The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

[Armenian]

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

Very interesting news, very significant. The Armenian president serving in one of the most powerful and most influential organizations on earth. I would be very pleased if this does indeed happen. I am sure Turks and Azeris will love this news as well.

Gazprom offers post to Armenian ex-president - report

YEREVAN (Thomson Financial) - Armenia's ex-president Robert Kocharian, who left office this week, has been offered a post as vice-president of Russian gas giant Gazprom, the Aravot daily newspaper reported Friday.
The offer by Gazprom, which controls strategic Armenian pipelines, 'has not yet received a response and is still hanging in the air,' the newspaper wrote, citing a report from the PanArmenian Network news service quoting Russian sources.
Kocharian was replaced on Wednesday at the end of two five-year terms by his prime minister, Serzh Sarkisian, after controversial polls marred by violence and vote-rigging allegations.
Speculation has mounted about Kocharian's plans after the 53-year-old told reporters in December he had no plans to be 'Armenia's youngest pensioner.'
Ex-Soviet Armenia and Russia maintained strong ties during Kocharian's tenure.

With the Armenian government, Gazprom jointly owns ArmRosGazprom, which controls natural gas pipelines feeding Russian gas to Armenia and owns the Armenian section of a pipeline feeding Iranian gas to the country.

In January, Gazprom's banking arm, Gazprombank, bought 80 percent of Areximbank, one of Armenia's largest retail banks.

http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited...fx4879088.html

[Armenian]

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

RF Military to Respond to Ukraine’s, Georgia’s Admittance to NATO

Should Georgia and Ukraine join NATO, Russia will take “military and other actions” to secure its interests close to the state frontiers, RIA Novosti reported with reference to the RF Armed Forces Chief of General Staff Yuri Baluevsky. Russia will spare no efforts to prevent Ukraine and Georgia from joining the alliance, RF Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov pledged not long ago in the interview with Echo Moskvy Broadcaster. Should those two states be admitted to NATO, Russia’s relations with the alliance would cloud materially, the minister emphasized. The comments of State Duma leaders are equally hawkish. Ukraine’s membership in NATO will end the cooperation of its defense and industrial complex with Russia, warned Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the State Duma’s Foreign Committee. This scenario will cause difficulties for defense and industrial complex of Russia, but it will be a catastrophe for Ukraine, as local manufacturers will hardly find a ready market in Europe, according to Kosachev. NATO’s recent summit in Bucharest refused to grant the MAP to Ukraine and Georgia, but the allies agreed that the former Soviet republics should become the NATO members in future. The United States and new allies, including the Baltic states, backed up their admittance, while Germany and France stepped in to oppose it.

Source: http://www.kommersant.com/p-12341/NATO_Ukraine/

[Azad]

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

Very interesting news, very significant. The Armenian president serving in one of the most powerful and most influential organizations on earth.

Agree. I was shocked to see that offer. He has the leadership personality ... I am still scratching my head to comprehend his involvement in a corporate structure that he has no experience in ... let alone any experience in the oil/energy industry. You think the turks will "love this news"? I am sure "NY bankers" will love it even better when their golden herya boy is still in Russian jails.

[Azad]

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

Wonder if Putin will retire to the Presidency of the company. Those two always seamed to be brotherly.

[Armanen]

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

Wonder if Putin will retire to the Presidency of the company. Those two always seamed to be brotherly.

For now he is going to be the PM of Russia, which is a very good thing. He needs to stay in the limelight and close to the power structure of Russia.

[Armenian]

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

Worries Loom for Sargsyan at Home

The landlocked country has few options but to rely on Russia militarily.

Serzh Sargsyan, the handpicked successor of outgoing Armenian President Robert Kocharyan, is to be sworn in Wednesday as the next president of the South Caucasus republic. Like his predecessor, Sargsyan is likely to anchor Armenia to Russia while cooperating with alternative players in the region, such as the EU and NATO, and promoting a peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, his supporters and experts said. But while Sargsyan plans no major changes in Armenia's foreign policy, he must act immediately to address several looming challenges on the domestic front that threaten to seriously undermine his presidency, according to experts. "The biggest challenge is establishing society's trust in the new government by initiating real and immediate reforms," said Tevan Poghosyan, head of the International Center for Human Development, a leading Armenian NGO.

