Center for International Studies

  Will Putin be able to persuade Lukashenko to directly involve the Belarusian army in the war with Ukraine?   By: Nika Chitadze Professor of the International Black Sea University        Director of the Center for International Studies  President of the George C. Marshall Alumni Union, Georgia - International and Security Research Center   As is known, Russian President Putin flew to Minsk on December 19 with his "landing" - Minister of Defense Shoigu and Minister of Foreign Affairs Lavrov, and held very serious talks with his Belarusian counterpart Lukashenko, which could greatly influence the course of the Russian-Ukrainian war in the next two to three months.  The details of Putin's visit to the capital of Belarus were shrouded in secrecy - motorcades of Russian and US presidents usually use two identical armored limousines, which constantly change places in the motorcade to make it difficult for potential attackers of that parti...

  How much did Russia spend in the war against Ukraine? Nika Chitadze. Professor of the International Black Sea University Director of the Center for International Studies  According to reports, Russia spent about 82 billion dollars in 9 months, which is about a quarter of Russia's annual budget.   It should be noted that Russia spends about 200 dollars per soldier. After the mobilization, the total cost of the salaries of the soldiers involved in the fighting amounted to 2.7 billion dollars. Also, the compensation amount allocated to the families of the wounded and dead soldiers exceeded 3.5 billion dollars.   Russia used up to 50,000 shells per day, which is worth more than 5.5 billion dollars. Russian forces have launched more than 4,000 missiles at Ukrainian cities, the cost of each of them is 3 million dollars.   In addition, Russia lost 278 aircraft, each worth an average of $18 million, as well as 261 helicopters worth $104 million. The to...

  A winter break or an attack on Crimea - under what scenario will the war in Ukraine continue after the De-occupation of Kherson? Nika Chitadze Director of the Center for International Studies  Professor of the International Black Sea University  As is known, the liberation of Kherson has already been assessed as a great military and an important political and psychological victory for Ukraine. Now it is possible to analyze what new opportunities this gives to the Ukrainian army and how things will develop. At the same time, the Russian forces launched a massive offensive in the Donetsk region, and are carrying out more intensive missile attacks against the critical infrastructure of Ukraine, as a result of which, first of all, the civilian population of the country is harmed and the victims are increasing more and more. As a result of the missile strikes, as is known, the missiles reached the territory of Poland. With all of the above, the Russians want to somehow ...

Nika Chitadze Professor of the International Black Sea University  Director of the Center for International Studies  After one defeat after another on the front line in the last few months, the representatives of the Russian political elite and Russian President Putin himself talk about the defense of "Russian territory by all means, including the use of nuclear weapons." After Putin announced the annexation of four districts of the occupied territories of Ukraine - Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, and Kherson and "joined" them to the Russian Federation, and later lost the Russian  political elite and Russian President Putin  control over the largest part of the Kherson district, the threat of nuclear blackmail from the Kremlin became more serious. The fact is that for the further liberation of these occupied Ukrainian regions, of course, the Ukrainians will not stop fighting until their final liberation, and the Kremlin will announce that the attacks are now directl...

  CSTO and Afghanistan Crisis: Capability and Possibility to Win a Game Professor Vakhtang Maisaia     Upon approaching to the southern borders of the CSTO countries, except Turkmenistan and partially Uzbekistan (Uzbekistan left Collective Security Treaty Organization – SCTO in 2012), by the “Taliban” forces, neatly at the end of June of 2021 the CSTO leadership expresses great concern on that matter. On June 28, 2021 the first statements were declared on providing key military support in accordance to Moscow Agreement signed up on 14 May 2002, mainly Article#4 that directly provides collective defense principle if one of the member-state is attacked by the third party, it is to be considered as the attack to all member-states. The statement done by Vladimir Zainetdinov, press-secretary of the CSTO. He mentioned that if Tajikistan applies for military assistance due to some reasons, the CSTO will provide immediate support. Later, on July 2, 2021, the Secretary Ge...

  The USA Influence over the Central Asia and the South Caucasus: Kazakhstan Gambit Professor Vakhtang Maisaia  Due to wargame scenario between Russia and Ukraine and the Kremlin’s inability to subdue the Ukrainian sovereignty by political and military means, the USA begins to try reinforce its geopolitical influence in the Central Asia. The influence steadily decreased when the USA failed its mission in Afghanistan and steadily forged to run away asap. After Pakistan successful coup d’état promotion and deposition of anti-American prime-minister Imra Han and possibility to regain its geopolitical status-quo over Pakistan, the USA Biden Administration launches new geopolitical project: “Caucasus-Caspian regional hegemony”. The process was starting just recently when all of sudden after January turmoil events, the USA Under-Secretary Uzra Zey, who is dealing with human right protection, public security and democracy affairs, officially visited to Kazakhstan and later on in Ky...

   EU crisis approach toward Ukraine in 2014-2022 Tamuna Manvelishvili This article has been produced within the scope of Global Governance internship under supervision of Assoc Prof. Dr. Nino Kereselidze Abstract European Union’s cooperation with Ukraine has deep roots. The recent war in Ukraine has once again put the EU in the position to be actively involved in crisis management processes in order to assist Ukraine, ensure peace and security on European continent and halt the recent and future possible aggression coming from Russia. Throughout the time, specifically from 2014 till 2022 the EU has undergone through some changes, which were mostly caused by Russian open conflict in Ukraine in 2014 and 2022 to violate its sovereignty and territorial integrity. The research aims to understand how the EU crisis approach has transformed during the Russian military aggression in Ukraine in 2022 compared to the 2014 military conflict. The study will try to investigate how the EU ha...