The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

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Poll: 70 Pct of Czechs Snub Missile Plan

Protesters in Prague voice opposition to the proposed U.S. radar base.

Most Czechs continued to oppose plans to place parts of a U.S. missile defense system in the country, according to a poll released Tuesday. According to a public poll conducted by the CVVM agency, 70 percent of respondents oppose the idea of hosting a missile tracking radar system at a base in a military area near Prague as part of the system. The government-sponsored agency said a total of 1,056 people aged 15 and older were questioned between Dec 3-10, with 23 percent approving the plan. Seven percent were undecided. The margin of error for the survey was plus or minus 3 percentage points. The latest result of the poll conducted by the agency six times last year indicated the highest number of opponents so far. In April and November, 68 percent of respondents were against the missile defense base. The U.S. is in talks with the Czech government about the missile plans. Washington also wants to place 10 interceptor missiles in Poland as part of a defense shield that U.S. officials say is needed to protect against a possible threat from Iran. The Czech government has been receptive to the proposal, which has been strongly opposed by Russia. Chicago-based Boeing (nyse: BA - news - people ) Co. was authorized by the Pentagon in July to begin planning and construction at two European-based missile defense complexes in the Czech Republic and Poland under an $80 million pact. The deal could be worth up to $3.5 billion, if extended through 2013. Opposition parties have demanded a national referendum on the issue.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/...ap4507305.html

Czechs continue to oppose proposed US missile shield base

Seventy per cent of Czechs oppose a US plan to place a radar base for its missile defence system on Czech soil, a public opinion poll released Tuesday said, while more than 150,000 people have signed a petition against the plan. The latest survey of the Public Opinion Research Institute (CVVM), carried out in early December, also found that 23 per cent out of 1,056 people questioned supported the base and 7 per cent were undecided. The poll showed the highest number of radar opponents so far in comparison to six previous CVVM surveys conducted on the matter since September 2006. Seventy-three per cent of respondents said they would prefer to have the matter decided in a popular vote, according to the survey. The poll's margin of error is 3 per cent.

Meanwhile more than 150,000 Czechs have signed a petition by a communist youth group against the US plan, the group said Tuesday. The petition organized by the Communist Youth Union, an extremist group that displays the traditional communist symbol of the hammer and sickle, is so far the largest form of protest against the planned US project. Villagers living near the planned radar site in the Brdy military zone one hour south-west of the Czech capital Prague have organized local referendums to voice their opposition. Protests by anti-radar groups have been attended by anywhere from several hundred to several thousand people. The petition, whose first signatures were collected before the general election in 2006, is also one of the largest addressed to the parliament in the Czech Republic's 15-year existence.

'It is exceptional. When it is more than 100,000 it is really a lot,' said Marie Kratochvilova of the parliament's public relations department. She said that the record holder is a 2006 petition signed by 233,719 healthcare professionals who protested against a bill introducing changes in the country's hospital system. Washington has asked the Czech Republic and Poland to host facilities for the US missile shield, which it says is being developed against a potential missile threat from states such as Iran. Despite adverse public opinion, the centre-right ruling coalition supports the project and has entered into bilateral talks with the US on setting up the base. The US plan has angered Russia. Moscow says the shield would weaken its own nuclear deterrent and says it will take counter measures if the radar bases go ahead.

Source: http://news.monstersandcritics.com/e...base__Roundup_

[Armenian]

Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

Armenia's controversial gold rush

As the international price of gold touches record highs, the rush is on to find and exploit deposits around the world. Old mines are being revived: new ones are opening up. In the town of Ararat - about an hour's drive south of Yerevan, Armenia's capital - investors from Russia have moved in to take control of what is believed to be one of the biggest gold-mining operations in the country. The move has prompted concerns within Armenia over increasing Russian control of vital national economic interests.

In the South Caucasus, one of the world's most volatile areas, it is also raising the spectre of renewed regional conflict. In a series of deft investment moves in recent years, Russia has used financial resources generated from sales of its vast oil and gas reserves to regain control of a number of enterprises in what were, before the early 1990s, territories of the Soviet Union. Nowhere is this investment drive more evident than in Armenia. As a result of often secretive deals linked to the Armenian government's privatisation programme, Russian companies now control about 80% of the country's power generating facilities. These even include a nuclear power plant at Metsamor, near Yerevan. Gazprom, the Russian energy giant, has a majority stake in Armenia's gas network. It is also believed to have taken a controlling interest recently in a gas pipeline, now under construction, that will link Armenia with Iran. Russian companies own most of Armenia's telecommunications network, while the country's railway system is about to be sold to Russia.

'Economic backbone'

In former Soviet times, Armenia was a centre of military-linked electronic industries. The majority of these are also now owned by Moscow-based companies. President Vladimir Putin of Russia and his Armenian counterpart, Robert Kocharian, talked of "the truly allied character of the Russian-Armenian relationship" at a meeting in August 2007. But critics in Armenia accuse President Kocharian and his ministers of accumulating vast personal wealth while selling off the country's most precious assets to Moscow. "The Russians own what is the economic backbone of Armenia," says an opposition newspaper. "Moscow is in control of virtually all our strategic resources." Now, in a complex and little-publicised deal, one of Armenia's biggest mining concerns, the Ararat Gold Recovery Company (AGRC), has been purchased by Madneuli Resources, a mining company based across Armenia's northern border in Georgia. Madneuli is ultimately controlled by Industrial Investors, a powerful group of Russian financiers headed by Sergei Generalov, a former Russian energy minister turned business mogul.

