In the meantime in Baku Azerbaijani officials have expressed disquiet at what they say has been a serious Russian military build-up of Armenian forces since the clashes on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border in July.

Writing in the French newspaper, Journal du Dimanche, the EU Foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said Moscow was "intending to prevent Europeans from providing help to civil society that's revolted against rigged presidential elections."

India considered the presence of military units from Abkhazia and South Ossetia as problematic. 13,000 troops from 20 countries will participate in the drills in the Russian region of Astrakhan from 15-27 September.

South Ossetia remained tense on Saturday following a popular expression of outrage after a young Ossetian man was killed whilst in police detention.

A special session of the OSCE Permanent Council was held in Vienna on Friday (28 August) to discuss the situation in Belarus

A managed process of co-operation and competition continues to characterise Turkish-Russian relations, and in the future this may also extend to the South Caucasus, writes Benyamin Poghosyan in this op-ed.

Dennis Sammut discusses Russia's recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in August 2008, and says that it opened a Pandora's box, with wide-ranging and long term implications

In a message on the occasion of Ukraine Independence Day US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo said his country s support for a free, resilient, and democratic Ukraine is unwavering

Turkey's natural gas imports in the January-June period of this year dropped by 3.5 percent to 22.5 billion cubic meters (bcm). Out of this amount, Turkey imported 12.1 bcm via pipeline and 10.3 bcm as liquefied natural gas (LNG).

As street protests continue in Minsk and other Belarus cities, Russian media are depicting Lukashenko as an embattled president clinging to Russia and to his army for his survival.