Russia Monday launched Kavkaz 2009—the largest ever military exercise in the North Caucasus—possibly the prelude to another assault on Georgia.  Meanwhile, rumors of war loom like thunderheads on a hot summer evening.

Last Sunday, Avtandil Akhaladze died of shrapnel wounds sustained when the ambulance he was driving struck a landmine.  His MediClub ambulance was on a European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM) patrol near the Mingrelian town of Muzhava.

The Atlantic Council hosted Irakli Alasania, former Georgian Ambassador to the United Nations and Chairman of the opposition "Alliance for Georgia," for a strategy session to discuss the way forward on Georgia's territorial conflicts.

Russia on Monday kiboshed the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG).  Throughout the day, UN Security Council members failed to agree upon a two week extension that would have provided time for further negotiations.

Monitors from the UN and the OSCE are leaving Georgia after Russia vetoed an extension of both mandates. This leaves only a tiny EU force and all but formally ends the West's pretense that South Ossetia and Abkhazia will be reunited with Georgia, much less that Europe will do anything to make that happen.

Alexandros Petersen, a Dinu Patriciu fellow for transatlantic energy security and associate director of the Eurasia Energy Center, published an op-ed in RFE/RL entitled "East-West Corridor Still Functioning, Integrating."

These days it seems like the East-West Energy and Transport Corridor is being undermined from almost every direction. The grand idea of the 1990s – which saw the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipedream became an enormously successful reality – seems to be faltering a decade later.

Vasil Sikharulidze, the Defense Minister of Georgia, spoke at an Atlantic Council panel hosted by the International Security Program.  The discussion, “Reforming Under Pressure: Georgia’s Future Strategic Challenges," was introduced by International Security Program Director Damon Wilson.