Disputed terrain

AGRC has a gold processing facility at Ararat, overlooking the majestic, snow-capped mountain of the same name, where Noah and his Ark are said to have finally come to rest after the Flood. However, AGRC's most valuable asset is a large, open-pit gold mine at Zod, in eastern Armenia, close to the border with Azerbaijan. Mining experts say Zod has some of the richest gold deposits in the Caucasus region. In the early 1990s, Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a bitter war over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. More than 25,000 people are estimated to have died in the conflict and hundreds of thousands of people on both sides became refugees. Nagorno-Karabakh, which has proclaimed independence, is now in effect controlled by Armenia. Azerbaijan has raised objections with both the Georgian and Russian authorities about the purchase of the Zod mine, describing it as unlawful. Azerbaijan says a considerable amount of the Zod mine is in its territory, at present occupied by the Armenian military. "Any activity in occupied territories without the permission of the Azeri authorities is illegal," says Araz Azimov, Azerbaijan's deputy foreign minister. While a ceasefire between Armenia and Azerbaijan has been in force for the past 13 years, there are still frequent outbreaks of fighting between the two sides. The border between the two countries remains sealed. Recently, Azerbaijan is believed to have been using its new-found oil and gas wealth to beef up its armed forces.

Abandoned

The operations of AGRC have often been the subject of controversy. In the late 1990s, Azerbaijan protested when AGRC, at the time run by a Canadian company, started mining at Zod. In 2002, AGRC was taken over by a company controlled by the family of Indian mining billionaire Aneel Agarwal. But its operations were closed down after the Armenian authorities accused the company of reneging on various licensing agreements. The company was charged with tax fraud and environmental violations and ordered to pay millions of dollars in fines. AGRC's Indian owners denied the charges: no details of court rulings have been released, but the company was put up for sale earlier this year. At its headquarters in Ararat, the reprocessing facility is not working and the buildings look abandoned. Locals are concerned that cyanide, used in the course of processing gold, has been polluting land and water. They know little about what is going on. Poverty is still widespread in Armenia and jobs are scarce. "People were promised jobs by the previous owners, but then Indian workers were brought in," says Armen Gevorgyan, a local trader. "We know the foreigners are after the gold. If the new owners provide some work and decent wages, that's the most important thing for us."

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7153794.stm

[Armenian]

Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

The China-India-Russia alliance

As U.S. unilateralism has asserted its role as the sole global superpower, the rest of the world is exploring a variety of ways of pushing back. One is the creation of several new regional security consortiums which are independent of the U.S.

As U.S. unilateralism has asserted the role of the United States as the sole global superpower, the rest of the world is exploring a variety of ways of pushing back. One is the creation of several new regional security consortiums which are independent of the U.S. One of the most important is the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a security alliance led by Russia and China, with several non-voting members including India. Its rising economic, political and military profile this year can serve as a useful lens through which to view this geopolitical pushback. It is based on promoting a multipolar world, distributing power along multiple poles in the international system, such as the United States, Europe, Asia-Eurasia and the Middle East,1 while also promoting the multilateralism of international cooperation.2 In recent years, Russia and China have stepped up their advocacy for a multipolar-multilateral alternative.

Multipolarity

Russia is promoting its vision of a multipolar world hinging on the consensus-based decision making that it wants steered through global institutions such as the United Nations. Chinese President Hu Jintao has outlined a similar vision. At a caucus of the leaders of Brazil, India, Mexico and South Africa in Berlin, Germany in June of 2007 he said: "Developing countries should strengthen cooperation and consolidate solidarity to promote the establishment of a multipolar world and a democratic international relationship.3

India, however, treads cautiously between the competing visions of a world with multiple poles of power. As such, it makes a refined distinction between multipolarity and multilateralism, and strongly advocates for the latter. India rejects multipolarity that seeks to challenge U.S. military power[why? India's independent line is mentioned here and then sort of drops out of the piece], while espousing the need for cooperation in governing international relations. In 2003, India's External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha outlined the contours of multilateralism: "If globalization is the trend, then multilateralism is its life-sustaining mechanism, for no process will survive without a genuine spirit of multilateralism underlined by the belief that global problems require global solutions globally arrived at. Otherwise, the world faces the risk of repeating the mistakes of the past."4 He emphatically rejected unilateralism, and pointed out that "Iraq attests to the limits of unilateralism."5 In October this year, Sonia Gandhi, leader of the ruling Congress Party in India, while on a landmark visit to Beijing, offered her formulation of a world order on which her country agrees with China: "Both China and India seek an open and inclusive world order based on the principles of 'Panchsheel' that were founded together by (then Chinese Prime Minister) Zhou Enlai and (India's founding father) Jawaharlal Nehru in 1954."6 Later, Panchsheel became the founding charter of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) that had claimed to be the third pole of power in the bipolar world.

A substantial outcome of this advocacy came about in February this year when Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Hu Jintao signed the Declaration on the World Order in the 21st Century.7 The Declaration called for peaceful coexistence, a just and rational world order, abandonment of unilateralism, and embrace of multilateralism. In its own words, the Declaration stated: "It is necessary to solve differences and disputes in a peaceful way, avoid unilateral action (and) not to resort to the policy of diktat, the threat or use of force...Every country has the right to manage its affairs in a sovereign way and international issues should be resolved through dialogue and consultations on the basis of multilateral collective approaches."8 Similarly India, in its bilateral relations with China and Russia, boldly spells out its vision of a world of shared governance.

