Chronicle
From 19 November to 15 December 2008
| 19 November 2008 |
EU/UN/OSCE-mediated talks are held in Geneva with representatives from Russia, the United States, Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia |
| 20 November 2008 | Shootout between Georgian police and Abkhaz militias reported in the Georgian village of Ganmukhuri, on the Georgian side of the administrative border with Abkhazia |
| 21 November 2008 | The Georgian National Olympic Committee requests the International Olympic Committee to review plans of holding the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014 |
| 22 November 2008 | The United States transfers USD 250 million to the Georgian government for budget support |
| 23 November 2008 |
Fifth anniversary of the Rose Revolution in Georgia |
| 23 November 2008 | Shots are fired at a convoy carrying Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili and Polish President Lech Kaczynski on a visit to Georgia near a Russian checkpoint at the Akhalgori section of the South Ossetian administrative border |
| 23 November 2008 | Former Georgian Parliament Speaker Nino Burdjanadze inaugurates a new party, Democratic Movement-United Georgia |
| 24 November 2008 | Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian urges Turkey to reopen border with Armenia |
| 25 November 2008 |
Azerbaijan-Turkey business forum takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan |
| 26 November 2008 |
Azerbaijan and Libya sign protocol on bilateral cooperation |
| 27 November 2008 | A new bridge between Azerbaijan and Dagestan is opened |
| 28 November 2008 | Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili testifies before the “war commission,” a parliamentary commission studying the August war |
| 29 November 2008 | A trilateral meeting of the heads of state of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Turkmenistan is held in Turkmenistan |
| 29 November 2008 | The head of the OSCE Baku office, Jose Luis Guerrero, criticizes the shutdown of foreign radio stations in Azerbaijan |
| 1 December 2008 |
Georgian Prime Minister Grigol Mgaloblishvili meets with EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, Javier Solana, in Brussels |
| 2 December 2008 | The Black Sea port of Poti in Georgia becomes wholly owned by the United Arab Emirate’s Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) emirate’s investment authority |
| 3 December 2008 | The European Union unveils an eastern partnership proposal aimed at enhancing cooperation with six eastern neighbors (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine) |
| 3 December 2008 | Former Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli announces the establishment of his new party, Movement for Fair Georgia |
| 4 December 2008 | Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin welcomes NATO’s decision not to grant Georgia and Ukraine Membership Action Plan in an annual question-and-answer session with Russian citizens |
| 5 December 2008 |
The Georgian cabinet is reshuffled with the Foreign Minister, Defense Minister and Education Minister losing their posts |
| 6 December 2008 | Former Georgian ambassador to Russia Zurab Abashidze refuses to take the post of culture minister in the reshuffled cabinet |
| 7 December 2008 | Georgian opposition figure Salome Zurabishvili calls for Saakashvili’s resignation and holding early elections |
| 8 December 2008 | Georgian opposition parties, New Rights and Republicans, announce the establishment of an alliance |
| 9 December 2008 | Ilia II, the Patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church, meets with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow |
| 10 December 2008 |
Shots fired at OSCE monitors near South Ossetia |
| 10 December 2008 | Pierre Morel, the EU’s special representative for the Georgian crisis, and Johan Verbeke, the UN secretary-general’s new special representative to Georgia, held talks in Sukhumi, Abkhazia, over the forthcoming Geneva talks |
| 11 December 2008 |
Armenian opposition activist Vartan Malkhasian is released from jail |
| 12 December 2008 | Former Armenian president Levon Ter-Petrossian’s opposition party threatens to held a conference in Georgia if the Armenian government refuses to provide a venue for the event |
| 12 December 2008 | Russian troops pull out from the village of Perevi at the South Ossetian administrative border |
| 12 December 2008 |
Turkish intellectuals plan a public apology for the mass killings of ethnic Armenians in World War I |
| 13 December 2008 | Russian troops reinstall a checkpoint in the village of Perevi at the South Ossetian administrative border |
| 13 December 2008 | A residential building hit by a strong blast in Baku, Azerbaijan |
| 13 December 2008 | State energy companies of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan discuss the project of a Transcaspian transport system in Baku |
| 15 December 2008 | Talks on energy cooperation between Azerbaijan and Georgia are held in Baku during the visit of the Georgian Energy Minister |