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**Armenian** · 05-28-2008, 09:00 AM

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

Since we are on the topic of Russian-Armenians...

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ARMENIANS IN POLITICS: ADAPTING TO THE NEW RUSSIA

Moscow by David Zenian

The rules of engagement in Russian politics have changed dramatically since the collapse of the Soviet Union a decade ago, but Arthur Chilingarov has climbed the political ladder to hold the position of Deputy Chairman of the State Duma, the 450-member lower house of the Russian Parliament. Sahak Karapetyan also entered politics after the collapse of the Soviet Union and like Chilingarov, he too was elected to the Duma and served for four years before his appointment to his new position as Senior Assistant to the General Prosecutor of the Russian Federation. Lt. Gen. Yevgeni Gurgenovich Batalov may have stayed in active duty if not for his advanced age of 76. All three men are Russian born Armenians who have integrated into Russian society and served their country while maintaining their ethnic identity and adapting to the changes around them.

�I don�t look at my Armenian roots from a narrow perspective,� explained Chilingarov during a recent interview in his Moscow office.

�I am a Russian-Armenian and Russia is my country, just like the United States is for American-Armenians. I will serve both as best as I can,� he said.

Chilingarov was born in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) in 1939 and grew up in an Armenian family, but he had few Armenian friends. �I might have had more Armenian friends and interaction with fellow Armenians if we had a working church in St. Petersburg, but things were different then,� he said. Chilingarov, who accompanied President Putin during a visit to Armenia last year, admits that maybe he is not a very religious person, but is quick to add that the church should have a prominent place in modern society.

�I visit Armenia at least once a year and have very close relations with His Holiness Catholicos Karekin II. I am convinced that the stronger the Armenian Church becomes, the stronger will relations between Armenia and Russia become too.

�The Russian church is a very powerful institution and has a say in what happens here. The same should be true with the Armenian church,� Chilingarov said.

�Russian politics is unique. Despite the large size of the Armenian population in Russia, they cannot have any political clout�not for a long time anyway. But a strong Armenian Church is a different matter. There is respect for the church here,� he said.

A 1963 graduate of the Arctic Faculty of the Leningrad Marine Institute with a degree in engineering-oceanography, Chilingarov began his career at the Tiksi Observatory of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute. Despite his busy schedule as a politician, Chilingarov, who has spent the better part of his adult life on the icebergs of the Arctic and is the author of 50 scientific publications, still finds time for his science and research. During his long career, he has been awarded the Order of Lenin, Hero of the Soviet Union medal, and membership in the Russian Academy of Sciences, and since 1992 assumed the presidency of the Polar Explorers� Association.

He entered politics �from the back door��or at least not as a representative of any political party. His work as a scientist had kept him in Russia�s Ninens Autonomous District, some 1,600 kilometers northeast of Moscow, close to the North Pole. According to the Russian constitution, the region was entitled to one deputy to represent it in the Russian Duma, and the choice was Chilingarov. He was elected with an overwhelming majority and upon arrival in Moscow he campaigned and was elected to the prestigious post of deputy Chairman of the State Duma�a position, which he still holds.

�It�s been almost 40 years since my first Arctic experience, and it is still my first love. Politics is a career, but the Arctic is my passion,� he said with a broad smile pointing at the dozens of momentos from his numerous expeditions, including his last one to the South Pole in January, 2002.

Chilingarov was the first Armenian to reach the South Pole with a team of scientists who flew on a modified Antonov III aircraft piloted by Ukrainian-born Sergei Tarasuk, whose mother is Armenian.

�As much as I was part of a Russian expedition, I was still an Armenian there. My colleagues found it very amusing when I put up a wooden marker with the distances from where we were to the cities representing the origins of team members.

�The marker, which is still there, clearly says Yerevan, 16,116 kilometers. Of course it also gives the distances from Moscow and Kiev, and St. Petersburg, my birthplace.

�I also took a bottle of Armenian brandy with me as a gift to the American team which was also involved in the expedition,� Chilingarov said with a huge smile on his face. As an Armenian, I cannot celebrate an important occasion without some Armenian brandy,� he said.

Chilingarov may be the most visible Armenian in Russian politics today, but by far not the only one. Sahak Karapetyan�s route into politics was different. The old communist world was vanishing and a new breed of politicians was moving in when Karapetyan, who is now 42 years old, joined the �Yabloco� (which means apple in Russian) liberal democrat party in his native Rostov in southern Russia.

Unlike many in his generation he had tried to join the communist party, but was turned down because �they considered me too liberal, too much of a black sheep, a nationalist.�

A graduate of the Rostov Law school, Karapetyan was elected and served in the Duma for four years after practicing law and holding several positions in the public prosecutor�s office. When his term expired, he was offered his old job back in Rostov, but decided to stay in Moscow because of family commitment.

�My party lobbied for me for the position of Senior Assistant to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation and I got the assignment. It is a very difficult and responsible position because I represent Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov (an appointee of Russian President Vladimir Putin) in the Duma,� he said in an interview.

