EU membership bid of Russia's neighbor Georgia
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Karen Gilchrist | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Robert Habeck, Germany's Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection, and Irakli Garibashvili, Prime Minister of Georgia, shared their views on Georgia's EU membership bid. BERLIN — German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck backed the European Union membership bid of Russia's Caucasus neighbor, Georgia, saying that the country was "very much welcome" in the bloc. Georgia, a former Soviet state situated to Russia's south-west border, applied for EU membership on March 3, 2022, one week after Russia's full-blown invasion of Ukraine. Georgia is one of a number of countries in the region that have hastened their EU membership bids in the wake of Russia's invasion. Ukraine and neighboring Moldova applied for EU membership in February and March 2022, respectively, and were granted candidate status in June.

☆ Georgian police use tear gas on protesters after parliament backs 'foreign agents' law
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/9] A protester sits on his haunches in front of police officers, who block the way during a rally against the "foreign agents" law in Tbilisi, Georgia, March 7, 2023. REUTERS/Irakli GedenidzeTBILISI, March 7 (Reuters) - Georgian police used tear gas to disperse protesters on Tuesday in central Tbilisi after parliament gave its initial backing to a draft law on "foreign agents" which critics say represents an authoritarian shift in the South Caucasus country. The law, backed by the ruling Georgian Dream party, would require any organisations receiving more than 20% of their funding from overseas to register as "foreign agents", or face substantial fines. Georgian television showed protesters angrily remonstrating with police armed with riot shields who then used tear gas. "The future of our country doesn't belong to, and will not belong to, foreign agents and servants of foreign countries," he said.

☆ Leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan set for first meeting since October
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 18 (Reuters) - The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan are set to meet for the first time since October at trilateral talks with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Munich on Saturday, the U.S. State Department said. The U.S. State Department said Blinken would meet Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev at 1235 GMT. Armenia has sent Azerbaijan a draft proposal for a peace settlement, Pashinyan said this week. Azeri civilians identifying themselves as environmental activists have been facing off since Dec. 12 with Russian peacekeepers on the Lachin corridor. Saturday's meeting would be the two leaders' first face-to-face encounter since late October, when Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted talks in the Black Sea city of Sochi.

☆ Petronas units in Luxembourg seized again in $15 bln arbitration dispute
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Rozanna Latiff | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

It obtained a stay on the award in France but the ruling remains enforceable overseas under a United Nations treaty on arbitration. The Petronas Azerbaijan (Shah Deniz) and Petronas South Caucasus units were first seized in July 2022, but the Malaysian government said last month that the order had been set aside by a Luxembourg district court. On Tuesday, Luxembourg court bailiffs issued a second seizure order on the units and related bank accounts, court documents shared by the heirs' lawyer, Paul Cohen, showed. The Luxembourg court could not be immediately reached for comment. The heirs say they were not involved in the incursion and sought arbitration over the suspension of payments.

☆ Armenia tells World Court Azerbaijan blockade is 'ethnic cleansing'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Stephanie Van Den Berg | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

THE HAGUE, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Armenia told judges at the World Court on Monday that a blockade of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region by neighbouring Azerbaijan was designed to allow "ethnic cleansing", a claim rejected by Baku. Monday's hearing at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), also known as the World Court, was called to hear an Armenian request for the court to order Azerbaijan to lift the blockade. "Such blatant acts of ethnic cleansing have no place in the modern era and this court is the last hope for the ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh," Kirakosyan said. Mammadov also said that Armenia's claims of ethnic cleansing were "distorting reality deliberately" and were "fanning the flames" of conflict. On Tuesday the ICJ will hear a competing demand from Azerbaijan for the court to order Armenia to stop planting landmines in territories it once occupied.

☆ Azerbaijan strongly protests to Iran after fatal embassy shooting
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Nailia Bagirova | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

"Necessary security measures have been taken to continue normal activities at the embassy and diplomats of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Tehran," he said. [1/5] A general view of the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan after an attack on it, in Tehran, Iran, January 27, 2023. It said an "anti-Azerbaijani campaign" in Iran had contributed to the attack, without elaborating, and accused Tehran of long ignoring its appeals to boost embassy security. Iran's Amirabdollahian later told Azeri Foreign Minister Jayran Bairamov in a phone call that he hoped the attack would not damage bilateral ties. Israel has had an embassy in Baku since the early 1990s and has been a significant military backer of Azerbaijan in recent years.

☆ Russia’s Influence Wanes in Ex-Soviet States as It Pursues Ukraine War
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Ann M. Simmons | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

MOSCOW—Escalating tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan are exposing the declining influence of Russia in its backyard, as the Kremlin diverts money and manpower to the war in Ukraine. The situation regards Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory in the South Caucasus that has been disputed, often violently, by the two former Soviet republics for almost three decades. The enclave is home to 120,000 people, mostly ethnic Armenians, but is internationally recognized as being part of Azerbaijan.

Fighting flared in September between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and the two sides said more than 200 soldiers had been killed. "It is depressing that Armenia's membership in the CSTO did not deter Azerbaijan from aggressive actions," Pashinyan told the meeting in the Armenian capital, Yerevan. "Right up to today we have not managed to reach a decision on a CSTO response to Azerbaijan’s aggression against Armenia. In his own remarks, Putin acknowledged some unspecified "problems" facing the CSTO, and said more effort was needed to bring about peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Azerbaijan enjoys backing from Turkey and is not a member of the CSTO, which comprises Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan as well as Russia and Armenia.

☆ The EU and the “changing” Eastern neighborhood - between “post-factum diplomacy” and realpolitik, Analysis by Dionis Cenușă
▼ + stars: | 2020-11-14 | by ( ) www.ipn.md time to read: +21 min

The EU and the “changing” Eastern neighborhood - between “post-factum diplomacy” and realpolitik, Analysis by Dionis CenușăOp-EdThe diversity of realities in Eastern Europe requires from the EU a "differentiated diplomacy" which emerges from the dynamics of local and external factors, dominant in the region ...Dionis Cenuşa, Senior ContributorThe European strategy for the Eastern Neighborhood is losing ground to the ever-changing reality. It is these shortcomings that define European diplomacy of post-factum, which remains relevant in 2020. First of all, Russia has structural levers that can influence the situation on the ground in the Eastern Partnership states. Instead, the emphasis of Westerners is on calming the political situation, without encouraging the opposition to annul the results of the parliamentary elections. Dionis Cenuşa, Senior Contributor Dionis Cenuşa, Senior ContributorAreas of research: European Neighborhood Policy, EU-Moldova relationship, EU's foreign policy and Russia, migration and energy security.

Persons: Cenușă, Dionis Cenuşa, Volodymyr Zelensky, Zelensky, Maia Sandu's, Fiasco, Igor Dodon, Maia Sandu, Vladimir Putin, oligarch Bidzina, Ivanishvili, Nikol, ”, Ilham Aliyev's, Alexander Lukashenko, Lukashenko, Hanns Seidel Organizations: EU, European People's Party, Social Democrats, Eastern Partnership, Eastern, Constitutional, Socialist, OSCE, Moldovan, Russian, Hanns Seidel Foundation, IPN Press Agency, Policy, Institute of Political Sciences, Liebig, Justus University, College of Europe, Twitter Locations: Eastern Europe, EU, Belarus, Nagorno, Karabakh, Brussels, Moldova, Georgia, Ukraine, Russian, Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Chisinau, Moldovan, Turkey, South Caucasus, Yerevan, Moscow, Baku, Turkish, Azerbaijani, Iran, Ankara, Minsk, Belarusian, Giessen, Germany

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