Global Voices Online

My The Caucasian Knot quotes a friend in Tbilisi who reports he is seeing friends off to war as Georgian reservists are called up to fight against Russian troops in South Ossetia. He also says that the majority of Georgians are behind their president and that the town of Gori has been bombed by Russian jets.

Recent Links also in Central Asia & Caucasus

Musafirbek says that the president of Uzbekistan officially thanked the cotton-growers for gathering the harvest of this strategic product for Uzbekistan. However, those who sweat away, collecting this cotton (including children) were not mentioned in the president’s address.

Alexander Visotzky writes about the opening of a monument in Astana, the new capital of Kazakhstan, where the authorities uncovered a 15-foot high bronze statue of incumbent president Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Dafydd reports that the EU has lifted the arms embargo on Uzbekistan. Reasons given are abolishment of the death penalty and release of political prisoners.