In his position, which carries the quasi-military rank of Major General of the Justice, Karapetyan oversees all government and military agencies and has the authority to investigate, try and issue arrest warrants of all elected officials along with military personnel. The Prosecutor General�s office maintains 40,000 appointed lawyers and has branch offices in all regions of the Russian Federation. How did an ethnic Armenian make it in such a sensitive and high position? Is the new Russian system really color blind and does not differentiate between the ethnic background of its citizens? Karapetyan, a soft-spoken family man and father of a teenage daughter, has never felt discrimination because of his Armenian roots.

�I tried to join the communist party as a young student, but was turned down. The strange thing is that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, I got a letter saying my application had been approved. I laughed. I did not even reply. It was fashionable to be a communist 20 years ago, and my application had nothing to do with my convictions,� he said.

�I am sure that I would not have reached this position if the communists were still in power. My road to success has always been through my hard work, party affiliation and the election process. I received more that 210,000 votes and all were Russians. They voted for the Yabloco Party to which I still belong,� he said.

As a lawyer and a politician�and for that matter a Russian citizen�Karapetyan�s future never depended on an Armenian voting public, but his work and reputation reflect positively on Armenians living in Russia.

�Everyone knows that I am an Armenian. I have not changed my name, and denied my ethnic identity. The respect I get from my fellow party members, government officials and the Duma is also respect for us Armenians. I have always wanted to set a good example, and I will continue doing so,� Karapetyan said in Armenian.

�Don�t forget that I come from Rostov, where Armenians have a 230-year-old history and culture. We don�t take our history and roots lightly,� he said.

If Chilingarov and Karapetyan have climbed the political ladder through the democratic election process in the past decade, retired Lt. Gen. Yevgeni Gurgenovich Batalov took the communist party route.

�You can call me old school. You can call me an old communist, but whatever you say, you must always remember that I have always been not only an Armenia, but an Armenian with roots in Nagorno Karabakh,� the 76-year-old Batalov said during a meeting in the offices of fellow Armenian Major Andranik Babayan, the police chief of Moscow�s populous Khoroshevski District.

The two men smile.

�Imagine � A decade ago we would have been classified as traitors if we had met a Western journalist like you. Just the fact that we can sit here, talk freely as fellow Armenians without any fear is like a dream come true,� Batalov said.

Looking a lot younger than his age, whose knowledge of the Armenian language is limited to a few phrases like Ha Jan (yes, my dear) and Lokh Lava (very good, in the Karabakh Armenian dialect), was born in Moscow and spent his life until retirement with the Soviet military.

�I�m not exactly a politician as you understand the term today, but all the positions I held had very deep political overtones. The military was, and in some cases still is, a political institution,� he said.

After graduating from engineering school, Batalov was drafted into the army as a junior officer and began climbing up the ranks until 1965 when he was transferred to the Interior Ministry�itself a police unit, which, as Batalov puts it �kept an eye on Soviet society.�

In 1967 he was named police chief of Moscow and later was put in charge of a division which coordinated investigations involving all foreign diplomats and nationals living on Soviet soil. But despite all the power he had, nothing came close to the most sensitive assignment of his long career, including police chief of the city of Kirov during the Brezhnev era.

�I was vacationing on the Black Sea with my wife and only daughter in 1974 when I was ordered to move to Armenia and assume the position of Interior Minister�a Moscow-appointed position which was a lot more powerful than that of the Secretary General of the Armenian Communist Party,� Batalov said.

�The years between 1974 and 1984 are the most memorable in my life. They were also the most difficult. I was a Soviet, but also an Armenian. I will never forget what my father said when I asked his advice before leaving for Yerevan. He said son, act like a Soviet but feel like a true Armenian. Be sure that they not only respect you, but like you as well. I hope I lived up to my father�s expectations,� Batalov said in an emotional voice.

�It was during my service in Yerevan that I realized I was an Armenian, genetically and by nature. I never felt that way growing up in Moscow. We had a lot of Armenian friends, but being on Armenian soil was a totally different experience,� he said.

Batalov can speak for hours about his life long experiences, but stops to single out a few, like the time he went with a police regiment to quell a prison riot, or decided on the fate of a woman who was serving time in jail because she refused to give up her only adopted child.

�The top criminal leading the prison riot in Kirov was an Armenian and he only surrendered because he knew I was an Armenian. As for the Armenian mother, that was in Yerevan. It made me realize what an Armenian mother was, and how strong the Armenian family ties were,� he said.

�I just could not ignore her love for her child. I set her free. I could not separate mother and daughter,� he said.

Years have gone by, the Soviet Union has collapsed, but Batalov�s reputation in Armenia is still alive.

�It was all very much of a surprise when I got a call last year from the Interior Minister of Armenia inviting me to visit Yerevan on my 75th birthday. I had not been back in 16 years, and I hesitated at first, but my daughter, who is married to a young man from Armenia, insisted that we both go,� Batalov said.

On his arrival, Batalov was welcomed by not only top Interior Ministry officers, but even his old personal assistant and driver who came to the tarmac in the exact model of car he used during his long tenure in Armenia.

�If returning to Armenia after all these years was difficult at first, leaving was much more traumatic. In my heart, I want to go back again and again, but at my age, I don�t think I can handle the emotional stress of having to leave and return to my home in Moscow. After all I am a Moscovite, and my mother was Russian. I guess my Armenian genes are stronger,� Batalov said turning to Maj. Andranik Babayan�a new generation police officer.

His advice to Maj. Babayan??