Trilateral Dialogue: China, India and Russia

The growing convergence in the worldview of China, India and Russia brought them into a trilateral dialogue, which in Chinese President Jintao's words would see "the three nations work together for further communication and coordination in major international and regional issues and promote the solution of disputes and differences through dialogue."9 Russian President Putin, while speaking at the first trilateral summit between China, India and Russia in St. Petersburg, Russia, in July 2006 echoed Hu: "...that discussions held in the trilateral meeting would promote mutual trust not only between India, Russia and China individually, but also at regional and global levels."10 Beijing and New Delhi accepted Russia's proposal to hold trilateral summit because "it was beneficial to boosting the cooperation among the three countries as well as maintaining multipolarity ... in the world."11 Former Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov was the first leader to propose the trilateral relationship between China, India, and Russia during his visit to New Delhi in 1998. The first trilateral summit was followed by a meeting of the foreign ministers of three countries in New Delhi on February 14, 2007. In a joint communiqué, the foreign ministers "expressed their conviction that democratization of international relations is the key to building an increasingly multipolar world order."12

During his recent visit to New Delhi on January 25-26, 2007, as the guest of honor on India's Republic Day, President Putin further discussed trilateral cooperation with Indian Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh. Later, standing shoulder to shoulder with Singh, he told a news conference in New Delhi: "We want to resolve regional problems in a way acceptable to all sides. We therefore think that there are good prospects for working together in a trilateral format."13 Indians who have long been beholden to Russia seems to embrace Putin's trilateral initiative, while remaining skeptical of the Indo-U.S. alliance that is currently in the works. K. Subrahmanyam, India's foremost observer of strategic affairs, gratefully speaks of Indian pull towards Moscow: "Russia has seen India as a key to Asian stability for the past 50 years, some four decades before George W. Bush's team reached that conclusion."14 The formation of trilateral dialogue has already been institutionalized. As part of this dialogue, Chinese, Indian and Russian foreign ministers held their first meeting in June 2005 in Vladivostok, Russia. As noted above, they met again in New Delhi in February 2007. Similarly, the leaders of three countries have been holding trilateral summits on the sidelines of G-8 meetings, of which Russia is a member and at which China and India have been regular invitees since 2006.

Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)

Parallel to the trilateral dialogue, China and Russia took the lead to institutionalize their strategic relations into the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), of which India, together with Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan, is a non-voting member. The six-member SCO is widely seen as a collective security organization for nations in South, Central and West Asia. Some observers view the SCO as a counterbalance to the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and its advance into the region. Others believe that "Beijing and Moscow...shared the common aims of...frustrating Washington's agenda to dominate the (Central Asian) region which had been an integral part of the Soviet Union for three generations."15 The recent SCO summit on August 16, 2007 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, however, emphasized in a joint communiqué that "modern challenges and security threat can only be effectively countered through united efforts of the international community."16 There is a range of events that signify the SCO's rising economic, political and military profile, but five events stand out in this regard:

[...]

The Caspian Sea Summit

In so many ways, Tehran has become a catalyst for the competitive tensions between unipolarists and multipolarists. It can be gauged from the just-concluded second Caspian Sea Summit, which met in Tehran on October 16, 2007. Along the lines of the SCO, Russia is developing an alliance of the Caspian Sea's littoral states that include Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Russia. The alliance is seemingly meant to share the natural wealth of the Caspian Sea, which some observers bill as the new Middle East. The 700 mile-long Caspian, which is the world's largest inland sea, contains six separate hydrocarbon basins. Its proven and potential oil reserves boast 270 billion barrels of oil. In 1994, the Azerbaijan International Oil Consortium sealed an $8b deal with Baku to develop three Caspian Sea oil fields with reserves of about 3-5 billion barrels of oil. The deal was to extend over 30 years. There have since been occasional skirmishes between Azerbaijan and Iran over the demarcation of their respective coastlines. The five littoral states now seek a framework to replace the 1921 treaty that first divided the Sea between Iran and the former U.S.S.R. to have an agreed-upon share in its natural bounties.

[...]

Conclusion

The SCO's geopolitical pushback to the unipolar-unilateral makeover of the world is, however, defensive. Both China and Russia are being protective of their turf. Their internal divisions caused by "extremism, splitism, and terrorism" further unnerve them at even a slight hint of U.S. or NATO proximity to their "near-abroad." They have created the SCO and CSTO, and formed the Caspian Sea Alliance to put distance between their respective "spheres of influence" and NATO-US presence. Many argue that this alliance-building is a reaction to U.S. unilateralism. These alliances, however, cannot threaten U.S. security interests in the region. The allied nations have been consistently reassuring the U.S. that their alliances are not directed at "third party." In fact, SCO member states have helped the U.S. to protect its security interests in the region. In the run-up to U.S. military action in Afghanistan in 2001, the Russian President Putin, according to Bob Woodward, stunned the top U.S. policy makers with his unsolicited offer to let U.S. combat jets use the Russian airspace to strike the Taliban government in Kabul.32 The Bush White House was not even sure if Russians would agree to U.S. airbases in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan for which it sought Putin's consent. More importantly, China, which shares a long border with Kyrgyzstan and is next door neighbor to Uzbekistan, went along with the U.S. bases in both countries. Besides, and it is noteworthy for American policy makers, the three nations that broke out in spontaneous outpouring of sympathy for 9/11 victims were not Egypt, Jordan or Saudi Arabia, but Russia, Iran and China--in that order--where hundreds of thousands of marchers held candle-lit vigils and mourned the tragic deaths of 3,000 Americans in terrorist attacks. In strictly strategic sense, the U.S. by itself and together with its allies, especially Australia, Britain and Japan, continues to be the dominant force in the Middle East, the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Malacca and the Indian Ocean, which are the key sources and supply routes of energy shipments for China and trade goods for Central Asia. This makes China and the region vulnerable to U.S. retaliation in the event of any perceived or real threat to U.S. security interests.

