2006 Georgian–Russian Espionage Controversy
The 2006 Georgian–Russian espionage controversy began when the Government of Georgia arrested four Russian officers on charges of espionage, on September 27, 2006. The Western and Georgian media sources report that relations between the two post-Soviet nations have significantly deteriorated after Georgia and NATO agreed to hold talks on closer relations.''Putin fury at Georgia 'terrorism The , October 1, 2006. Background Russian-Georgian relations have largely been reported as tense after the November 2003 in Georgia brought the ...[...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Politics Of Georgia (country)
Politics in Georgia involve a parliamentary representative democratic republic with a multi-party system. The President of Georgia is the ceremonial head of state and the Prime Minister of Georgia is the head of government. The Prime Minister and the Government wield executive power. Legislative power is vested in both the Government and the unicameral Parliament of Georgia. The Georgian state is highly centralized, except for the autonomous regions of Abkhazia and Adjara and the former autonomous region of South Ossetia. Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which had autonomy within the Georgian SSR during Soviet rule, unilaterally seceded from Georgia in the 1990s. While, , the Georgian government recognizes Abkhazia as autonomous within Georgia, it does not recognize South Ossetia as having any special status. Developments in 2003-2008 Following a crisis involving allegations of ballot fraud in the 2003 parliamentary elections, Eduard Shevardnadze resigned as president on November 2 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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International Herald Tribune
The ''International Herald Tribune'' (''IHT'') was a daily English-language newspaper published in Paris, France for international English-speaking readers. It had the aim of becoming "the world's first global newspaper" and could fairly be said to have met that goal. It published under the name ''International Herald Tribune'' from 1967 to 2013. Early years In 1887, James Gordon Bennett Jr. created a Paris edition of his newspaper the '' New York Herald''. He called it the ''Paris Herald''. When Bennett Jr. died, the paper came under the control of Frank Munsey, who bought it along with its parent. In 1924, Munsey sold the paper to the family of Ogden Reid, owners of the '' New-York Tribune'', creating the '' New York Herald Tribune'', while the Paris edition became the ''Paris Herald Tribune''. By 1967, the paper was owned jointly by Whitney Communications, ''The Washington Post'' and ''The New York Times'', and became known as the ''International Herald Tribune'', or ''IHT ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Vyacheslav Kovalenko
Vyacheslav Yevgenevich Kovalenko (russian: Вячеслав Евгеньевич Коваленко) (born 27 March 1946) is a career diplomat and a former Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to Armenia. He served as ambassador to Georgia until the breakdown of diplomatic relations between Georgia and Russia in the wake of the August 2008 war. Kovalenko graduated from the Institute of Oriental Languages at Moscow State University in 1972, and went on to work in various diplomatic posts in the central offices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and abroad. In 2004, Kovalenko was appointed as Director of the Second Department of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and was appointed as Ambassador of Russia to Georgia on 11 July 2006. On 29 August 2008, Georgia ordered all Russian diplomats to leave the country. Kovalenko left Tbilisi on 30 September with 22 Russian diplomats on a flight to Moscow ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tbilisi
Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million people. Tbilisi was founded in the 5th century AD by Vakhtang I of Iberia, and since then has served as the capital of various Georgian kingdoms and republics. Between 1801 and 1917, then part of the Russian Empire, Tiflis was the seat of the Caucasus Viceroyalty, governing both the northern and the southern parts of the Caucasus. Because of its location on the crossroads between Europe and Asia, and its proximity to the lucrative Silk Road, throughout history Tbilisi was a point of contention among various global powers. The city's location to this day ensures its position as an important transit route for energy and trade projects. Tbilisi's history is reflected in its architecture, which is a mix of medieval, neoclassical, Beaux ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Military Intelligence
Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from a range of sources, directed towards the commanders' mission requirements or responding to questions as part of operational or campaign planning. To provide an analysis, the commander's information requirements are first identified, which are then incorporated into intelligence collection, analysis, and dissemination. Areas of study may include the operational environment, hostile, friendly and neutral forces, the civilian population in an area of combat operations, and other broader areas of interest. Intelligence activities are conducted at all levels, from tactical to strategic, in peacetime, the period of transition to war, and during a war itself. Most governments maintain a military intelligence capability to provide analytical and i ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous member state of the European Union. Warsaw is the nation's capital and largest metropolis. Other major cities include Kraków, Wrocław, Łódź, Poznań, Gdańsk, and Szczecin. Poland has a temperate transitional climate and its territory traverses the Central European Plain, extending from Baltic Sea in the north to Sudeten and Carpathian Mountains in the south. The longest Polish river is the Vistula, and Poland's highest point is Mount Rysy, situated in the Tatra mountain range of the Carpathians. The country is bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukraine to the east, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to the south, and Germany to the west. It also shares maritime boundaries with Denmark a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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British Helsinki Human Rights Group