Sargsyan must also stabilize the republic of 3 million after the turmoil following his February election, as well as tackle longer-term issues, such as public discontent over the predominance of politically connected oligarchs in the economy and the often arbitrary rule of regional leaders, experts and insiders said. "Economic development will crumble if the economy stays in the hands of few oligarchs," said Arthur Martirosyan, senior program manager at the Mercy Corps' renowned Conflict Management Group. "Armenia's very existence will depend on how Sargsyan tackles this issue."

Public anger over poor governance and a lack of economic opportunities boiled over after Sargsyan's first-round victory in the Feb. 19 presidential election, with thousands of protesters taking to the streets. Official results gave Sargsyan nearly 53 percent of the vote, while runner-up Levon Ter-Petrosyan -- Armenia's first president -- captured only 21 percent. OSCE observers gave the election an overall positive assessment. Numerous protesters came out to support Ter-Petrosyan's claim that the election was rigged. But many joined the protests to vent their frustration with poor economic prospects and abuse of power by regional authorities, one local businessman said.

"I spoke to quite a few, and almost everyone, especially the young guys, said they came out not because they didn't like how the elections went, but because they saw no opportunities for themselves in this economy," the businessman said on condition of anonymity, citing concerns that commenting on politics could affect his business. "Others said they were unhappy with local administration bosses, who acted as if they were gods and tsars in their districts and whose security details roamed the streets, beating whomever they didn't like."

A majority of the protesters, however, were led by supporters of Ter-Petrosyan, whose bid was partially financed by business moguls who sensed that they might lose the advantages they gained as part of a tacit agreement between Ter-Petrosyan and Kocharyan during the transfer of power in 1998, the businessman and Martirosyan said. "The tycoons saw a threat to their positions on the Armenian market with the redistribution of political power and subsequent introduction of new players, possibly -- but not necessarily -- from Sargsyan's entourage," Martirosyan said. Levon Zurabyan, a campaign official for Ter-Petrosyan, dismissed the claims as "delirium."

The standoff between Ter-Petrosyan's supporters and authorities culminated in violence in Yerevan on March 1-2 that left several protesters and a senior police officer dead. Ter-Petrosyan and his key supporters were placed under arrest while Kocharyan -- under whom Sargsyan served as prime minister -- introduced a state of emergency, banning all rallies for several weeks. In an interview, Zurabyan said the "outrageous falsification of the vote" and the violent crackdown on protesters had brought into Ter-Petrosyan's camp many who did not even vote for the former president. The opposition is planning protests during Wednesday's inauguration, and the "popular struggle against banditocracy" will continue, Zurabyan said. "[Sargsyan's] biggest challenge will be his own people who do not perceive him as a legitimate leader," Zurabyan said.

Planned Reforms

Sargsyan is planning major reshuffles in regional administrations to get rid of controversial officials, said the businessman interviewed for this report. He is also planning measures to end the predominance of oligarchs in the economy -- including many who rose to commanding heights thanks to Ter-Petrosyan -- and facilitate fair economic competition, said the businessman, who has close connections to the ruling elite.

Asked if Sargsyan plans to break the hold local administration bosses have on certain parts of the economy, a key member of the president-elect's Republican Party of Armenia answered broadly. "I am confident that big reforms will take place in all spheres, related not only to economic, but also to political domains," senior party official Artak Zakaryan said. "It will have to be a persistent, goal-oriented policy, and Mr. Sargsyan will be able to achieve this." Sargsyan has no choice but to break up "the patron-client paradigm" that Ter-Petrosyan established and Kocharyan failed to dismantle, said Martirosyan of the Mercy Corps' Conflict Management Group.

