Regional

The 63rd round of the Geneva discussions were held on 4–5 March, with delegations from Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Russia, Georgia, the US, the UN, the EU, and the OSCE participating. All parties confirmed their interest in resuming the work of the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism in the Gali (Gal) District. The next round of discussions is expected to be held in June 2025.
On Wednesday, the Armenian Defence Ministry dismissed Azerbaijani accusations that Armenia on Tuesday evening opened fire at Azerbaijani positions.
Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan has said that Armenia ‘has not undertaken any obligations, including those related to the unblocking of regional infrastructure, that it has not fulfilled’. On Tuesday, the spokesperson of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry claimed that Armenia ‘signed obligations’ to open roads connecting Azerbaijan to Nakhchivan, and that ‘it has yet to fulfil them’. Azerbaijan’s statement came in response to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s article, in which he said that the Armenian proposals regarding the unblocking of transit and economic connections were ‘being rejected by Azerbaijan.

Armenia

Armenia’s representative on International Legal Issues, Yeghishe Kirakosyan, will be released from his position at his own request, Armenpress reported. Speculations suggest that Kirakosyan’s move came in response to Armenia’s possible call back of international legal cases against Azerbaijan.
Russia’s Ambassador to Armenia, Sergey Kopyrkin, told 24News that ‘the topic of military-technical cooperation exists’ and ‘is on the agenda’ of Armenia–Russia relations. He also claimed that no other country gave Armenia ‘any security guarantee that would be comparable’ with what Russia offered.
The Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), Imangali Tasmagambetov, told Izvestia that Armenia ‘remains an ally, and the organisation's commitments towards the country remain in place’. Armenia froze its participation in the CSTO in February 2024, citing its failure to come to its defence in the wake of Azerbaijani assaults on its border.
Mane Tandilyan, the president of Country to Live, a party affiliated with Nagorno-Karabakh’s former State Minister Ruben Vardanyan, has said that she suffered from medical complications as a result of her hunger strike. Tandilyan went on hunger strike to urge Vardanyan to stop his on 1 March. Vardanyan is currently on a hunger strike in protest against his imprisonment in Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan

On March 5, Ilham Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan, and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President of Turkey, participated in the opening ceremony of the Iğdır–Nakhchivan gas pipeline via video link from Ankara. Erdoğan said that ‘the pipeline’s current maximum capacity is 730 million cubic metres’.
Erdoğan also said that ‘Türkiye and Azerbaijan advocate for peace, stability, and prosperity’. ‘We seek only peace, cooperation, and collective development in our region,’ he said during the ceremony.
Azerbaijan has ranked second in Europe after Belarus in the number of imprisoned journalists, according to the Council of Europe Platform for the Protection of Journalism. ‘As of December 31 last year, 159 journalists were in prison in Europe. Of these, 44 belong to Belarus, 30 to Azerbaijan, 29 to Russia (28 to the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine), 27 to Turkey, and one to Georgia’, read the report.
Yesterday, Adam Mammadov, a lawyer, was sentenced to six months in prison on charges of defamation.
On Wednesday, the Khatai District Court refused to grant Meydan TV journalist Aysel Umudova’s petition to have her released into house arrest.
On 5 March, the Red Cross Committee reported that the government had informed them of its intention to close their offices in Azerbaijan. APA reported that they were currently ‘in contact with the authorities’. Azerbaijani officials have neither confirmed nor denied this information.

Georgia

The Tbilisi City Court has ruled to confiscate real estate belonging to Giorgi Bachiashvili, Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili’s former confidante. The court decided to replace a ₾2.5 million ($900,000) bail imposed on Bachiashvili in connection to a financial dispute with Ivanishvili with the confiscation of his property.
Poland has begun deporting ‘Georgian gangs’, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk posted on X.
A journalistic investigation by more than 30 international and Georgian media outlets has revealed that a call centre located in downtown Tbilisi stole at least $35 million from victims in Europe and Canada between 2022 and 2025.

Abkhazia

Acting President Badra Gunba met with Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday, during which he appealed to Putin to increase the electricity flow to Abkhazia, noting that the energy deficit is likely to continue until mid-April. Putin reportedly promised to help resolve this issue.
Putin also announced that he will instruct Russia’s Interior Ministry to work with their Abkhazian counterpart to issue Russian driver’s licenses to Abkhazians with Russian citizenship in an accelerated manner. According to Sputnik, entry into Russia for Russian citizens with dual citizenship who are driving without Russian driver’s licenses may be restricted from 1 April.

The North Caucasus

In Daghestan, local MP Rashid Isakov challenged the head of the Kazbekovsky district, Gadzhimurad Musaev, to a fight in the ring. Isakov cited a telephone conversation in which Musaev could allegedly be heard speaking negatively about Isakov and the residents of the village of Khubar.
Ramzan Kadyrov’s daughter Aishat Kadyrova, who has left her post as Chechnya’s deputy prime minister, has deleted all of her Instagram posts. Last week she said that the position of deputy prime minister was more suited for a ‘strong man’ and that she herself wanted to go into business.
Residents of several villages in Chechnya recorded video messages complaining about the lack of water. They have also complained about the lack of heating in their homes. Earlier, several villages in Chechnya complained about the lack of gas.

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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