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Georgia’s party-ban hearing enters its second week with no opposition motion grantedRahmon nominates his legal adviser to chair the election commission before the 2027 voteUzbekistan sets a 300,000 tonne quota on food makers’ white sugar imports from 2027Azerbaijan’s gas export revenue falls 4.8 percent in eight months on flat volumes
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Caucasus

Coverage across the South Caucasus — Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.

234 stories
A two-bar chart comparing Azerbaijan's average gas export price of 349 dollars per thousand cubic metres with the 109 dollars Georgia paid in January to August 2026, the Georgia bar in amber.
EnergyBrief27 Oct

Azerbaijan’s gas export revenue falls 4.8 percent in eight months on flat volumes

Azerbaijan earned $5.711 billion from 16.378 billion cubic metres of gas exports in January to August, 4.8 percent less than a year earlier on a volume 0.5 percent lower, according to State Statistics Committee data Trend published today. Georgia paid about a third of the average price. Iran was the only import supplier, where Russia and Turkmenistan had been a year earlier.

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  1. A slate-blue cord stretched taut between two posts standing in sand, the right-hand post painted amber.
    PoliticsBrief27 Oct

    Georgia’s party-ban hearing enters its second week with no opposition motion granted

    The Constitutional Court resumes at noon today with the presentation of Ana Tsitlidze of the United National Movement, its chairman Revaz Nadaraia said. The plenum of seven judges has granted none of the opposition’s motions since the case opened on 21 October. On Monday Nadaraia warned a UNM representative that doubting the court’s impartiality has its limit.

  2. A tall stack of blank slate-blue paper slips bound with an amber band stands beside a stack of three on a sand-coloured table.
    PoliticsAnalysis27 Oct

    Armenia’s ruling party tops 18 of 19 local votes, and its leader is ‘by no means happy’

    Armenia’s Central Electoral Commission gives Civil Contract first place in 18 of the 19 communities that voted by party lists on Sunday, with shares above 90 percent in five where it ran alone. On Monday Nikol Pashinyan said he was ‘by no means happy’ with such figures and that Armenia needs an opposition that puts the state first. Parliament sits today with the TRIPP agreement on its agenda.

  3. Six identical conference chairs stand in a row against a sand wall, five slate blue and one amber chair pushed back out of the line.
    PoliticsBrief26 Oct

    Armenia has effectively already withdrawn from the CSTO, Masadykov says

    Taalatbek Masadykov, secretary general of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, said Armenia no longer takes part in the bloc’s decisions, exercises or core activities and has in effect left, Armenpress reported on Friday, citing TASS. He did not rule out Armenia’s membership coming up at the Collective Security Council in Moscow on 11 November. Armenia’s parliament debates ratification of the TRIPP agreement on Tuesday.

  4. Two railway tracks cross a sand-coloured quay and end at a raised ferry ramp above slate blue sea water, an amber signal lamp beside the ramp.
    PoliticsBrief26 Oct

    Central Asia’s five foreign ministers meet Georgia’s in Batumi for the first time

    The foreign ministers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan met Maka Botchorishvili in Batumi on Friday in the first meeting of this format, and visited the port with the head of Georgia’s Maritime Transport Agency. The Middle Corridor, digital freight documents and port and rail capacity filled the agenda. Botchorishvili called closer ties with Central Asia a key foreign policy priority for Georgia.

  5. The cut face of a thick submarine power cable shows concentric layers of copper, slate blue insulation and steel armour, with one amber fibre inside.
    EnergyBrief26 Oct

    Four governments approve the Black Sea cable study and GECO puts the cost at €22.1 billion

    The feasibility study for the Caspian to Black Sea to Europe green energy corridor is complete and approved by the governments of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania and Hungary, the project company GECO said in an investment presentation reported by APA on Saturday. The company puts total investment at about €22.1 billion and plans three high-voltage direct current lines of 1.3 gigawatts each, the first in 2032.