Yet the Asian-Eurasian regional powers, which are coalescing into the SCO, CSTO and Caspian Alliance, have the potential to entangle U.S. economic interests, especially energy interests. On this score too, the U.S. has been able to circumvent such potential challenges by establishing bilateral relations with the region's energy-rich nations, particularly Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. Of these, Kazakhstan is the richest nation, with three-fourths of the region's oil and about half of its gas reserves; Azerbaijan owns one-sixth of the region's oil and10 percent of gas reserves; and Turkmenistan possesses close to half of the region's gas and 5 percent of oil reserves. In 1993, Chevron concluded a $20b deal with Kazakhstan to develop its Tengiz oil field, which is estimated to contain recoverable oil reserves of 6-9 billion barrels of oil. An $8b Azerbaijan International Consortium, led by BP-Amoco-Statoil, is already developing oil fields off the shores of Azerbaijan. Similarly, the U.S. has successfully pushed for a multi-billion dollar Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TAP) gas pipeline as an alternative to the $10b Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline.

Above all, the U.S. enjoys worldwide economic and military superiority that allows it to force its way through closed doors, if needed. As the world's strongest nation, multilateralists argue, the United States serves its interests best when it works in a multilateral framework on which China, India and Russia all agree. A starting point for multilateralism can be war-torn Afghanistan where the SCO and CSTO both want a piece of action. The U.S. should welcome both to share in counter-insurgency operations for which both China and Russia have a long-standing career. This will free up 25,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, which can be exclusively deployed for counter-terrorism; while NATO forces can undertake reconstruction work that has long remained frozen. If it happens, it will turn Afghanistan into the North Star of multilateralism. To the U.S.' further advantage, India's alliance with China and Russia would privilege multilateralism over multipolarism. The latter, as Indian Foreign Minister Sinha in his 2003 address cautioned, has the potential to reprise the cold war rivalries that could set the world on a dangerous course. Multilateralism, on the other hand, would further strengthen the continuing economic integration worldwide, and thus lay the foundation for political integration as well.

Source: http://www.speroforum.com/site/artic...darticle=13396

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Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

Kicking a Little Russian Ass in Georgia

Georgia's President has won a devastating victory, easily roaring to reelection despite a relentless barrage of imperialistic fraud by Russia. International observers roundly praised the process as free of taint and worthy of supreme respect, an amazing result given the extent of aggressive actions against Georgia by Russia in recent months. Rather than responding to Russia's provocation with authoritarianism, as Russia's so-called "president" has done, Georgia's leader simply called elections and let the people decide. Hooray! Score one for our side! Now, it's time to immediately bring Georgia within the protective confines of the NATO fold, so that Russia is dissuaded from continuing its malignant attempts to reconquer it as a slave state. The Kremlin will not give up until this is done.

Source: http://www.therussiajournal.com/node/69508

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Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

With the Georgian opposition vowing to challenge the election results, with Russia denouncing the election, with NATO distancing itself from Tbilisi, and with Saakashvili asking for the normalization of relations with Moscow - the republic of Georgia has no hopes for joining NATO for the foreseeable future - let alone "kicking a little Russian ass in Georgia..." In certain respects Saakashvili's win, or supposed win, is a blessing in disguise for the Armenian Republic.

Armenian

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Moscow's Denunciation of Georgian Election Foreshadows Troubled Times Ahead

Georgia: Saakashvili winning the election?:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck33hYM1JO4&eurl=http://news.google.com/news?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&channeliurl=http://img.youtube.com/vi/ck33hYM1JO4/default.jpg

According to official results released yesterday, Mikheil Saakashvili won a definitive first-round victory in this weekend's snap presidential elections in Georgia. Saakashvili received a narrow majority of votes, thereby obviating the need to engage in a runoff with the next-highest vote getter. The Central Election Commission concluded the former president garnered 53 percent of the vote on Saturday, while the second-place finisher received 27 percent. Whatever their effects at home, the events of the last few months are unlikely to either improve Georgia's already troubled relationship with Moscow or bolster its chances of joining NATO, which Saakashvili, his main political opponents, and the Georgian electorate all endorsed in a separate non-binding referendum.

In its preliminary findings, the International Election Observation Mission concluded that, while the results were generally consistent with most international standards for democratic elections, flaws such as a pervasive lack of political trust, cases of intimidation of opposition candidates, procedural shortcomings in election counting, and an unwarranted boost to Saakashvili from his activities as head of state need to be overcome before the next ballot. The mission comprised some 85 parliamentarians and 340 short-term observers from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, and the European Parliament.