Liberalization of the economy, with a focus on developing the service sector and small and medium-sized businesses, is particularly vital for land-locked Armenia, given embargoes maintained by two of its neighbors and the scarcity of key natural resources, including fossil fuels, in the republic, experts said. Small and medium businesses accounted for 40 percent of the country's GDP as of 2006, according to Karen Chshmarityan, the republic's minister of trade and economic development at the time. Armenia, which has a GDP of less than $10 billion, also fares well in the Index of Economic Freedom, compiled annually by the Heritage Foundation think tank. The 2008 index put Armenia at No. 28 out of the 157 countries surveyed -- the top ranking among CIS countries, including neighboring Georgia and Azerbaijan.

But Armenia also suffers from "unnatural monopolies" in some sectors, including certain food imports, the businessman with connections to top Armenian officials said. Apart from dismantling the economy's oligarchic structure, fair domestic competition must be established, and the political landscape must be restructured, Martirosyan and other experts said. "Politically, Sargsyan needs to allow the emergence of new political parties representing a loyal opposition, enforce equality before the law, and nurture confidence in the state and government by implementing reforms that can produce immediate gains," Martirosyan said.

Sargsyan's party received 32.82 percent of the vote in the May 2007 parliamentary elections, capturing 64 out of 131 seats. In March, the party entered into an alliance with the pro-government Prosperous Armenia Party and two other parties that criticized Sargsyan's government during his presidential campaign: the influential Armenian Revolutionary Federation and the Country of Law party. The alliance formed a coalition government in an attempt to stabilize the political situation following the postelection turmoil. The coalition was established to "form an effective, functioning authority, depending on democratic reforms and perfecting mechanisms to improve human rights," Sargsyan said in an interview published Monday in the Russian daily Noviye Izvestia.

Foreign Policy Future

While expected to reform domestic policies, Sargsyan will likely make few changes in Armenia's foreign policy, relying on Russia as a strategic partner while pushing for a peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, insiders and experts said. Sargsyan's foreign policy foresees cooperation with other important internal and external players in the South Caucasus, including the United States, the EU and NATO, they said. "The character and potential of relations with Russia ... are not limited to the region only," said Zakaryan of the Republican Party of Armenia. "They have a strategic character because of Russia's role in ensuring Armenia's security, traditional friendly relations between Armenia and Russia, large-scale economic cooperation, Russia's role in solving the Karabakh conflict and the presence of a large Armenian diaspora in Russia."

In the economic sphere, Russian state-controlled companies have snapped up several key assets as either owners or operators in Armenia, including railways, power plants and metals companies. Russian state gas giant Gazprom is co-owner of Armenia's national gas distributor and even acquired control of the gas pipeline from Iran to Armenia, giving it full control of gas supplies into the republic. Russian direct investment in Armenia totaled $293 million last year, making Russia the single largest source of foreign investment, according to the Armenian government. Trade between the two countries totaled $800 million last year, according to the Kremlin. Armenia has actively participated in most Russian-led integration projects among former Soviet republics, including not only the CIS, but also the Collective Security Treaty Organization, which Moscow hopes will evolve into a full-fledged military bloc.

Russian border guards patrol Armenia's border with Turkey and man the checkpoint at Armenia's main airport, while Armenia hosts a large Russian military base. Russia is also one of the OSCE-empowered mediators in negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the status of Nagorno-Karabakh. Any attempt to diversify away from security arrangements with Russia "would be detrimental to Armenian national interests," Martirosyan said."Armenia needs alternatives, but only for a rainy day, i.e. for the unlikely scenario of Russia reneging on its security commitments or pulling out of the Caucasus entirely," he said. "But the probability of that scenario is currently close to zero."

