The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

[Armenian]

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

The emboldening of Serbia...

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Serbia threatens to use force if West recognizes Kosovo



September 5, 2007 BELGRADE: Serbia is ready to use force to prevent Western nations from recognizing Kosovo as an independent state, a senior Serbian official warned Wednesday. Dusan Prorokovic, Serbia's state secretary for Kosovo, outlined an array of tough measures to squeeze Kosovo - including the possible deployment of Serbian forces to the province, the sealing of its borders and a trade embargo - that he said Serbia was ready to take in the event that Kosovo's Albanian-dominated government declared independence and was recognized by Western governments.

The potential steps are the harshest outlined so far by the government here and come as negotiations between the two sides and overseen by Russia, the European Union and United States appear to be deadlocked. The United Nations has set a Dec. 10 deadline for the conclusion of the talks, after which the United States has indicated it will recognize Kosovo unilaterally. International officials in Kosovo, regional analysts and Albanian politicians have repeatedly said that a return of Serbian troops would spark a renewed conflict in the region.

Until now Serbia has shied away from making any threats that could associate it with the repressive response by its security forces to an ethnic Albanian insurgency during the 1990s, when Slobodan Milosevic was the president of Yugoslavia. In an interview in the Serbian capital, Prorokovic warned that unilateral recognition by Western states would give Serbia the right to return its troops to the region, and to annul an eight-year agreement between NATO and the then-Yugoslav government regulating their exclusion. Prorokovic is also a senior member of Prime Minister Kostunica's Serbian Democratic party.

"In case of self-proclamation, it is not an active paper anymore," Prorokovic said, referring to the Kumanovo military accord. "Without Kumanovo our army can go back without any legal limits. It can cross the boundary and go everywhere in Kosovo without any legal problems."

Serbian-dominated forces were forced to withdraw from Kosovo in June 1999 after a 78-day NATO-led bombing campaign. Since then the United Nations has administered the region. UN officials estimate that as many as 10,000 ethnic Albanians lost their lives in the conflict. Prorokovic said the redeployment of the Serbian Army was one of up to 16 options Serbia was considering if Kosovo declared independence. He also reinforced his government's stance that continued talks on Kosovo's future were the only option worth considering.

"We do not have an alternative," he said.

If Kosovo Albanian leaders proceeded with their plans to declare unilateral independence at the end of current talks, Prorokovic said, Serbia would launch a trade embargo on the province, which relies on Serbia for much of its imports, and seal its boundaries with Serbia.

"We will block every kind of commercial activity and every kind of route," he said. The warning come ahead of the announcement of a detailed package offered to the ethnic Albanians during the negotiations in Vienna last week. It will be made public Monday. A foreign policy adviser to Kosovo's prime minister, Agim Ceku, said Prorokovic's statement would not deter the Kosovo Albanian leadership from seeking recognition after negotiations finish in December.

"How do they a walk over NATO troops in the region, and what do they do when they are exposed to open conflict?" said the adviser, Borut Grgic. "Occupation is out of the question. The international community would block it."

But Grgic conceded that the region was likely to face the possibility of renewed tension by the end of the year as Kosovo's Albanian leaders move ever closer to proclaiming their own state.

"No matter what happens, there will be a period of high instability and potential for conflict," said Grgic, who is also director the Institute for Strategic Studies, a foreign policy research group based in Ljubljana, Slovenia. "This will come after December; there will be a period of six months of uncertainty, and you will have a lot of actors who want assert themselves and stake their claim," he said in a telephone interview.

One leading political commentator in Belgrade said Serbia's increasingly tough stance on Kosovo, bolstered by Russia's refusal to accept recognition of the province within the UN Security Council, may test the nerves of European states that are divided over the region's future. The Serbs "know that security is not fantastic in Kosovo," said the commentator, Bratislav Grubacic, editor of VIP News.

"In a way they are threatening the others. You know the situation is not great," he said, referring to the possible deployment of Serbian troops in the region. Most European states have troops deployed with the 17,000-strong NATO force in the province. The European Union has also agreed to lead a new mission to supervise the region once the UN administration leaves the province. Several European states, including Greece, Cyprus, Romania and Slovakia, have said they will not recognize Kosovo's independence without a un resolution. "Disunity of Europe," Grubacic said, "is the one of the Serbs' main weapons in their negotiations."

Source: http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/09/...d=rssfrontpage

[Armenian]

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

RAF jets intercept eight Russian bombers


Royal Air Force F3 Tornado escorting Russian TU-95 bomber.