Saakashvili decided to resign one year before his five-year term had expired so that Georgia could hold early presidential elections. Many Georgian citizens, as well as influential international human rights groups like Human Rights Watch and the International Crisis Group, attacked the president for imposing a state of emergency on Nov. 7. The decision involved suspending the operations of the main opposition Imedi TV station and ordering the police to employ force to end a week-long series of street demonstrations by opposition parties. The protesters, hundreds of whom were injured in the police crackdown, claimed they were trying to defend Georgia's democratic system of government against Saakashvili's attempts to consolidate political power. The president accused the protesters of seeking to overthrow the government through illegal means. By holding elections now, Saakashvili hoped to receive a new five-year presidential mandate and reestablish his democratic credentials domestically as well as internationally.

Although the opposition claimed the election was rigged, and sought through mass protests and court petitions to overturn the official results, most of the international community has accepted the legitimacy of the outcome after the OSCE gave its imprimatur. Even the mission for the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a Moscow-led organization of former Soviet republics, found "no obvious offenses" during the elections that "would have prevented citizens from freely stating their will."

The most visible exception to the endorsement of Saakashvili's reelection came from Moscow. Predictably, the Russian government was quick to condemn the ballot -- and the OSCE for accepting the results. The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement denouncing restrictions on Georgian opposition candidates, the use of government "administrative resources" on Saakashvili's behalf, and other "numerous violations of elections laws by the authorities." The statement also dismissed the OSCE's assessment as "superficial." Immediately before his reelection, Saakashvili said that he wants to improve relations with Russia, observing that, "We're not suicidal. We're not crazy in any way." Nevertheless, his earlier insinuations that Moscow had helped ferment the November 2007 protests led Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to accuse the Georgian government of pursuing a "clear anti-Russian line" in order "to justify its failures in both domestic and foreign policy."

Relations between Tbilisi and Moscow have never been good since Georgia declared independence in April 1991, following the disintegration of the Soviet Union. They deteriorated even further once Saakashvili assumed office in January 2004, after leading mass pro-democracy demonstrations in November 2003 against then Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze. While many Russians blamed Shevardnadze for contributing to the U.S.S.R.'s collapse when he was Soviet Foreign Minister under Mikhail Gorbachev, they appreciated that he had refrained from resuming the wars in Abkhazia and South Osssetia or withdrawing from the CIS. The November 2003 "Rose Revolution" -- named after the flowers carried by the protesters -- that toppled Shevardnadze alarmed many leaders in Russia and other former Soviet republics who feared they might experience similar Western-backed popular upheavals.

Tensions soon arose between Saakashvili and Moscow after the president moved to fulfill his campaign pledge to recover the three regions of Georgia -- Adjar, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia -- that had fallen under the control of separatist forces during the Georgian civil wars of the 1990s. The leaders of these territories, like much of the population that remained after hundreds of thousands of pro-Tbilisi ethnic Georgians fled, or were expelled from, the regions, enjoyed close ties with Moscow. Some wanted their regions to leave Georgia altogether and join the Russian Federation. Georgian leaders denounced the "ethnic cleansing" of the territories' original inhabitants and complained that the territories had become lawless areas where smuggling and other crimes ran rampant, to the detriment of the safety and security of the entire Caucasus.

[...]

Source: http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/article.aspx?id=1477

Exit polls: majority of Georgians prefer NATO membership

Some 61.8 percent of Georgian voters has agreed that the ex-Soviet nation should join NATO in a Saturday referendum while 15.6 percent disagreed, exit polls showed. The referendum was held on the sidelines of a snap presidential election which former President Saakashvili won another term. There are 3.3 million eligible voters of the 4.7 million population. They cast their ballots at more than 3,500 polling stations, including over 40 abroad. Georgia has been pursuing NATO membership since late 1990s and there is a dialogue mechanism between the military bloc and the former member of its rival.

Source: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...nt_7371245.htm

NATO will ask Tbilisi to have patience

Any vote on Georgia’s accession to NATO will not be decisive. Besides, with speeding up the accession process, West would have to make certain sacrifices. Caucasus is an outpost of the fronts “open” for Russia. This is an energy front, since Georgia is the main transit for oil delivery to the Black Sea and then to western Europe. It’s an ethnic front with strong Russian minorities. And, finally, it’s a military front because Russia rates deployment of a NATO base nearby its border as inadmissible. According to Le Temps, NATO’s restraint is conditioned by the U.S. twofaced policy. The current administration, devoted to Ramsfeld’s doctrine on deployment of military bases close to the seat of threat, considers Georgia’s - Russia’s immediate neighbor – as a possible stationing of U.S. troops. However, the American diplomats do know that Moscow’s retaliation will be shattering in two directions: Kosovo, where over 15 thousand NATO military are deployed and the Iranian nuclear program. “NATO is most likely to ask Tbilisi to have patience. The Alliance will hardly dare to add “Caucasian spice” to the agenda of the summit due in Bucharest in April. Saakashvili can make use of his good relations with NATO to strengthen his legitimacy. But there is a risk to see the President elect remarkable for his rudeness towards Abkhazians and Ossetians and as a leader in siege imposed by them their patron, Russia,” the newspaper says.