Indeed, landlocked Armenia has few options but to rely on Russia, despite the fact the two countries share no border. Armenia has fought a war with neighboring Azerbaijan and has no diplomatic relations with another neighbor, Turkey. Both Azerbaijan and Turkey closed off their borders with Armenia over the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, where an ethnic Armenian majority first voted to secede from Azerbaijan and then fought a war, together with Armenian forces, to form a self-styled Nagorno-Karabakh republic. Relations with Turkey are also strained because Ankara refuses to recognize the World War I-era massive and organized killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide.

Sargsyan will likely continue negotiations over Nagorno-Karabakh with Azeri president Ilham Aliyev but will not agree to any deals that would hand control of the self-proclaimed republic, which has enjoyed de facto independence for more than a decade, to Azerbaijan, experts said. Short of international recognition, Nagorno-Karabakh "enjoys all the symbolic and substantive attributes of a nation-state," and Sargsyan will accept nothing less than that status, Martirosyan said. "If and when Azerbaijan is ready to accept that reality, Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia should be ready to satisfy other Azeri interests in exchange for a new security system and other necessary arrangements," Martirosyan said.

Azerbaijan has repeatedly threatened to use force to retake both Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding districts controlled by Armenian forces. Both Kocharyan and Sargsyan are natives of Nagorno-Karabakh. Meanwhile, Armenia has enjoyed mutually beneficial ties with its other two neighbors, Georgia and Iran. Cooperation with Iran has been facilitated by Tehran's perception of Armenia as a natural ally in countering Turkey's influence in the region. Sargsyan could also seek further cooperation with the EU, NATO and the United States, which is home to the second-largest Armenian diaspora -- after Russia.

Armenia is not seeking membership in NATO or the EU, but it does participate in NATO's Partnership for Peace Program and the EU's New Neighborhood programs. Armenia has also contributed troops to the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq. Like his predecessor, Sargsyan should avoid keeping all his eggs in one Russian basket, experts said. "The Armenia-Russia security alliance has proved its viability, and there is no reason why this cooperation should be changed," said Poghosyan of the International Center for Human Development. "This doesn't mean, however, that Armenia should refrain from cooperation with other countries and organizations for strengthening its security."

Source: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/storie...04/09/002.html

[Armenian]

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

Armenia Ready to Cooperate // both with the West and Russia

In recent months, I repeatedly had to comment on the situation in Armenia. I am surprised at the extremely narrow range of questions asked by journalists. Can we regard the February-March 2008 events as an attempt and failure of another ‘colored revolution’? Which force in Armenia is ‘pro-Russia’, and which is ‘pro-West’? The questions pretty much boiled down to one and the same thing. Meanwhile, they have rather indirect relation to the real situation.

Let us begin with determining the geopolitical preferences inside Armenia’s elite. Speaking about the ‘coup of shaking hands’ in August 1991, one of the post-Soviet Armenia’s founding fathers Vazgen Manukyan said he does not care who comes to power in Moscow. The main thing was that the Karabakh issue is solved advantageously for Armenia and the entire Armenian world. Actually, no one since 1991 has expressed the essence of the Armenian elite’s geopolitical preferences better than Vazgen Manukyan. In fact, Erevan does not really care who gives to it the support and aid.

The aid itself is important. If it is done by the U.S. Department of State or the U.S. Congress, then Armenia’s elite becomes pro-American. So, all journalists reporting on Armenia should understand: there will be no pro-U.S. or pro-Russia authorities in that country. There will be pro-Armenia authorities. Any other regime will be overthrown by a colored or a black-and-white revolution. And any regime will cooperate with Russia just as long as it corresponds to its interests.

It was not either ‘pro-Westerners’ or ‘pro-Russians’ who won in Armenia in 2008. Winners are the supporters of a union with Russia as the best way for the country’s development. Yet, the opposition, whom Russian media brand as ‘colored revolutionaries’, is not against cooperation with Russia either. Is it likely that the former president and members of his team become radical Russophobes, while it was in their rule in the 90s that the documents securing Russia’s military and political presence in Armenia were signed?