  6. A line chart of Azeri Light’s five daily prints from 20 to 24 October rising from 118.53 to 126.59 dollars a barrel, the last point in amber.
    EnergyBrief26 Oct

    Azeri Light ends the week at $126.59 after a 3.8 percent jump on Saturday

    Report.az’s Saturday print put Azeri Light at $126.59 a barrel, up $4.64 on Friday’s print and the largest single step of the week. Over the four prints since Monday’s $118.53 the grade has gained 6.8 percent by CAW’s arithmetic. Azerbaijan’s budget for this year assumes $65.

  7. An empty wooden witness box stands alone in a wide bare hall with slate blue walls, a small amber marker on its rail.
    PoliticsBrief26 Oct

    Georgia’s Constitutional Court rules today on summoning Ivanishvili in the party-ban case

    Georgia’s Constitutional Court resumes its hearing on the banning of five opposition parties at 14:00 today, 26 October, after three days of sittings in Batumi. The plenum will first rule on a motion by Gakharia’s party to question Bidzina Ivanishvili and other Georgian Dream leaders as witnesses, then turn to the merits. Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze says the five are in reality one party.

  8. A coastal refinery in silhouette at dusk, reflected in still water, with one amber flare on a stack.
    Turkish FactorBrief23 Oct

    SOCAR Turkiye refinances $1.6 billion with 22 banks at SOFR plus 230 basis points

    SOCAR Turkiye raised $1.6 billion of five-year financing from 22 banks of Europe, the Far East and the Middle East to refinance existing obligations, Report wrote on 21 October citing the company. First Abu Dhabi Bank and Mizuho led the deal, demand was 1.8 times the target, the margin is SOFR plus 230 basis points and SOCAR guarantees the loan. The refinanced loans are not named.

  9. A vast empty hearing hall seen from above, with a single folder tied in amber ribbon on the small central table.
    PoliticsBrief23 Oct

    Lelo’s motions fall on day two in Batumi as Japaridze asks what the party is accused of

    The Constitutional Court rejected every motion by Lelo Strong Georgia on the second day of hearing Georgian Dream’s suit to ban five opposition parties, including referral to the European Court of Human Rights and an invitation to Venice Commission experts, Badri Japaridze told reporters on 22 October. The hearing resumes on 23 October. A Georgian Dream committee chairman defended the new channel to Moscow.

  10. Close-up of a brass door chain holding a slate-blue door ajar, its last link catching an amber highlight.
    PoliticsAnalysis23 Oct

    Pashinyan calls the EAEU report a third attempt to change Armenia’s government

    Asked on 22 October about the four governments’ report on suspending the EAEU treaty for Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan said member states have no right to expel a member and called the report a third attempt to change the government after 2023 and June 2026. He ruled out an economic apocalypse from gas at $300, and on Friday the CSTO’s secretary general said Armenia had de facto left that bloc.

  11. A heavy steel chain link cut in cross-section and polished flat, the weld seam visible inside as a lighter band, lying on warm sand.
    PoliticsBrief22 Oct

    Aliyev approves the alliance treaty with Kyrgyzstan and takes Erdogan’s call about Ankara

    Ilham Aliyev signed on 21 October the law approving the Treaty on Allied Relations between Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan, signed at Cholpon-Ata on 31 July 2026, Report said at 17:13 Baku. The same evening Recep Tayyip Erdogan telephoned to repeat his congratulations on 35 years of independence and to invite Aliyev to the 13th Organisation of Turkic States summit in Ankara on 29 and 30 October.

  12. A heavy wooden courtroom door slightly ajar in a dim corridor, a blade of light from inside across the floor and a brass handle catching amber light.
    PoliticsBrief22 Oct

    Georgia’s party-ban court keeps its judges and Kobakhidze names a Russia envoy

    On the first day of the hearing on banning five opposition parties, the Constitutional Court’s plenum rejected the motions to recuse its judges and removed a National Movement leader from the room for the rest of the proceedings. In Tbilisi the same afternoon Irakli Kobakhidze appointed Giorgi Zurabashvili his special representative for relations with Russia and said no new phase was beginning.