Source: http://www.panarmenian.net/news/eng/?nid=24504

Georgian leader wants better ties with Russia

Georgian leader Mikhail Saakashvili wants to improve relations with Russia, he said on Monday after winning the former Soviet state's presidential election which his opponents say was rigged. Relations between Tbilisi and Moscow have been strained to near breaking point during Saakashvili's first four years in office as he steered Georgia towards the West and NATO membership. Russia supports two Georgian rebel regions and has cut trade and transport links. "The first step for us is to be looking for new opportunities in order to improve pretty damaged relations with Russia," he told Reuters in an interview. He did not give further details on how relations could be mended but said: "We are certainly willing to take our part of the burden to improve our relations."

Georgia straddles the South Caucasus, which hosts a major pipeline pumping oil from the Caspian Sea to Europe and where both Russia and the United States are battling for influence. Georgia's central election commission has named Saakashvili, a 40-year-old U.S. educated lawyer, as the winner of Saturday's presidential election with more than 52 percent of the vote, about double his nearest challenger, Levan Gachechiladze. Gachechiladze is head of an opposition coalition which accuses Saakashvili of corruption and economic mismanagement and has called for street protests to contest the election. Saakashvili called the election to restore his credibility after angering his Western allies by crushing street demonstrations with riot police in November. Western monitors said the poll contained flaws, but that they were not serious enough to impact a competitive election.

BOMBS

"We can have free and fair elections, good elections, clean elections and with basically a very competitive environment. It (the result) could have gone the other way around," he said. During the election campaign Saakashvili said he wanted to retake two rebel regions which broke away in wars after the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union and now receive support from Russia. On Monday Saakashvili, a staunch U.S. ally who swept to power in a peaceful 2003 revolution, ruled out military conflict. "This is the last thing Georgia needs now -- to be involved in any kind of military confrontation," he said. "Hopefully nobody else in this region wants these adventures either."

Georgian and Russian soldiers face each other across Georgia's borders with the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The Russians have a peacekeeping mandate but both sides accuse the other of provocations. Georgia has accused Russian war planes of flying over its airspace this year, dropping bombs on its territory and using helicopters to attack villages. Russia denied the accusations. Russia's foreign ministry said in a statement that the vote was biased towards Saakashvili. Georgians also voted on Saturday in a referendum on whether they wanted to join NATO -- expected to be strong "Yes" vote -- in a poll that may draw further Russian criticism. "It's another chance for NATO to look more seriously at this region," Saakashvili said, adding that Georgians clearly wanted to join the alliance.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/reute...27751420080107

[Armenian]

Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

Russia ahead in race to put man on Mars: scientist

Russia is leading the race to complete a manned mission to Mars and could land a Russian on the Red Planet by 2025, a leading scientist was quoted as saying on Tuesday. "We have something of a head start in this race as we have the most experience in piloted space flight," the director of the prestigious Space Research Institute, Lev Zelyony, told Interfax news agency on Tuesday. The goal of becoming the first country to land a human on Mars is "technically and economically achievable" by 2025, he said. Mars is the most prestigious prize for the Russian space industry if it wants to boost the country's "scientific and political prestige" through manned space flight, he said. "We lost the race to the moon," Zelyony said. The United States achieved that goal on July 20, 1969, when Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon. The last manned US mission to the moon was the December 1972 flight of Apollo 17.

Source: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5...OFgxplvlmF_5Vg

Russia Says It's Ahead Of US In Race To Mars

More boasting to report from the newly-revitalized Russian space program... as a leading scientist says the country is on track to launch a manned mission to Mars by 2025, far ahead of even the most optimistic estimates of NASA. "We have something of a head start in this race as we have the most experience in piloted space flight," Space Research Institute director Lev Zelyony told Interfax news agency, reports Breitbart. Zelyony added the goal is "technically and economically achievable" by 2025. After years of comparative neglect following the downfall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russia space program has been on a kick lately... and Zelyony has shamelessly promoted the resurgence. As ANN reported, the director also announced this week the country would play a role in a still-to-be-officially-announced European Space Agency mission to Europa, one of Jupiter's moons. Zelyony also touched on the reason why Russia is pressing for a Mars mission... to compensate for coming up short in the last significant "space race" with the US. "We lost the race to the moon," Zelyony said, adding a mission to Mars would be a valued prize for the Russian space industry to boost its "scientific and political prestige." In comparison, NASA says it hopes to return to the moon by 2020, with a manned Mars mission not expected before 2037... leaving Russia plenty of time to accomplish the feat first.

Source: http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?C...2-b805efa7fe5d

[Armenian]

Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

Russian Su-33 warplanes exercise in Mediterranean

Russian Navy carrier Su-33 aircraft and combat helicopters have launched a training exercise over the Mediterranean, an aide to the Russian Navy commander said on Tuesday. Capt. 1st Rank Igor Dygalo said a Joint Naval Task Force, comprised of the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier, the Udaloy-Class Large Anti-submarine Ship Admiral Levchenko, the Sergei Osipov auxiliary vessel, and other vessels continued to perform a variety of missions in the central part of the Mediterranean Sea. The Admiral Kuznetsov's main fixed-wing aircraft is the multirole Su-33 (NATO reporting name 'Flanker-D'), which can perform air superiority, fleet defense, and air support missions and can also be used for reconnaissance and the searching for naval mines. The two-month expedition, which started on December 5, is aimed at ensuring a naval presence "in the operationally key areas of the world oceans" and establishing conditions for secure Russian maritime navigation. Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said previously that a total of four warships and seven other vessels of Russia's Northern, Black Sea and Baltic Fleets, as well as 47 airplanes and 10 helicopters, would take part in the 12,000-mile expedition. In mid-August, Putin announced the resumption of strategic patrol flights, saying that although the country halted long-distance strategic flights to remote regions in 1992 with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the ensuing economic and political chaos, other nations had continued the practice, compromising Russian national security.