At the same time, winners of the 2008 campaign will cooperate with the West. Not for ideological reasons, but for pragmatic ones. First, western countries (especially the United States and France) host numerous Armenian diasporas involved into these countries’ business and the process of management and political decision-making. Second, Armenia is trying, with the West’s help, to put pressure on Turkey (Ankara wants to join the EU, so it should adjust to the ‘European standards’). So, no matter who wins in Erevan, the winners will act going along not beautiful toast speeches, but real politics.

Russia needs to be pragmatic as well: it should be pragmatic in developing its Caucasus strategy. From references to ‘auld lang syne’, Moscow needs to move on to pragmatic profit. Armenia is ready to cooperate with Russia on security issues. Russian business is very active in telecommunications and gasification. These interests, and not the struggle against ‘orangeism’, should become the basis of a full-righted bilateral cooperation between Armenia and Russia.

Source: http://www.kommersant.com/p878484/r_...s_geopolitics/

[Merv]

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

This article doesn't relate to Russia or Armenia directly, but I certainly thought it was interesting, as it lines up with your thesis of what is going on in the world today. Who in their right mind would try to make a profit on Western agriculture (which certainly is not a terribly great sector of the economy, I would think) by demolishing third-world agriculture and driving millions into starvation? How will these starving millions be able to afford US/EU imports, which will still be significantly more expensive than subsidized native products? It's nothing short of malicious.

A man-made famine
Raj Patel
April 15, 2008 8:30 AM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/raj_patel/2008/04/a_manmade_famine.html

For anyone who understands the current food crisis, it is hard to listen to the head of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, without gagging.

Earlier this week, Zoellick waxed apocalyptic about the consequences of the global surge in prices, arguing that free trade had become a humanitarian necessity, to ensure that poor people had enough to eat. The current wave of food riots has already claimed the prime minister of Haiti, and there have been protests around the world, from Mexico, to Egypt, to India.

The reason for the price rise is perfect storm of high oil prices, an increasing demand for meat in developing countries, poor harvests, population growth, financial speculation and biofuels. But prices have fluctuated before. The reason we're seeing such misery as a result of this particular spike has everything to do with Zoellick and his friends.

Before he replaced Paul Wolfowitz at the World Bank, Zoellick was the US trade representative, their man at the World Trade Organisation. While there, he won a reputation as a tough and guileful negotiator, savvy with details and pushy with the neoconservative economic agenda: a technocrat with a knuckleduster.

His mission was to accelerate two decades of trade liberalisation in key strategic commodities for the United States, among them agriculture. Practically, this meant the removal of developing countries' ability to stockpile grain (food mountains interfere with the market), to create tariff barriers (ditto), and to support farmers (they ought to be able to compete on their own). This Zoellick did often, and enthusiastically.

Without agricultural support policies, though, there's no buffer between the price shocks and the bellies of the poorest people on earth. No option to support sustainable smaller-scale farmers, because they've been driven off their land by cheap EU and US imports. No option to dip into grain reserves because they've been sold off to service debt. No way of increasing the income of the poorest, because social programmes have been cut to the bone.

The reason that today's price increases hurt the poor so much is that all protection from price shocks has been flayed away, by organisations such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organisation and the World Bank.

Even the World Bank's own Independent Evaluation Groupadmits (pdf) that the bank has been doing a poor job in agriculture. Part of the bank's vision was to clear away the government agricultural clutter so that the private sector could come in to make agriculture efficient. But, as the Independent Evaluation Group delicately puts it, "in most reforming countries, the private sector did not step in to fill the vacuum when the public sector withdrew." After the liberalisation of agriculture, the invisible hand was nowhere to be seen.

But governments weren't allowed to return to the business of supporting agriculture. Trade liberalisation agreements and World Bank loan conditions, such as those promoted by Zoellick, have made food sovereignty impossible.

This is why, when we see Dominique Strauss-Kahn of the IMF wailing about food prices, or Zoellick using the crisis to argue with breathless urgency for more liberalisation, the only reasonable response is nausea.