  13. Five brass padlocks on one chain, four locked and the fifth hanging open with no key, the open shackle catching amber light.
    PoliticsAnalysis22 Oct

    Armenia knows of no way to suspend an EAEU member, Mirzoyan says

    Armenia’s foreign minister said on 21 October that his government knows of no legal mechanism by which four EAEU members can suspend a fifth, that sovereignty takes precedence over trade, and that he does not know how far a unilateral gas price rise would be in the spirit of partnership. Earlier that afternoon a parliamentary committee voted four to one for the TRIPP agreement with the United States.

  14. An empty plenary hall after a sitting, with curved rows of desks and microphones, papers on the rostrum and one amber desk lamp still lit.
    Turkish FactorBrief21 Oct

    TurkPA closes its 15th plenary in Bishkek with a declaration and the next session in Türkiye

    The Bishkek Declaration ended the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic States’ 15th plenary on Tuesday, the assembly’s site reported, after the speakers of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Türkiye, the Turkish Cypriot speaker as an observer and Uzbekistan’s Senate chair Tanzila Narbayeva as a guest had spoken. On the agenda were four model laws, the 2027 budget and the election of two deputy secretaries general.

  15. Enormous steel pipe piles stacked in a low pyramid on an assembly quay at dusk, with a grey sea behind and one amber work lamp.
    EnergyBrief21 Oct

    BP starts offshore construction on the $2.9 billion Shah Deniz Compression project

    Four piles about 70 metres long and 292 tonnes each now stand where the compression platform’s jacket is to be installed in the first half of 2028, BP Azerbaijan said on Tuesday in the Baku agency Report’s account. The platform is to recover about 50 billion cubic metres of gas and 25 million barrels of condensate, and Azeri Light sold at $118.53 the same morning.

  16. A thick stack of signed pages on a dark judge's desk under a heavy glass paperweight, with an amber ribbon bookmark hanging from it.
    PoliticsBrief21 Oct

    Georgia’s Constitutional Court opens hearings on a bid to ban five opposition parties

    A lawsuit signed by 88 Georgian Dream MPs in the 150-seat parliament asks the Constitutional Court to declare five opposition parties unconstitutional: the United National Movement, the Coalition for Change, Strong Georgia, the Federalist Party and Gakharia’s For Georgia. Substantive hearings run in Batumi on 21, 22 and 23 October, and the opposition will protest outside the court from 11:00 while its lawyers sit inside.

  17. A thick mooring rope pulled taut between two iron bollards on a quay, its fibres splitting at one point with a single amber strand showing.
    PoliticsAnalysis21 Oct

    Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan sign an EAEU appeal that prices a suspension of Armenia

    The heads of government of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan sent the Eurasian Economic Commission on Tuesday a report on what suspending the union treaty for Armenia would cost: gas assumed at $300 instead of $177.50 a thousand cubic metres, trade with the union cut by 55.6%, remittances from Russia halved. Their appeal goes to four presidents and Armenia’s prime minister, two months before the presidents’ December date.

  18. Bar chart of Azerbaijan's crude exports in the first nine months of 2026 in million tonnes by buyer: Italy 8.88, Czechia 1.33, Romania 1.01, Germany 0.63 and India 0.52 highlighted.
    EnergyBrief20 Oct

    Azerbaijan’s crude exports fell 6.9% in volume and rose 13% in value over nine months

    The State Customs Committee’s table for January to September puts crude exports at 15.83 million tonnes worth $10.10 billion, with Italy taking 56% of the tonnage. India’s purchases rose fourfold to 524,000 tonnes, and the agency Report has printed no Azeri Light price since Saturday.

  19. A gravel road embankment curving through a dry mountain valley at dusk, with a single amber marker post in the foreground.
    PoliticsBrief20 Oct

    Armenia’s parliamentary committee takes up the TRIPP agreement on Wednesday

    The National Assembly’s foreign relations committee debates the ratification of the framework agreement on strategic cooperation with the United States on the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity on Wednesday 21 October, with Ararat Mirzoyan as rapporteur. Ratification itself falls to the plenary, which opens on 27 October.