Source: http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080108/95710715.html

Russia launches full-scale production of new-generation warplane

Sukhoi Su-34 Fullback Russia's New Heavy Strike Fighter: http://www.ausairpower.net/APA-Fullback.html

Russia has started full-scale production of the Su-34 Fullback fighter bomber at a Siberian aircraft plant, plane maker Sukhoi said on Wednesday. A company spokesman said up to 20 fighters could now be assembled simultaneously at the Novosibirsk Aviation Production Association (NAPO), but did not specify how many would be built each year. The $36 million Su-34 fighter-bomber is a two-seat strike aircraft equipped with twin AL-31MF afterburning turbojet engines. It is designed to deliver high-precision strikes on heavily-defended targets under any weather conditions, day or night, and fields weaponry that includes a 30mm GSh-301 cannon, up to 12 Alamo or Archer AAMs, ASMs, and bombs. Designed by Sukhoi, the Su-34s will replace the Su-24 Fencer frontline bombers. Experts said the new bomber has the potential to become the top plane in its class for years to come. To date only a handful of pre-production models have been built. In mid-2004 Sukhoi announced that low-rate production was commencing and that initial aircraft would reach squadron service around 2008. In March 2006, Russia's then Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov announced that the government had purchased only two Su-34s for delivery in 2006, and planned to have a complete air regiment of 24 Su-34s operational by the end of 2010. A total of 58 aircraft will be purchased by 2015 to replace some of 300 Su-24s, which are undergoing modernization to prolong their service life.

Source: http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080109/95829755.html

[Armenian]

Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

New serial Tu-160 Blackjack bomber undergoes flight test

A new serial strategic Tu-160 Blackjack bomber has undergone a flight test at an aviation production association in Kazan on the Volga, a deputy director of the Tupolev aircraft maker said Thursday. "The first flight of a regular [new] serial plane Tu-160 took place December 28, 2007 at the Gorbunov Kazan aviation production association," Alexander Zatochny said. He said after all the flight tests had been completed, the aircraft would be adopted by the Air Force. The Tu-160 supersonic heavy bomber with variable geometry wings has been serially produced since 1984 and was adopted by the Air Force in 1987. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, only one such plane was built, which was adopted in 2000. The Tu-160 has a maximum takeoff weight of 275 tons, a maximum flight speed of over 2,000 kmph, and a range of over 13,000 km. It is armed with long-range cruise missiles equipped with nuclear warheads.

Source: http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080110/96102740.html

Russia to have 50 silo-based Topol-M ICBM systems by end of 2008

Russia will fully equip a fifth strategic missile regiment with new silo-based intercontinental ballistic missiles in 2008, a spokesman for the Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) said on Thursday. At present, Russia operates 48 Topol-M systems (NATO reporting name SS-27) and will deploy another two with a missile regiment in the Saratov Region in southern Russia this year, bringing the total number to 50. "Rearmament of the Tatishchevo missile regiment with two silo-based Topol-M systems will be completed in 2008," Colonel Alexander Vovk said, adding that each regiment has 10 missile complexes. The missile, with a range of about 7,000 miles (11,000 kms), is said to be immune to any current and future U.S. ABM defense. It is capable of making evasive maneuvers to avoid a kill by the use of terminal phase interceptors, and carries targeting countermeasures and decoys. It is also shielded against radiation, electromagnetic pulse, nuclear blasts at distances more than 500 meters (1,650 feet) away, and is designed to survive a hit from any form of laser technology. Gen. Nikolai Solovtsov, SMF commander, earlier said that Topol-M systems would be equipped with multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRV) in the next two or three years.

Source: http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080110/96042274.html

[Armenian]

Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

EU warns Serbs on Russia gas deal

The European Commission has voiced concern about the controversial takeover of Serbia's oil monopoly by the Russian energy giant Gazprom. Russia's state-run gas company has offered 400m euros (£300m) for a majority stake in NIS and Belgrade could agree to the deal this month. But some estimates suggest NIS's value is far higher and a number of European companies have expressed interest. The commission says the sale of Gazprom should be open and transparent. Spokeswoman Krisztina Nagy said: "The commission hopes that the sale of an important asset such as the Serbian oil company will be open and driven by objective, commercial and economic interests."

EU membership bid

The sale of NIS has become caught up in Serbia's progress towards joining the European Union, which could also move forward this month. The EU has told Belgrade that a pre-entry agreement, initialled in November 2007, could be signed if Serbia co-operates more fully with the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague. But Serbian media reports suggest Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica will insist on the Gazprom deal going through as a condition for signing. He has already warned the EU that Belgrade will halt membership talks if Brussels goes ahead with its plans for a civilian mission to Kosovo, whose leaders want independence from Serbia.