[Armenian]

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

Russia's Sukhoi to become fourth largest fighter jet maker

Russia's Sukhoi aircraft manufacturer will rank fourth globally in terms of fighter plane production up to 2012, the company's press service said on Monday, citing a market researcher. Forecast International, which specializes in defense market research and consulting, said that in 2008-2012 the world leader will be Lockheed Martin with 346 fighters (23.9%) followed by Eurofighter with 290 (20%), China's Chengdu Aircraft with 228 (15.7%), Sukhoi with 177 (12.2%) and Boeing with 159 (11%). Sukhoi, which is part of Russia's United Aircraft Building Corporation (UABC), is the country's largest aircraft exporter. The company trades in ready machinery, spare parts and assemblies, and carries out repairs and upgrades on previously sold models.

Source: http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080414/105017384.html

Putin to bring arms contracts worth $3 bln to Libya - paper

Russia has prepared arms contracts worth $3 billion for outgoing president Vladimir Putin's visit to Libya this week, a business daily said on Tuesday citing defense and aircraft industry officials. The Kremlin said on Monday Putin would visit the oil and gas-rich north African state on April 16-17 at the invitation of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, giving no details of the agenda. Vedomosti said citing a Defense Ministry official that Russia wants to sell 12 of the latest Su-35 Flanker multi-role fighter and Tor-M2E short-range missile systems, and to offer spare parts and maintenance services for Soviet-era military hardware. An aircraft industry source quoted by the daily confirmed the deal has almost been prepared, but added the majority of contracts could only be initialed in Libya as the two countries have failed to reach an agreement on the African state's Soviet-era debt, which Russia earlier put at about $3.5 billion. Tripoli said in the 1990s that Russia also had an outstanding debt to Libya. But a Russian government official told Vedomosti the debt dispute could be resolved and the arms contracts signed during Putin's visit as Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin and Rosoboronexport chief Anatoly Isaikin will both accompany the outgoing leader. Russia's state arms exporter, Rosoboronexport, denied comment on the planned arms deals, the paper said adding Libya's embassy in Moscow had also made no comment. In the arms market, Russia has encountered tough competition with Western nations since the UN lifted sanctions against Libya in 2003, after Qaddafi announced he would halt the country's nuclear weapons program and later accepted responsibility for the 1998 terrorist bombing over Lockerbie in Scotland, agreeing to pay compensation to the victims' families. France is anxious to sell Tripoli 18 Rafale fighter aircraft worth 2.5 billion euros (about $4 billion). The visit to Libya could be Putin's last foreign trip as president after he steps down in May to give way to his protege, Dmitry Medvedev. Putin will stay on as premier.

Source: http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080415/105087367.html

Brazil, Russia to build jet fighter

Brazil and Russia signed an agreement on Tuesday to jointly develop top-line jet fighters and satellite launch vehicles. Brazil's Strategic Affairs Minister Roberto Mangabeira Unger told reporters the agreement will lead to the development of fifth-generation jet fighters that are built using sophisticated engineering, such as composite materials, stealth technology and advanced radar. The agreement signed by Unger and the deputy secretary of Russia's Security Council, Valentin Sobolev, includes the construction of rockets capable of hurling several kinds of satellites into space. Brazil builds its own small and medium-size rockets that are launched from the Alcantara base in the northeastern state of Maranhao. The base is considered an excellent launch site because it is located just 2.3 degrees south of the equator, the line at which the Earth moves the fastest, helping propel rockets into space with less fuel. Tuesday's agreement calls for advanced training in the field of cybernetics, which Mangabeira called "essential for the defense and the technological evolution of our industry." It also involves the transfer of technology, something Brazil has always insisted on. Earlier this year, France aid it would transfer technology to the Brazil for construction of the Scorpene attack submarine, helicopters and the Rafale fighter plane. The Scorpene is a conventional attack submarine, but Brazilian officials have said they want the diesel-powered vessel to serve as a model for the development of a nuclear submarine that would be the first in Latin America. University of Brasilia political scientist David Fleischer said the agreement may not advance very far because Russia may limit the transfer of technology for the fighter jets. "The problem is that the Russians have never been all that keen on technology transfer," Fleischer said. "But then again the Russians may want to beat out the French, so the deal could eventually go through." "A deal with Russia, together with Venezuela's recent purchases of Russian weapons, could spark an arms race in South America," Fleischer added. Venezuela recently bought 53 Russian-made attack helicopters, 100,000 assault rifles, 24 Sukhoi fighter jets, 12 military transport planes and 5,000 sniper rifles.