Telegraph (06/09/2007), The RAF carried out its biggest operation to protect British airspace since the Cold War when four Tornados were scrambled to intercept eight Russian bombers approaching over the Atlantic. An early warning aircraft and a VC-10 tanker were also launched to support the British fighters responding to apparent sabre-rattling by President Vladimir Putin. The Russian aircraft, all Tupolev 95s, codenamed "Bears" by Nato, turned back before reaching British airspace. This was the biggest deployment of Russian bombers to probe British air defences since the Cold War. Although the ''Bear'' is obsolescent, dating from the 1950s, Russia uses it for long-range reconnaissance missions, designed to test an opponent's reaction time. Flush with oil wealth, Russia has become increasingly assertive in recent months. President Putin has consciously revived memories of the Cold War by sending bombers to test the air defences of Nato countries, notably Norway and America as well as Britain.

In Thursday's incident Norway's air force was the first to intercept the Russian formation over the Barents Sea. Shadowed by Norwegian F-16 fighters, the ''Bears'' continued their patrol and entered airspace over the Atlantic which Britain is responsible for protecting. The RAF keeps four fighters - either Tornado F3s or Eurofighter Typhoons - on "quick reaction alert" to intercept intruders, which yesterday launched from RAF Leeming in Yorkshire. A Ministry of Defence spokesman said the Tornadoes were scrambled at first light. Because of the size of the Russian formation and the need to "monitor the air picture", a Boeing E3 Sentry early warning aircraft, capable of providing long-range radar coverage and guidance for the fighters, was launched from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire. The distance the RAF jets would have to travel and the time they might spend shadowing the Russian bombers was unclear. So a VC-10 tanker, able to provide air-to-air refuelling, also took off from RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire. By sunrise, four of the jets that Britain relies on to guard its airspace were heading towards the North Atlantic. But an MoD spokesman denied that the country was left undefended for any period.

''Once the first two aircraft are launched, we stand up another two, we arm them and we get the crews ready. We can do that in pretty in short order. So for every two that go up, we make sure that another two are ready," he said. The Tornados intercepted the Russian aircraft over the Atlantic, using procedures developed during the Cold War. They shadowed the ''Bears'', carefully tracking their progress. The MoD said that all the Russian aircraft turned back before reaching British airspace.

"People may believe this is all pretty simple. But in fact there's a lot to this and that's why we have to be very well practised and coordinated," said an RAF officer. The incident is the latest in a campaign of muscle-flexing by the Kremlin designed to put pressure on both the West and Russia's neighbours. The former Soviet Republics of Georgia and Ukraine, have come under direct pressure from the Kremlin. Both have seen their crucial supplies of natural gas disrupted after defying Russia. But a British official said that despite recent tensions, Russia was still seen as "key international partner".

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...07/nraf107.xml

[Armenian]

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

Russia says kills Islamists crossing from Georgia



September 05, 2007 MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's FSB internal security service killed two armed men on Wednesday whom it described as Islamist extremists as they tried to cross over a mountainous border from Georgia. Russia has in the past accused Georgia of not doing enough to prevent Chechen rebels hiding in its mountains, although the Georgian army has since swept through mountain valleys where rebels were believed to be hiding. The statement comes at a time of heightened tension between the two countries after Georgia accused Russia last month of dropping a bomb on its territory, an accusation Moscow has denied.

"When there was an attempt to arrest the men there was fierce resistance and they were destroyed," the FSB's press office said. It said a patrol had been searching the mountainous Karachayevo-Cherkessia region -- to the west of Chechnya where Russian soldiers have fought two wars against rebels since 1994 -- when it found the two men. One of the men was known by the Muslim name of Abubakar, the FSB said.

"He was the leader of the religious-extremist association of Karachayevo-Cherkessia and was involved in the organization of terror attacks in the republic," the FSB said. Russian authorities have in the past claimed to have killed influential rebel leaders and then repeated the claim about the same rebel on a different, subsequent occasion.

Source: http://www.canada.com/topics/news/wo...e3ea8e3&k=2867

[TomServo]

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

U.S. journalist says Russia's Lavrov outplays Condoleezza Rice
19:26 | 07/ 09/ 2007

WASHINGTON, September 7 (RIA Novosti) - 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."

"On a personal level, Rice is an exceedingly friendly and gracious individual - even to reporters whose articles have displeased her," Kessler writes, adding that "these qualities, apparent to the general public, would make her a formidable political candidate."

"One of her advisors, in fact, believes she is increasingly interested in running for governor of California. Some of Rice's friends harbored the fantasy that Bush, desperate to secure his legacy, would find some medical reason to replace Cheney with Rice, making her the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008."