'Political motives'

Some analysts have said the NIS sell-off to Moscow might be politically motivated. In return for Serbia's main oil company, they suggest that Russia would provide support on Kosovo and Belgrade would move away from the EU. The commission will not speculate on the reason for the deal, although it is keen to stress that Belgrade should be prompted by "objective" interests. The Serbian energy and mining ministry says the motivation is not political, but based purely on a need for a secure supply of gas. A dispute between Gazprom and Ukraine in January 2006 led to an interruption in gas supplies to Western and Central Europe, including Serbia. That crisis highlighted energy security as a pressing issue across Europe, and for Serbia in particular, because it relies on Russia for 91% of its gas. The EU depends on Gazprom for a quarter of member states' supplies.

Pipeline offer

For Belgrade, the most tempting aspect of the Gazprom offer is the prospect of a reliable source of gas. Unlike its European competitors, Gazprom has linked its offer for NIS to an extension of its South Stream pipeline into Serbia. A ministry spokesman, Dejan Stojadinovic, said Belgrade was acting out of necessity. "We simply have no alternatives," he said. "Gazprom's proposal includes security of supply and this is very important to Serbia. We have no possible supply from Algeria or Norway, which are supply points for the rest of Europe." Another Serbian official said the deal with Gazprom could be signed on 28 January, but the energy ministry insisted there was no deadline.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7181220.stm

Russia vows to block Kosovo independence at UN

Russia will block any resolution on Kosovo's status at the UN Security Council until both parties have found a mutually acceptable settlement, Russia's envoy to the troika said Thursday. "We are issuing an advance warning that we will not let any resolution based on the recognition of Kosovo's independence make it past the Security Council. We will only accept a resolution based on compromise and one that would be approved by Belgrade and Pristina," Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko said. He said no one could prevent Russia from exercising its veto, which is enjoyed by all permanent Security Council members. Throughout long-lasting talks aimed at finding a solution to the status of Serbia's breakaway province, Russia has backed Belgrade in opposing Kosovo's sovereignty, warning it would have a knock on effect for other secessionist areas, such as Transdnestr in Moldova, South Ossetia and Abkhazia in Georgia and Nagorny Karabakh in Azerbaijan, so-called frozen conflicts since the 1990s. The Albanian-dominated Serbian province has been a UN protectorate since the NATO bombing of the former Yugoslavia ended a conflict between Albanian and Serb forces in 1999.

The UN Security Council failed last year to bridge divisions over Kosovo's future. Belgrade is opposed to the region's independence, and has offered it broad autonomy within Serbia. Pristina wants full sovereignty, however. The Security Council will discuss a report by the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) on January 16. Russia said on Saturday the proclamation of the province's unilateral independence, without a relevant UN decision, would be unlawful. A report of the Secretary-General on the UNMIK said that "while the Unity Team continued to attend the Troika-led talks, its representatives repeatedly stated that any further extension of talks would be unacceptable." Most Western states have backed the volatile area's drive for independence, and said recently that Kosovo's status would now be determined by the European Union and NATO. Russia is insisting that Belgrade and Pristina continue to try to reach a compromise.

Source: http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080110/96097826.html

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Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

Russia names hawkish Nato envoy

Russian "hawk" Dmitry Rogozin: NATO is no adversary (Russia Today video): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ut8Ra...eature=related

Russian President Vladimir Putin has appointed a nationalist politician as Russia's new ambassador to Nato. Dmitry Rogozin will become Moscow's permanent representative to the military alliance. A foreign policy hawk, Mr Rogozin is a former head of the anti-immigration Russian Motherland party. He has previously warned Moscow the Western military alliance poses a threat and called for Russia to stand firm against independence for Kosovo. Mr Rogozin has also served as Russia's representative to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (Pace), a multi-national Strasbourg-based human rights body. In 2005, Russia's Supreme Court banned Motherland from taking part in elections to the Moscow City Council. The court ruled that a campaign advertisement in which Mr Rogozin appeared was racist. Mr Rogozin's appointment is a reflection of Russia's more assertive stance towards the West, the BBC's James Rodgers reports from Moscow. Nato is viewed with great suspicion in Russia - politicians and ordinary people alike see the alliance's post-Cold War eastward expansion as blatantly hostile, our correspondent says. Mr Rogozin has previously called for Russia to rearm to counter the perceived threat.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7180399.stm

Putin appoints firebrand as Russia's NATO envoy

President Vladimir Putin has appointed a firebrand nationalist who champions re-armament to counter the West as Russia's permanent representative to NATO, a Kremlin spokeswoman said on Thursday. Putin has signed a decree appointing Dmitry Rogozin, the flamboyant former head of Russia's Motherland party, to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, the spokeswoman said. Rogozin, 44, who has called for Russia to rearm to counter the threat from the Western military alliance, has recently said that if he got the job he would defend the interests of Serbia in Kosovo. NATO is viewed with great suspicion in Russia, where officials say expansion eastwards shows the alliance forged during the Cold War is being used by the United States and top European powers to counter Russian influence. Putin, who has hiked military spending during his 8 year presidency, has warned that Russia will not remain indifferent to NATO's "muscle-flexing" near its borders. Rogozin, was born into a Moscow military family and studied journalism at Moscow University. He worked as Putin's representative in negotiations with the European Union over the status of Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave, after EU expansion. Rogozin replaces Konstantin Totsky as Russia's permanent representative to NATO. Totsky was appointed by Putin in March 2003. He is 57.

Source: http://in.reuters.com/article/worldN...31330620080110