A georgian client recently made inquiries & told me that the Larsi Border to Verkhniky Lars straight north from Tblisi may be open for overland travel. I suppose the ferry to sochi could be an alternative? We have decided to avoid Azerbaijan and take the long way around to kazakhstan, maybe even all the way over to Orenburg to visit people we know A previous poster mentioned difficulties between Armenia, Turkey, & Azerbaijan. Some of it is a bit off but its definitely a rough situation. Turkey keeps the border closed in solidarity with Azerbaijan who fought a war in the early 90s with Armenia over Karabagh which today is a semi autonomous region accessible from armenia. many accusations of atrocities on both sides, always the subtext of the 1915 Armenian genocide...I dont think religion has a whole lot to do with it, fyi Armenians are orthodox (not catholic). There has been a cease fire in Karabagh but no resolution and incidents do flare up on occasion. A recent one provided the means for armenia to boycott Eurovision this year (in Baku). I am armenian (american) and I'd love to visit azerbaijan but its just not worth the hassle. I went on the embassy website and the first thing i see is "armenian aggression." yikes. I hear Volgograd is lovely I definitely do plan to go to Armenia, I was there in 2008 and it is great to visit. In the meantime I will hope for the future...
We havent thought much so far about the overland route from russia to Kyrgyzstan & beyond, I will watch this thread with much interest. If anyone has any suggestions for that kind of north to south route from Orenburg to Samarkand, holler! & thanks

I will follow exactly the route on the map through Volgograd-Tashkent-Bishek-almaty _ ulaanbaatar between may and june.
Will report soon on possible problems (hopefully not) and nice spot, btw great job!