Eating with the enemy: why Russia loves Georgian food

At the newly opened Caf� Khachapuri, just off Pushkin Square right in the heart of Moscow, young Muscovites tuck into plates of coriander-infused chakhokhbili chicken stew, spicy lobio beans and the eponymous khachapuri – gooey cheesy bread. - 10/03/2010, Europe

Dead luger told father of his fears

In a call home shortly before he was thrown from his luge and killed on an Olympic training run, Nodar Kumaritashvili told his father that he was afraid of the brand-new, lightning-quick track in Whistler.- 16/02/2010, Olympics

Ukraine goes to polls after vitriolic campaign

Ukrainians go to the polls to elect a new president today in the second round of an election that has been marked by vitriol and personal insults between the two candidates. If, as many analysts predict, Viktor Yanukovych gets a narrow victory, it will be a remarkable turnaround in his personal fortunes, and the country will have come full circle since th- 07/02/2010, Europe

Stuck in the middle of Abkhazia

Ah, Moscow, reminisces an elderly Gali resident in a melancholy tone. Sitting in a ramshackle cafe, the group of old friends is already tucking into the second bottle of vodka of the day, despite the fact it is not yet noon. "We used to go to Moscow all the time. Or to Tbilisi, wherever we wanted. That was back then, when we had a life, when we still had Ga...- 18/01/2010, Europe

The Whitaker's Almanack quiz of 2009

1) Which artist gave members of the public the chance to spend an hour on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square this year? 2) Who, "as a painter, is at about the level of a not-very-promising, first-year art student", according to Tom Lubbock's Independent review of his October exhibition? 3) What is the name of the companion pain...- 24/12/2009, Quizzes

Georgia's answer to 'The Simpsons'

They are a yellow-skinned cartoon family, consisting of a dopey husband and his lavishly coiffed wife, who live in a made-up city with their children. But this isn't The Simpsons – it's The Samsonadzes. - 18/12/2009, Europe

Real life stories from the film front line

It is a slow Saturday afternoon in the Loews beachfront hotel in Santa Monica, California, midway through the American Film Market (AFM). These are tough times in the independent film world. Cinema-going may increase during periods of economic stress, but that is of little consolation to film-makers, who have seen the DVD and foreign sales mark...- 13/11/2009, Features

Actor Val Kilmer to play journalist in Georgia war film

US actor Val Kilmer has arrived in Georgia to portray a journalist covering last year's Georgia-Russia war in a Hollywood film about the conflict, the movie's co-producer said Tuesday.- 28/10/2009, News

Georgia welcomes 'President Garcia'

Andy Garcia is playing a very different type of leading man this week. The Hollywood star, best known for his very American roles in The Untouchables and Ocean's 11, has taken on the part of Georgia's flamboyant leader Mikheil Saakashvili in a big-budget film about last year's Russian-Georgian war.- 22/10/2009, News

Actor Garcia to play Georgia's Saakashvili in film: report

US actor Andy Garcia has arrived in Tbilisi to portray Georgia's flamboyant President Mikheil Saakashvili in a film on last year's Georgia-Russia war, local television reported Monday.- 20/10/2009, News

Georgia began war with Russia, but it was provoked, inquiry finds

The first authoritative study of the war over South Ossetia has concluded that Georgia started the conflict with Russia with an attack that was in violation of international law.- 01/10/2009, Europe

Letters: Putin and the Caucasus

Mary Dejevsky is probably right that Prime Minister Putin's aim in the southern Caucasus is more one of damage limitation than expansion ("Russia's Georgian enclaves are not assets, but liabilities", 11 August). The Abkhaz and the Ossetians are not Georgian, and President Saakashvili's claim that they are is incendiary. Nor are they, for the most part, Ru- 25/08/2009, Letters

Ossetians warm to Moscow's embrace

Ayear on from last August's war, the evidence on the ground shows that despite claims to the contrary, tiny South Ossetia has effectively been absorbed into Russia, adding fuel to Georgia's claims that Russia's aim in the war was to annex Georgian territory.- 09/08/2009, Europe

Leading article: Uneasy peace in the Caucasus

This time last year a short, sharp war in the Caucasus provided an unwelcome distraction from the opening days of the Beijing Olympics. For the best part of a week, Georgian and Russian troops vented long-held resentments with armed force. For a few hours, there was even a Cold War-style threat of a military confrontation between US and Russian forces, as- 08/08/2009, Leading Articles

They pointed their guns at me. Would I get out alive?

Workers were yesterday erecting a stage on Tskhinvali's central square, festooned with Russian and South Ossetian flags, in preparation for a memorial concert and vigil to mark the year anniversary of the Georgian assault on South Ossetia and subsequent Russian counter-strike. Families strolled in the hot August sun eating ice creams, and the moo...- 08/08/2009, Europe