But the journalist stressed in the book and during the presentation that Rice has repeatedly and officially said she is not interested in elections and would like to return to her professorial work at Stanford University.

Asked whether Kessler, now The Washington Post's diplomatic correspondent, would still be able to interview Rice and keep accompanying her on her visits, Kessler said he sees no problem.

[skhara]

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

Well all indication shows that Russia is resuming cold war games, with long distance flights by strategic aviation. I think this "capitalist" Russia will prove to be a lot more formidable that the Soviet Union ever was since the weapons are to be economic + military.

RAF intercepts eight Russian bombers as Putin provokes West

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2400345.ece

The RAF scrambled to intercept eight Russian nuclear bombers heading for Britain yesterday in the biggest aerial confrontation between the two countries since the end of the Cold War.

The Tupolev-95 Bear bombers were approaching in formation when they were met by four Tornado F3 fighter jets. Defence sources said that the Russian pilots turned away as soon as they spotted the approaching Tornados and did not enter British airspace.

Norway had earlier sent four F16 jets to shadow the Russians as they neared its airspace in what Moscow insisted was a training mission. The bombers had flown over international waters from the Barents Sea to the Atlantic before heading for Britain.

Russian Bears flying in pairs have triggered several alerts this year as they neared the 12-mile British airspace zone, but this was the first time that so many bombers had simultaneously tested British air defences.

The exercise is expensive for the RAF. It costs more than Ł40,000 an hour to fly a Tornado F3 and yesterday’s operation will have cost at least Ł160,000. Underlining the scale of the operation, the RAF also sent up an airborne early warning aircraft (Awacs) and a VC10 tanker so that the Tornados could be refuelled.

Colonel Alexander Drobyshevsky, a spokesman for Russia’s air force, said that 14 long-range bombers began missions over the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic oceans on Wednesday night.

In an echo of the Cold War chess game that the Soviet Union and Nato played continuously in the skies around Europe, he acknowledged that “virtually all of our strategic planes are being shadowed by Nato fighters”.

He later told Interfax that up to 20 Nato jets had scrambled to intercept the Russian aircraft. Colonel Drobyshevsky had announced on Monday that a dozen bombers would practice firing cruise missiles over the Arctic.

This was Russia’s biggest show of strength since President Putin ordered strategic air patrols to resume last month. They were suspended in 1992 after the Soviet collapse because the Kremlin could not afford them.

Until Mr Putin’s decision, the RAF’s main air-defence role around Britain had been to ensure that it reacted swiftly to suspicious manoeuvres by commercial airliners approaching British airspace, with a view to countering any hint of a terrorist-related attack.

The flights are the latest example of Mr Putin’s ability to irritate the West with bold strokes that cost the Kremlin little and delight many ordinary Russians, who enjoy seeing Nato discomfited. He has already pulled Russia out of the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty on arms limitation, and railed against US proposals to install a missile defence shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.

With presidential elections only six months away, such assertive nationalism convinces many Russians that he has restored the country’s international prestige. Some critics have suggested that a siege mentality is being fostered to create support for a presidential successor from the siloviki, the Kremlin’s hardline military and security service faction.

As Nato scrambled its jets, Mr Putin was in Indonesia to seal a $1 billion contract for his hosts to buy Russian fighter planes, submarines and helicopters, with a loan provided by Moscow.

Russia’s economy is flush with petro-dollars. Mr Putin’s visit to the world’s most populous Muslim nation forms part of a Kremlin drive to convert economic power into a new global political and military reach.

Russia has already sought to restore its influence in India, the Middle East and Africa, and is building ties in Latin America. Russian and Chinese special forces are currently on joint counter-terrorism exercises, further evidence of their growing military relationship.

Mr Putin ordered strategic flights to resume after noting that other countries had maintained their patrols in the past 15 years. He said that this threatened Russia’s security. Bear bombers can carry nuclear warheads but General Pavel Androsov, the head of strategic aviation, said last week that they were not armed and that the goal of the patrols was pilot training.

Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, said on Monday that the missile defence shield was a “red line” for Moscow.

Unease in the sky

–– This interception of eight Bears was the fourth time that RAF aircraft have had to be scrambled this year

–– In May two Tornado F3s were launched from RAF Leuchars in Scotland to intercept a Bear observing a Royal Navy exercise called Neptune Warrior

–– In July two more Bear bombers were headed off by two Tornados as they approached British airspace

–– Last month the RAF scrambled two Eurofighter Typhoons from RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire for the first time to head off two Bears

–– