“The reactor needs six or seven months to reach its full capacity,” Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Director said.

Political events focused on Russia’s policy on the South Caucasus and the forthcoming visit of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to Armenia.

Consequences of the five-day war that was launched in Georgia at the night of 8 August 2008, affected every South Caucasus country in its own way. Georgia, long enough playing American democracy, finally lost Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and the Georgian leader, unable to justify the hopes of Western protege, acquired the image of an “unpredictable teenager”. The unsuccessful Georgian experience of a military solution to the self-proclaimed Abkhazia and South Ossetia can be picturesquely described as a “cold shower” for the Azerbaijani leadership, reducing the probability of launching a new military action in Karabakh for a certain period of time.

For dozens of centuries Armenians had been celebrating the New Year, Navasard, on August 11. Once a favorite popular holiday, it now became a topic of historians’ remarks or Armenian folklore only. “August 11 is the first day of the new year according to the ancient Armenian calendar. It was celebrated by all – the rich and the poor,” said ethnographer Gohar Vardumyan, senior fellow at the Armenian National Academy of Sciences.