An Azerbaijani soldier was killed on Tuesday as a result of violation of the cease fire by the Armenian side according to Azerbaijani military sources. The incident happened in the Nakhchivan sector of the border with Armenia. The victim was a 19 year old conscript from Terter Region, Zaur Hasanli. There is no comment on the incident yet by the Armenian side. Both sides in the conflict regularly accuse each other of violating the cease fire that has been in affect for twenty years.

The President of the Swiss Confederation and current head of the OSCE proposes the "start of structured negotiations leading to a peace agreement".

The Abkhaz President Alexander Ankvab has resigned after being removed from office by the Parliament of the self declared Republic. Ankvab declared the decision unconstitutional but said that he had agreed to resign for the sake of stability. The Chairman of the Abkhaz Parliament Valery Bganba has been appointed Interim President. Elections for a new President will be held on 24 August. In the meantime Russia has promised that it will continue to support Abkhazia militarily and financially.

The President of the Swiss Confederation and current Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE will focus on the unresolved conflicts and human rights concerns during his visit.

The Armenian leader said that the issue of Karabakh joining the Eurasian Economic Union as part of Armenia was never under discussion. He described the comments of the Kazakh President in Astana as "unpleasant" but not damaging.

In the self declared Republic of Abkhazia opposition leader Raul Khadzhimba has said the President, Alexander Ankvab, is no longer legitimate and his powers have been transferred to the parliament and the Provisional Council of People’s Trust. The local security forces however seem to remain loyal to Ankvab who is reported to have taken refuge in the Russian base in Gudauta. Russian officials who arrived from Moscow on Wednesday, are continuing with efforts to broker an agreement between the two sides. The politicial stand-off is an embarrassment for Russia which is one of a handfull of countries that recognises Abkhaz independence.

At a meeting with international experts, held in Bern earlier this week, the diplomats were encouraged to take bolder measures in their efforts to break the current impasse, and help bring the sides to the next step of negotiations.

The Parliament in the self-declared Republic of Abkhazia has passed a resolution calling on President Alexander Ankvab to resign from his post ahead of schedule. The MPs also delivered a vote of no-confidence in the republic's Prime Minister Leonid Lakerbaya. Twenty members of parliament voted for the adoption of the resolution and one parliamentarian abstained. Fourteen members did not attend the parliament meeting. The resolution passed by the parliament said that the decisions were made "in view of the tense socio-political situation that developed in the country and for the purposes of keeping national accord and stability in the state".

Russia's Deputy Security Council Secretary Rashid Nurgaliyev and Abkhaz leader Alexander Ankvab met on Wednesday evening to discuss the political crisis in the self-declared republic. The Abkhaz opposition still controls the building of the presidential administration in the capital, Sukhumi..

In the first in a series of reports for commonspace.eu, Tbilisi based freelance journalist Joseph Alexander Smith examines the political landscape ahead of the poll.