�Don�t forget your roots. You can be a good Russian officer and a true Armenian at the same time. Serve both with dignity and honor.�

Source: http://www.agbu.org/publications/article.asp?A_ID=76

**Armenian** · 05-28-2008, 09:44 AM

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

Letter from Moscow: Seventy Million Armenians?

by Gevorg Ter-Gabrielyan from the Armenian Reporter

"'A thousand Mozarts would be horrible,'" said Saint-Exupery - and in so saying, he became one more." --Hrant Matevossyan, Hangover MOSCOW - Former President Ter-Petrossian used to complain about the shortage of people to fill civil service roles in the new national government: "Mard chka!" ("There are no people") he would say. Hundreds of thousands were leaving Armenia to survive. Then-prime minister Vazgen Manukian justified the exodus in economic terms: Armenia could not feed so many people; those leaving the country were taking a burden off the shoulders of those who stayed, giving them, one might cautiously say, lebensraum ("living space"). Indeed, those who left became a major source of income for those who stayed.

Armenians ventured to Russia from Armenia, Karabakh, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Central Asia. From Georgia alone, the migrating population included Tbilisi Armenians (especially educated intellectuals), a substantial part of the Javakhk population, and Armenians from Abkhazia. If we add to that the number of Armenians who were already living in Russia prior to the great migration that began in 1988, we have in Russia arguably the largest Armenian community in the world. The Russian census of 2004 is unreliable: on a single Statistical Ministry website, one page gives a figure of under 800,000 Armenians in Russia, and another gives a number well over 1.1 million (see www.gks.ru). Precise numbers are not available. The head of the Union of Armenians of Russia, multimillionaire Ara Abrahamyan, claimed in an interview last year with Ekho Moskvy Radio that there are between 2 and 2.5 million Armenians in Russia.

No one knows for certain, but it's likely that there are between 1.5 and 2 million Armenians in Russia. The pre-1988 community was estimated at about 400,000. About half a million more came from Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Central Asia. Up to a million may have come from Armenia - although many subsequently went back. As usual, families proliferate - not in huge numbers, but two children is a standard. They have settled mostly in the three southern regions of Russia and in the capitals, where there are established Armenian communities. But Armenians are also thinly spread over the entire Russian Federation. Some of them are here for good; others come and go, or may leave entirely at some point.

What all this means is that Armenians now constitute the sixth-largest national minority in Russia. Armenians are more-or-less well placed, and can make ends meet; they do not feel terribly threatened, and therefore have no motivation to suppress their ethnic identity by absorbing themselves into the larger Russian nationality. They have difficulties in the southern regions of Russia, in Krasnodar and Stavropol Kray, which include the biggest Armenian communities after Moscow and St. Petesrburg. In the south of Krasnodar Kray, there is an entire town and several small townships and villages where Armenians comprise an overwhelming majority; in the north, they have been threatened several times over the last years. The causes have been the nationalist policies of the region's governors, or clashes with ethnic Russians or other minorities living in Russia.

* Dual citizens, if not de jure, then de facto

While the Armenian government slowly legalized dual citizenship (the law passed a month ago), the Armenians of Russia went ahead and received their Russian passports while keeping their Armenian ones. This is reminiscent of the Karabakh issue: the world argues, the years pass, and the issue is resolved in a practical, de facto way for the people actually involved. The dual citizenship of many Armenians in Russia is publicly acknowledged, and does not affect their standing. Even those who don't have passports feel themselves as de facto citizens of both countries. The Armenians who have relocated from Armenia itself do not rely on the help of their embassy. Official events like last year's "Year of Armenia in Russia." are mostly attended by the "traditional" (pre-1988) community. Migrants do have a genuine interest in the way Russians regard Armenian culture: the controversial "Blabr," an interpretation of the legend of Hayk and Bel by Russian writer Anna Rulevskaya (available on the Internet), is hotly debated. The migrants cooperate with each other and help each other out. Successful businesses ventures are often based on ethnic partnerships and ethnic trust.

* "Everybody is Armenian"

Recent years have seen a decrease and stabilization in the number of Armenians migrating to Russia; and the number of returnees, though still relatively small, is increasing. Among the latter are rare instances of people who were not originally from Armenia, but have now chosen to live there. One such person is Alexander Iskandaryan, a political scientist from Moscow, originally from Baku (but not a refugee). He went to Yerevan with his family and became the director of the European-funded Caucasus Media Institute. Alexander says half-seriously that there are 50 million Armenians in the world, and about 15 million of them in Russia. According to him, Armenians are shrewd and careful, many have mixed ethnicity, and therefore do not show up in the census in their full numbers. Professor David Hovhannisyan agrees with Alexander and tells me about his visit to an Armenian restaurant in Kaliningrad (the former Konigsberg, on the westernmost edge of Russia).

Gagik Avagyan, an NGO leader and former Karabakh fighter, tells a story about an impressive Armenian restaurant in Vladivostok, on Russia's easternmost edge. We are sitting at David's place in Yerevan. I comment that if you walk down the streets of Adler (you might call it the Glendale of Russia) in Krasnodar Kray, or if you watch Russian television, Alexander's words ring true. Restaurants in Moscow serve Armenian meals. The chain similar to Starbucks in Russia is called "Coffee-Tun" (that's the Eastern Armenian pronunciation of doon, as in the Armenian word for "house"). Lavash and tan (sometimes called ayran) are sold in every store. The only product lacking is thyme (urts). But one can find tea with thyme in an Armenian restaurant. In almost every notary office the service of translating Armenian passports is readily available. In South-West, an upper-middle class neighborhood in Moscow, Armenians inhabit several buildings. Television is full of Armenian names. A notorious doctor who cruelly cut the hand of a newborn baby in the Rostov region - yet another cluster of the Russian-Armenian diaspora - had an Armenian last name. Many other medical doctors and scientists (of greater competence, certainly) have Armenian names.

Tina Kandelaki, a TV and tabloid star, belongs to a plentiful but rather secluded group with a complex identity: Tbilisi natives of half-Georgian, half-Armenian stock. She was recently involved in a car accident alongside Suleiman Kerimov, a multimillionaire parliament member of Dagestani extraction, in Nice, France: his newly bought Ferrari was speeding and turned upside down. They both survived, but Tina, who hosts a TV show about talented kids and enjoyed the image of a good wife and mother, found her reputation ruined. She turned that to her advantage, using it as a PR opportunity. People probably do not realize that she is half-Armenian, but she speaks Armenian when she interviews her compatriots on her daily radio broadcast - thereby forcing her audience of millions of Russian car drivers to listen to an Armenian conversation without translation. Such realities of Russian popular culture give a new meaning to the oft-repeated and irritating joke that "everybody is Armenian."

Many other famous people have a partly Armenian identity - such as Garry Kasparov, the chess champion who has abandoned chess to become an opposition politician. From the perspective of the governing powers, he is considered an outcast and his name is censored from television and many print media outlets. Then there is Sergey Kurginyan, a leading political theorist with extreme right, pro-imperial views, who is often seen on TV. Another personality, Andranik Migranyan, who in the Boris Yeltsin's day was the author of the so-called Monroe Doctrine for Russia - the idea that Russia should make the former Soviet states into its satellites - does not show up as frequently.

As in the story of Pandora's Box, lift the lid on any public personality in Russia and "Armenianness" is liable to fly out unexpectedly. Recently, the singer Irina Allegrova suffered a nervous breakdown, and in an interview revealed that she was from Baku, and that her father was Armenian. Allegrova's revelation may be as irrelevant as the Armenian and Ossetian origins of the talented theatrical director Valeriy Mirzoev, who emphasizes his Zoroastrian rather than his Armenian roots. Nevertheless, Armenians hungrily (though not without a touch of irony) play the game of digging up Armenian roots for everybody.

Another showman with a skyrocketing career in Russian TV was Garik Martirosyan, the host of Yerevan's "Club for the Fun and Smart" (KVN), a Soviet-era cabaret show-competition, which survived the collapse of the USSR and is still thriving. Garry became the host of "Comedy Club," the major alternative comic show on TV. Its rival, more "mainstream" show is likewise in the hands of an Armenian: Baku-born Yevgeni Petrosyan, from a famous troupe of satirists of the Soviet era. He is currently reviled for having established a monopoly on humor on the state-run channels. By contrast, Garry's show may be crude, but there is still a touch of freedom in it. When Garry recently became a candidate in the Armenian parliamentary elections,
it turned out that this icon of Russian TV wasn't even a Russian citizen.

* Ideas without consequences

What might be called the "cultural strength" of the Armenians in Russia could be a huge asset; but it is not utilized in a serious way to advance the interests of Armenia. In 2005, a strategic "creative conference" was organized in Armenia, involving the participation of Russian Armenians, including this writer. Issues of the nation, the region, and the country were discussed. As we envisioned the apparent destiny of the Armenian nation, one of the ideas that emerged was to move towards a "virtual state" (tsantsapetutyun), in which statehood would no longer be defined solely in terms of territory.

But we Armenians are famous for having great, imaginative ideas, which have little consequence in the real world. In Moscow, the richest Armenians govern banks, mutual funds, and trusts. They do mergers and hostile acquisitions. The only lucrative arena in which they are conspicuously absent is the notorious Russian oil and gas business. Some say that's because these industries are monopolized by other nationalities. But given the past and present troubles of some of the country's oil and gas extraction tycoons, it may be that Armenians were simply smart to steer clear of this strategic Russian asset. Or alternatively, perhaps Armenians are more environmentally conscious.

Source: http://www.armeniandiaspora.com/foru...ad.php?p=87104

**Armenian** · 05-28-2008, 11:10 AM

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

Artur Chilingarov

Deputy Chairman of the Russian State Duma,"Hero of Russia," explorer, oceanographer and engineer Artur Chilingarov posing for picture after his historic mission to the bottom of the North Pole in the Arctic ocean

President Vladimir Putin on Thursday granted "hero" awards to scientists backing Russia's claim to a mountain range under the Arctic Ocean that is believed to contain huge oil and gas reserves. The scientists planted a Russian flag under the North Pole ice in August as part of an Arctic expedition that heated up the controversy over an area that a U.S. study suggests may contain as much as 25 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and gas. Russia is one of several countries that have laid claims to the area. Putin signed a decree awarding three members of the expedition the title of Hero of the Russian Federation. They are Anatoly Salagevich, Yevgeny Chernyayev and lawmaker Artur Chilingarov. A fourth expedition member, lawmaker Vladimir Gruzdev, was granted the Order for Service to the Fatherland, the Kremlin said. Russia's Natural Resources Ministry has said preliminary results on soil core samples gathered by the expedition show that the 1,240-mile Lomonosov Ridge under the Arctic is part of Russia's shelf. It said more geological tests would be conducted, as well. After the Russian expedition, Canada vowed to increase its icebreaker fleet and build two new military facilities in the Arctic, while Denmark sent a team of scientists to seek evidence that the ridge was attached to its territory of Greenland. The U.S. government also sent an icebreaker for a research expedition. The issue has become more urgent with growing evidence that global warming is shrinking polar ice � opening up resource development and new shipping lanes. The 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea gives the Arctic countries 10 years after they ratify the treaty to prove their claims under the largely uncharted polar ice pack. All but the United States have ratified the treaty. Chilingarov, a renowned polar scientist, was named a Hero of the Soviet Union in the 1980s after leading an expedition aboard a research vessel that was trapped for a time in Antarctic sea ice.

Source: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j...j5nGAD8U3060O0

Originally posted by Armenian View Post

ARMENIANS IN POLITICS: ADAPTING TO THE NEW RUSSIA

Moscow by David Zenian

The rules of engagement in Russian politics have changed dramatically since the collapse of the Soviet Union a decade ago, but Arthur Chilingarov has climbed the political ladder to hold the position of Deputy Chairman of the State Duma, the 450-member lower house of the Russian Parliament. Sahak Karapetyan also entered politics after the collapse of the Soviet Union and like Chilingarov, he too was elected to the Duma and served for four years before his appointment to his new position as Senior Assistant to the General Prosecutor of the Russian Federation. Lt. Gen. Yevgeni Gurgenovich Batalov may have stayed in active duty if not for his advanced age of 76. All three men are Russian born Armenians who have integrated into Russian society and served their country while maintaining their ethnic identity and adapting to the changes around them.

�I don�t look at my Armenian roots from a narrow perspective,� explained Chilingarov during a recent interview in his Moscow office.

�I am a Russian-Armenian and Russia is my country, just like the United States is for American-Armenians. I will serve both as best as I can,� he said.

Chilingarov was born in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) in 1939 and grew up in an Armenian family, but he had few Armenian friends. �I might have had more Armenian friends and interaction with fellow Armenians if we had a working church in St. Petersburg, but things were different then,� he said. Chilingarov, who accompanied President Putin during a visit to Armenia last year, admits that maybe he is not a very religious person, but is quick to add that the church should have a prominent place in modern society.

�I visit Armenia at least once a year and have very close relations with His Holiness Catholicos Karekin II. I am convinced that the stronger the Armenian Church becomes, the stronger will relations between Armenia and Russia become too.

�The Russian church is a very powerful institution and has a say in what happens here. The same should be true with the Armenian church,� Chilingarov said.

�Russian politics is unique. Despite the large size of the Armenian population in Russia, they cannot have any political clout�not for a long time anyway. But a strong Armenian Church is a different matter. There is respect for the church here,� he said.

A 1963 graduate of the Arctic Faculty of the Leningrad Marine Institute with a degree in engineering-oceanography, Chilingarov began his career at the Tiksi Observatory of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute. Despite his busy schedule as a politician, Chilingarov, who has spent the better part of his adult life on the icebergs of the Arctic and is the author of 50 scientific publications, still finds time for his science and research. During his long career, he has been awarded the Order of Lenin, Hero of the Soviet Union medal, and membership in the Russian Academy of Sciences, and since 1992 assumed the presidency of the Polar Explorers� Association.

He entered politics �from the back door��or at least not as a representative of any political party. His work as a scientist had kept him in Russia�s Ninens Autonomous District, some 1,600 kilometers northeast of Moscow, close to the North Pole. According to the Russian constitution, the region was entitled to one deputy to represent it in the Russian Duma, and the choice was Chilingarov. He was elected with an overwhelming majority and upon arrival in Moscow he campaigned and was elected to the prestigious post of deputy Chairman of the State Duma�a position, which he still holds.

�It�s been almost 40 years since my first Arctic experience, and it is still my first love. Politics is a career, but the Arctic is my passion,� he said with a broad smile pointing at the dozens of momentos from his numerous expeditions, including his last one to the South Pole in January, 2002.

Chilingarov was the first Armenian to reach the South Pole with a team of scientists who flew on a modified Antonov III aircraft piloted by Ukrainian-born Sergei Tarasuk, whose mother is Armenian.

�As much as I was part of a Russian expedition, I was still an Armenian there. My colleagues found it very amusing when I put up a wooden marker with the distances from where we were to the cities representing the origins of team members.

�The marker, which is still there, clearly says Yerevan, 16,116 kilometers. Of course it also gives the distances from Moscow and Kiev, and St. Petersburg, my birthplace.

�I also took a bottle of Armenian brandy with me as a gift to the American team which was also involved in the expedition,� Chilingarov said with a huge smile on his face. As an Armenian, I cannot celebrate an important occasion without some Armenian brandy,� he said...

**Armenian** · 05-28-2008, 11:17 AM

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

From Russia With Love?: Foreign Minister�s visit an opportunity for assessment

Sergei Lavrov: "Armenian Brandy Is Better Than French Cognac"

By Aris Ghazinyan, ArmeniaNow Reporter

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was on an official visit to Yerevan the past two days. His first visit to Armenia fell on the historical stage when pro-Western sentiments not traditional for the overwhelming majority of Armenians are on the rise in the public and political life of the republic. The first time these sentiments made themselves felt as a special internal political factor was during the latest presidential elections in 2003. However, now there are a dozen political and public organizations in the republic demonstratively stating the need for Armenia�s new orientation towards the West and NATO. Never before have such sentiments made themselves felt so strongly in Armenia.

On the day of the Russian minister�s arrival in Yerevan, the leader of the Liberal-Progressive Party of Armenia (LPPA) Hovhannes Hovhannisyan called a press conference during which he stated: �Armenia�s security is in NATO, since Armenia�s strategic partner, Russia, proceeding from its interests, may change its position towards Yerevan at any moment. Revolutions in the post-Soviet space are unavoidable in the next year or two. There will be a revolution in Armenia too.� Representatives of other opposition parties also speak about the need to reorient Armenia�s foreign policy towards the West.

�It is remarkable that while new pro-Western political structures have already been formed in Armenia, no party openly propagandizing the Russian vector of foreign policy has appeared in the country yet,� Vardan Mkhitaryan, a historian and researcher at the Chair of the History of the Armenian People of the Yerevan State University, said in this connection. Meanwhile, the political structures traditionally inclined towards boosted Armenian-Russian relations for their part accentuate attention on the insufficient level of development of these ties. What is particularly pointed out is Russia�s neutral, at best, position on Nagorno Karabakh, which, in the opinion of Armenian parties cannot correspond to the officially declared level of strategic relationship. According to political analysts, also symptomatic is the fact that while 2005 is declared the Year of Russia in Armenia, in Russia this year is determined as the Year of Azerbaijan. This was stated in Moscow by President Vladimir Putin and President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan on the same day Lavrov arrived in Yerevan.

�What is striking in this connection is that the visits of high-ranking Russian officials to Armenia, as a rule, are chronologically replaced by equally �high-level� meetings already on the plane of Russian-Azeri ties,� says Mkhitaryan. �The visit of the Russian Foreign Minister to Yerevan is not an exception: on February 16-17 Putin and Aliyev discussed the Karabakh settlement in Moscow.� The presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan met four times in 2004, while Putin and Armenian President Robert Kocharyan had two meetings. A total of 17 government delegation of the Russian Federation visited Baku during last year, and the commodity turnover between Russia and Azerbaijan increased by 60% and made $735 million. During the same period, the commodity turnover between Russia and Armenia grew by 12.9% and made $266.2 million.

But the greatest annoyance in Armenia is caused by the position repeatedly voiced by the Kremlin about Russia�s support for Azerbaijan�s territorial integrity. In August of last year Lavrov himself told an AzerTaj�s correspondent: �Russia has been supporting consistently and in full measure the principle of territorial integrity. This applies to Azerbaijan as well.� Nevertheless, the recent visit of Russia�s foreign minister to Baku deserves special attention. Answering on February 2 the question of an Azeri journalist about Russia�s priorities in the principles of �territorial integrity� and �the right of nations to self-determination�, Lavrov said: �One should not set off these two principles against each other, since both of them are stated in the UN Charter and should not be applied to the detriment of each other.� Some Azeri mass media already then hurried to �interpret� such a reply of the Russian diplomat in the context of his Armenian origin, reminding that during last year�s visit of Armenia�s Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian to Moscow, Lavrov said:

�Yes, I have Armenian blood in my veins. My father is an Armenian from Tbilisi.�

That he has Armenian blood his veins Lavrov also repeated in Yerevan during a meeting with students of the Russian-Armenian Slavonic University yesterday. However, at the same time he made it clear that his Baku statement was not understood quite correctly. He made it clear that Russia supports Azerbaijan�s territorial integrity, for �Azerbaijan�s territorial integrity is recognized by the international community, including by the UN and other international structures.� Thursday Lavrov met with Kocharyan, Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan and Oskanian. Four main subjects were discussed during the meetings: the Karabakh problem, bilateral cooperation, regional cooperation and cooperation within international structures.

It is cooperation within international structures that is one of the most delicate problems in Armenian-Russian relations. It is commonly known that all initiatives of the Azeri delegation in the PACE (Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe), including on Nagorno Karabakh, as a rule find support of the Russian delegation, while none of the initiatives of the Armenian delegation has yet been supported by the Russian delegation. Does this state of affairs correspond to the �strategic� level of relations between Armenia and Russia? �The parliamentary delegation of Russia to the PACE, just like other delegations, does not receive any instructions,� said Lavrov on this account. In his meeting with Lavrov, Margaryan expressed his concern over the building of communications projected within the framework of the �North-South� transit corridor, bypassing Armenia. In particular, he pointed to the Russian-Azeri-Iranian consortium building a railroad in the direction of Astara (Azerbaijan) � Resht (Iran) � Kazvin (Iran).

In reply to this remark of the Armenian premier, Lavrov said that from now on Russia would consider also Armenia�s interests in developing its transport strategy. He promised to notify Russia�s Minister of Transport about it. Last autumn Russia limited the use of the only stable motorway connecting Armenia with Russia through Georgia at Upper Lars checkpoint (North Ossetia, Russia) � Kazbek. Thus, Lavrov�s official visit to Yerevan also exposed flaws in the officially declared policy of strategic partnership. We will be able to judge as to how these flaws can be put right only after Putin�s visit to Armenia. The date of this visit has not been set yet, but as the Russian minister said the sides will come to agreement as to the terms of the visit within the coming weeks after which the date will be declared.

Source: http://www.armenianow.com/archive/20...o=print&id=554

Sergey Lavrov laid wreath to Genocide Memorial

Today Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex, where he laid a wreath to the Memorial of Armenian Genocide victims. The head of Russian MFA also planted a memorable fir-tree in the alley near the Memorial. Armenian and Russian Ambassadors Armen Smbatyan and Nilolai Pavlov accompanied Sergey Lavrov.

Source: http://www.panarmenian.net/news/eng/...ate=2007-04-03

Lavrov: We Are and Have Been Allies with Armenia

Historical and spiritual closeness of the two peoples is the pledge for Armenian-Russian union, Russian FM Sergey Lavrov stated in Moscow on the Public TV Company of Armenia at a reception in honor of celebration of the 15th anniversary of Armenia�s Independence. �We are and we have been allies with Armenia. Historical and spiritual closeness of the two peoples is the pledge for Armenian-Russian union,� he said. �Many Armenians now work and live in Russia. Call the name of Armen Jigarkhanyan � there is no Russian, who does not know or love him,� the Minister remarked. �Of course we have separated as republics of the USSR, however we are overcoming that hard period,� Sergey Lavrov added, reported PanARMENIAN.Net.

Source: http://www.yerkir.am/eng/index.php?s...s_arm&id=26853

Russia Signals Opposition To Regime Change In Armenia

Russia signaled on Tuesday its opposition to regime change in Yerevan, with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov pointedly declining to deny speculation that Moscow supports Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian�s apparent plans to become Armenia�s next president. Lavrov, in Yerevan on a two-day official visit, stressed the need for continuity in policies pursued by the current Armenian leadership. During a joint news conference with Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian he was asked to comment on growing assertions by Russian media and prominent analysts that the widely anticipated handover of power from President Robert Kocharian to Sarkisian suits the Kremlin. �The official position of Russia coincides with the unofficial position of Russia,� Lavrov replied. �We are sincerely interested in seeing Armenia stable and prosperous and seeing it continue to move down the path of reforms. As far as we can see, the results [of those reforms] are already felt in the socioeconomic sphere.� �So we wish Armenia success in this endeavor,� he added. �We want the next phase of the constitutional process to lead to the creation of conditions for a continued movement in that direction.� Kocharian is thought to have enjoyed Russian backing throughout his nearly decade-long presidency. Both he and Sarkisian stand for Armenia�s continued military alliance with Russia, while seeking closer security ties with the West. The Kocharian administration has also helped to significantly boosted Russia�s economic presence in the country in recent years. The Russian minister�s visit to Armenia was officially dedicated to the 15th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two former Soviet republics. The unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was high on the agenda of his talks with Oskanian. Russia co-heads the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe together with the United States and France.

Source: http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2....2515&PageNum=0

U.S. journalist says Russia's Lavrov outplays Condoleezza Rice

A Washington Post journalist has said that Russia's foreign minister regularly outmaneuvers U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in talks when it comes to securing foreign policy benefits for Russia. "[Sergei] Lavrov pushes her buttons," Glenn Kessler said Thursday night at the presentation of his new book, "The Confidante: Condoleezza Rice and the Creation of Bush Legacy." In his book, Kessler writes:

"Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, who honed his negotiating skills during a 10-year stint as Russia's UN ambassador, is a proud and frequently effective diplomat - a showman who doesn't hesitate to use a diplomatic stiletto." The journalist, who has accompanied Rice many times on international flights and has covered most of her foreign visits, says: "But Rice came to appreciate Lavrov's straightforward and serious approach. She concluded that if he says he will do something, he will - and if he says he will not do it, he won't."

"Diplomats said Lavrov has perfected the art of irritating Rice - so much so that she often responds in a very sharp, acerbic, and even emotional way. Rice's reaction is so shrill that she begins to lose her natural allies in the room, in contrast to the calmer and more menacing Lavrov. He frequently exploits that dynamic to his advantage," Kessler said in the book. Kessler has interviewed many U.S. and foreign diplomats for his book and has had his observations confirmed by a variety of sources, in particular by former French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy.

At the presentation, Kessler said that despite her knowledge of Russian language and history, Rice is not very good in her work with Russia. "While Rice had trained as a Soviet specialist and still practices Russian once a week with a State Department interpreter, Russian diplomats are privately contemptuous of her knowledge of contemporary Russia, believing she is stuck in a time warp and doesn't understand the country." Kessler writes about some little known facts, such as a conversation during a closed meeting between Rice and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"In their private meeting, Merkel, a fluent Russian speaker who had trained as a physical chemist in the former East Germany, teasingly tested Rice's rusty Russian," he writes, citing Wolfgang Ischinger, Germany's ambassador to London who formerly was Germany's ambassador to the U.S. Kessler said that his biographic book on Rice gives an unbiased picture of the pluses and minuses in the work of the U.S. Secretary of State, but admitted that certain conclusions could be unpleasant for the presidential administration.

"Rice fundamentally lacks a strategic vision. Her approach has been largely tactical, a series of ad hoc efforts designed to deal with an unfolding series of crises that itemed from decisions she had helped make in the first term [of President George Bush]."

"...she is the confidante of a president widely considered a failure... Rice has failed to provide him with a coherent foreign policy vision," he writes. Kessler said that Rice still has close contact with Bush, with whom she regularly meets and whom she sends personal notes on foreign policy. He cites her answer to critics: "I'm enough of an historian to know that my reputation will be what my 'reputation' is. It might be different in five months from five years to fifty years, and so I'm simply not going to worry about that."

Source: http://en.rian.ru/world/20070907/77385951.html

**Azad** · 05-28-2008, 08:37 PM

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

Notice the names on each sides.

Russian think-tank rattles US
By Heather Maher

"The first Russian think-tank based in the United States has yet to officially open its doors. But it's already generating a lot of controversy.

Critics say the Russian Institute for Democracy and Cooperation (RIDC) is little more than a new propaganda tool for the Kremlin as it sharpens its attacks on the West. But the head of the institute's New York branch says he and his colleagues intend to study US democracy - not criticize it.

Andranik Migranyan bristles at the suggestion that the new think-tank is seen as Kremlin tool meant to respond in kind to the harsh critiques often heard from Western non-governmental organizations like Freedom House and Reporters Without Borders.

The political scientist says scrutinizing US conduct at Guantanamo Bay or the George W Bush administration's public-surveillance program are not on RIDC's agenda. Instead, the organization's main goal is to study the United States for potential solutions to common problems back in Russia.

"We have very serious problems today concerning these problems of immigration, integration and adaptation," Migranyan said at a recent press conference in Washington. "Russia is becoming more multinational, multiethnic, multireligious, and we have serious problems in this area. This country [the United States] has a long-lasting history on all these issues. And we would like to know how these problems are discussed here, how they are solved here - as well as institutional problems, and problems [with values]. What do those things mean?"

There's no disputing that during most of Russian president Vladimir Putin's eight-year rule, which ended this month, US rights groups like Human Rights Watch and Freedom House - not to mention the US State Department, in its annual human rights report - have frequently criticized the Russian government for a variety of sins against democracy.

Such groups have noted a steep decline in Russia's civil liberties under Putin, pointing to the forced closure of independent media outlets, the jailing of political opposition figures, and tight state control of campaigns and elections.

Russia often seeks to discredit the findings of such Western rights groups. But with the formation of RIDC and other initiatives like Russia Today, a government-funded English-language news channel begun in 2005, the Kremlin appears to be moving from a defensive posture to an offensive one.

Yet Migranyan said the idea for the institute was not a tit-for-tat response to Western criticism, describing it instead as the brainchild of a number of Russian political thinkers who are interested in the concept of democracy and in making sure Russia's own thoughts on the subject are heard.

"In Russia, from [former] president Putin to President [Dmitry] Medvedev to the rest of academics to the mainstream, or at least majority, they accept the idea of liberal democracy," he said. "They value institutions and values, they understand that this gives efficiency to the economy, efficiency to political system[s]. But at the same time, the idea of sovereign democracy means that you can't just impose it."

Questions remain
Migranyan, who has held several advisory posts with the State Duma and Federation Council, describes himself as an avid student - if not a fan - of American political affairs. Unabashedly in the Kremlin's camp, he is quick to criticize opposition leaders like Garry Kasparov and Duma deputy Vladimir Ryzhkov.

The launch of RIDC was announced with fanfare at the start of 2008. Its operations, however, remain somewhat vague. The institute has yet to create a website, for example, and a Paris branch, reportedly already open, has shown little sign of life. Migranyan says he has already signed leases on office space for the New York office and is waiting for a US bank to approve the institute's status as a non-profit charity.

While he waits, he says he's holding meetings with potential US partners - think-tanks like the Brookings Institution and the Heritage Institute; Russian studies centers like the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard; and academic institutions like the University of California at Berkeley.

Questions remain about RIDC's funding. Many observers have alleged that the group receives handsome support from the Kremlin. But Migranyan says that while the Kremlin approved the group's creation, financial support comes from "different business structures and donors who are interested in America" - and not the government.

Still, a fellow speaker at Migranyan's press conference - while not acknowledging Kremlin funding - saw nothing wrong with accepting government support. Edward Lozansky, the president of the American University in Moscow, lashed out at a questioner from the National Endowment for Democracy for what he characterized as a double standard on the question of government funds.

"The last time I [checked] the National Endowment for Democracy was funded by the US government," Lozansky said. "I don't know, probably you get some private funds, too, but most of the money comes from the government. The same with the National Democratic Institute, the same with National Republican Institute."

Lozansky, who was stripped of his academic position in the 1970s for publicly criticizing Soviet policy, appeared convinced his country was on the right track - and that naysayers should find another country to inspect. "It may take Russia 50 or 100 years to achieve total democracy, but it will get there," he said. "Let them do their own thing." "

Heather Maher is a senior correspondent in RFE/RL's Washington bureau. Previously, she was a senior editor and director of training at Transitions Online in Prague. She has also been a reporter for ABCNews.com, an international assignment editor at CNN, and the news editor of the Prague Post.

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