Source: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h...lz7LwD902HJ2O3

[Armenian]

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

NATO "deeply concerned" by Russia's Georgia move

Moscow to protect citizens in Georgia's breakaway regions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9ac3u3724Y

NATO said on Wednesday it was deeply concerned by Russia's announcement that it would establish legal links with neighboring Georgia's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. "I am deeply concerned by the actions Russia has taken to establish legal links with the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia," NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said, noting NATO allies had reiterated their support Georgia's territorial integrity at a summit this month. "The Russian steps undermine that sovereignty," he said in a statement. "I urge the Russian Federation to reverse these measures, and call on the Georgian authorities to continue to show restraint." Moscow announced the new links two weeks after NATO angered Russia by agreeing at a summit in Bucharest that Georgia would eventually join the alliance, though it did not set a timetable for membership.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsM...93299920080416

Russia tightens ties with Georgian rebel areas

Russia announced on Wednesday it would establish legal links with neighbouring Georgia's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, a move Georgia condemned as a breach of international law. The step was likely to create a new irritant in relations between Russia and Western states, which are closely allied to Georgia and suspect Russia of trying to punish the small Caucasus state for its bid to join NATO. In an instruction released by Russia's foreign ministry, President Vladimir Putin ordered his government to recognise some documents issued by the separatist authorities and cooperate with them on trade and other issues. "The main motivating factor for all our actions in this field is care for the interests of the people of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, including the Russian citizens living there," the foreign ministry said in a statement. "Our actions ... do not mean that Russia is making a choice in favour of confrontation with Georgia," it said. After Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili chaired an emergency session of his security council, Foreign Minister David Bakradze said Russia's move amounted to a "legalisation of the de facto annexation process" being conducted by Russia. "That is against all the norms of international law and the Georgian side will do whatever it can do in order to bring diplomatic, political and legal response to this policy," Bakradze, who was speaking in English, told Reuters. Georgia has accused Moscow of creeping annexation of the rebel territories since they threw off Tbilisi's control in fighting in the 1990s. A spokeswoman for European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said he would discuss the Russian announcement with Saakashvili on Wednesday, at the Georgian leader's request. "This is something that causes concern," she said. In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack reiterated U.S. backing for Georgia, saying its commitment to the country's territorial integrity was "unshakeable."

NATO LINK?

Putin's order made no mention of recognising the two regions' claims for independence from Georgia. Diplomats say Moscow is unlikely to grant diplomatic recognition because it is wary of fomenting separatism inside its own borders. Putin did though instruct his government to recognise businesses and organisations registered under Abkhaz and South Ossetian law, and to look at providing consular services to residents in the two regions. Moscow already has close informal ties with Abkhazia and South Ossetia: it provides financial assistance and has issued most of the regions' residents with Russian passports. Moscow announced the new links two weeks after NATO angered Russia by agreeing at a summit in Bucharest that Georgia would be allowed to join the alliance, though it did not give a timetable for membership. The announcement by Moscow of closer ties could also stoke Western concern that Russia is using the breakaway regions to retaliate for the recognition of Kosovo independence, which the Kremlin fiercely opposed. Abkhazia's separatist foreign minister, Sergei Shamba, said Putin's order was a step towards independence for his region, a stretch of land on the Black Sea coast.

Source: http://uk.reuters.com/article/homepa..._.242020080416