The British Helsinki Human Rights Group (BHHRG) was an Oxford-based non-governmental organization which claimed to monitor human rights in the 56 participating States of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). Despite its name, the organisation was not affiliated to the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights. BHHRG was critical of what it characterized as Western interference in imposing democracy, and claimed to support the right of political independence from the west of a number of Communist and post-Communist regimes, as well as of a number of African dictators. The group also used the name OSCEwatch, indicating that it saw part of its mission as scrutinising the activities of the OSCE. The OSCEwatch and BHHRG websites are identical, and both websites openly refer to each other. The British Charity Commission removed the group's listing in September 2010, noting "Ceased to exist". Membership and funding The BHHRG was founded in 1992. It was run from the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Upper Abkhazia
Upper Abkhazia ( ka, ზემო აფხაზეთი, romanized: ''Zemo Apxazeti''; ab, Аҧсны хыхьтәи, Apsny xyxjtwj) is a term introduced in 2006, to denote the northeastern part of the disputed territory of Abkhazia, that had remained under Georgian control after the 1992 War in Abkhazia. From September 2006 to August 2008 its main village, Chkhalta, hosted the Government of the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia and was the seat of the Azhara municipal community. This situation came to an end in the Battle of the Kodori Valley in August 2008, when Upper Abkhazia was conquered by the Russo- Abkhazia armies, which had already controlled the rest of Abkhazia. Geography Geographically, Upper Abkhazia comprised the Upper Kodori Valley, the Chkhalta Ridge and the Marukhi Pass on the border with the Russian Federation. It was populated by some 2,000 people, chiefly ethnic Georgians ( Svans). The area has a size of approximately 29% of Abkhazia's territory and is ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jamestown Foundation
The Jamestown Foundation is a Washington, D.C.-based conservative defense policy think tank. Founded in 1984 as a platform to support Soviet defectors, its stated mission today is to inform and educate policy makers about events and trends, which it regards as being of current strategic importance to the United States. Jamestown publications focus on China, Russia, Eurasia, and global terrorism. Founding and mission The Jamestown Foundation was founded in 1984 after Arkady Shevchenko, the highest-ranking Soviet official ever to defect when he left his position as Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, defected in 1978. William Geimer, an American lawyer, had been working closely with Shevchenko, and established the foundation as a vehicle to promote the writings of the former Soviet diplomat and those of Ion Pacepa, a former top Romanian intelligence officer; with the help of the foundation, both defectors published bestselling books.Jamestown FoundationOrigins The CIA ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2006 Kodori Crisis
The 2006 Kodori crisis erupted in late July 2006 in Abkhazia's Kodori Gorge, when a local militia leader declared his opposition to the Government of Georgia, which sent police forces to disarm the rebels. The upper part of the Kodori Gorge was at that time the only portion of Abkhazia, Georgia's breakaway republic, not controlled by the Abkhaz authorities. Background The Kodori Gorge, with its forested landscapes and rocky hills, lies in the Greater Caucasus mountains, in the northeastern corner of Abkhazia. In spite of several Abkhaz attempts to gain hold of this strategic gorge inhabited by the Svans, a local subgroup of the Georgian people, the upper part of the gorge has never been under the control of the secessionists since the Abkhazian war. It has remained under precarious control of the central Georgian government, but the government of the area has effectively been run, until the recent crisis, by a local authority and warlord Emzar Kvitsiani, who previously led the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Emzar Kvitsiani
Emzar Kvitsiani ( ka, ემზარ კვიციანი, ; born April 25, 1961) is a former Georgian military commander and politician. He took part in the War in Abkhazia (1992–1993), forming a paramilitary group '' Monadire'' in the upper Kodori valley, guarding it from Abkhaz forces. He was mainly active in Kodori valley, which he ran ''de facto'' through his militia from 1992 to 2006. In 1999, President Eduard Shevardnadze appointed Kvitsiani to the post of President's special envoy to Kodori valley. In 2001, Kvitsiani allegedly cooperated with Chechen field commander Ruslan Gelayev in an attempt to bring Abkhazia back under Georgian control. Kvitsiani opposed the Rose Revolution, which subsequently led to confrontation with the Georgia's central authorities under Mikheil Saakashvili. President Sakaashvili removed him from his official government position in December 2004 and later disbanded the ''Monadire'' in April 2005. Kvitsiani declared defiance to the authorities ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |