Armenia

On Thursday, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan spoke with his Hungarian counterpart Péter Szijjártó. They discussed bilateral issues, as well as highlighted that parallel to the political dialogue, ‘the importance of further expanding cooperation, particularly in the economic sphere’.
Armenia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Paruyr Hovhannisyan said that if a peace treaty with Azerbaijan gets signed and ratified, they could discuss a new mandate for the EU mission in Armenia. ‘We don’t have to limit it only to the border. The mandate also includes trust building’, Hovhannisyan noted.
Hovhannisyan also said that Armenia and the EU have launched political and security dialogue, as part of which they discuss ‘new formats where we must start more active work around defence and security issues’. He noted that for the first time, ‘a big part of the new partnership agenda, which is under discussion, is dedicated to security, there is a separate chapter about it’.
Armenian Ambassador to Syria Ruben Kharazyan has handed over humanitarian aid — 80 tonnes of food and medical supplies — to Fawwaz Hilal, the Deputy Governor of the Aleppo Governorate. The aid will be distributed in Aleppo and Damascus.

Azerbaijan

RFE/RL has reported that Zamin Salayev, a member of the opposition Popular Front Party, has been faced with pressure in prison. He did not specify what kind of pressure he has been facing, or who it has been coming from. Salayev was sentenced to four years in prison by the Garadagh District Court in May in 2023 for hooliganism (use of a weapon or an object used as a weapon). The activist denies the charge.
Eighteen Azerbaijani citizens who were detained in Eritrea have been returned to their country after four months. Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that crews of the ships CMS Pahlavan, CMS Igid and CMS-3, operated by the Azerbaijani branch of the company Caspian Marine Services B.V., had been released.
The pro-government media outlet APA has stated that two of three teenage girls who were missing have been found and returned to their families. The search for the other teenager is ongoing. On 17 March, the information about the disappearance of three underage friends in Baku spread on social media.

Georgia

Germany imposed further entry bans on Georgian officials responsible for the crackdown on the ongoing protests. The identities of those sanctioned have not been specified.
Miners from the central Georgian town of Chiatura, who are demanding the resumption of halted mining operations with state intervention, have arrived in Tbilisi. Yesterday, they held a protest outside the government administration building and later went to the Georgian Public Broadcaster headquarters to request airtime.
Georgia’s fifth president, Salome Zourabichvili, is starting her visit to the Baltic states in Lithuania. According to her press service, today she will address the plenary session of the Lithuanian Parliament, and also plans to meet with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda and Parliamentary Speaker Saulius Skvernelis.
Foreign Minister Maka Botchorishvili is in Hungary. She met with her Hungarian counterpart, Péter Szijjártó, and thanked Hungary for its ‘support toward Georgia’, noting that relations between the two countries are ‘at a high level’.
Russia has continued to conduct trials in absentia against Georgian fighters in Ukraine. The state-run media outlet TASS reported that in the most recent known case, Nadim Khmaladze was sentenced to 14 years in prison by a court operating in Russian-occupied Donetsk.

Abkhazia

The Abkhazian Union of Intelligentsia has appealed to acting President Badra Gunba, Parliamentary Speaker Lasha Ashuba, and the acting Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Shamba regarding their ‘serious concern’ with the deprivation of Russian citizenship of public figures in Abkhazia, Russia’s awarding of foreign agent status to Abkhazian journalists, and the deportation for 10 years of certain Abkhazian citizens from Russia. The union called on the Abkhazian officials to ‘explain to Abkhazian society what measures they have taken, are taking, or are planning in response to these events’, while expressing their hope that during any intergovernmental consultations, ‘the unfortunate misunderstanding regarding the law-abiding citizens of Abkhazia who have merits for the country and society will be removed, and that no unjustified actions will be taken against them or other citizens of Abkhazia in the future’. The union also highlighted that ‘there are no and cannot be anti-Russian sentiments in Abkhazia’, noting that ‘those who claim the opposite are either openly lying or acting with provocative goals. We are confident that the union of Abkhazia and Russia is inviolable, and that all emerging problems will be resolved in the spirit of constructivism and cooperation’.
The chair of the Abkhazian Union of Journalists, Ruslan Khashig, issued a statement yesterday appealing to colleagues to challenge the status of a foreign agent in the Russian court system. The statement came following the inclusion of two more journalists — Nizfa Arshba and Izida Chaniya — to Russia’s foreign agents registry, making a total of three Abkhazian journalists listed as such. Khashig additionally noted in his statement that the union ‘does not see the need to again appeal to state bodies and officials of the country with a request to defend their citizens. The past time has shown the futility of waiting for such steps from the authorities of Abkhazia’, while emphasising that the union would provide all possible assistance and would guarantee its solidarity with affected journalists.

The North Caucasus

Two daughters of Chechen Head Ramzan Kadyrov have been hidden from the register of legal entities. The extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities on the companies Chechen Mineral Waters and Omikron 96 now states in the column ‘Information on participants/founders’ that ‘Access to information is restricted’, the Russian independent media outlet Verstka reported.
Kadyrov wrote in his Telegram channel on Monday that the Regional Public Foundation named after Hero of Russia Akhmat-Khadzhi Kadyrov had allocated almost ₽37 billion ($440 million) for military needs. It is considered the unofficial treasury of Kadyrov, and residents of the republic working in budgetary organisations have to send money there on a regular basis.
On Monday, a court in Moscow sentenced four residents of Daghestan to terms of up to 14.5 years in a penal colony over a shootout in the summer of 2023 in which a police officer was killed and another was wounded. The police came to deal with an extortion case related to car repairs, but it escalated into a shooting.
The Federal Penitentiary Service of Chechnya has denied any violations in the colony, whose inmates have reported reprisals and deprivation of food. The agency claims that the prisoners did not complain to the colony administration. The statement was made in response to an official enquiry from journalists of Russian independent media outlet Kavkazsky Uzel. Earlier, their complaints were reported by the opposition movement Niyso.
Anna Tsomartova, a student from North Ossetia who went missing in Daghestani Kaspiysk, was put on an international missing persons list on Monday after an expert examination recognised her resemblance to a girl spotted in Dubai (UAE). Tsomartova has been missing for more than a year.
Two people were injured in an explosion in a residential building in Makhachkala on Tuesday morning. According to a preliminary investigation, the cause was a gas explosion. The house had not been approved and was on the list of illegally erected buildings.

For ease of reading, we choose not to use qualifiers such as ‘de facto’, ‘unrecognised’, or ‘partially recognised’ when discussing institutions or political positions within Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and South Ossetia. This does not imply a position on their status.

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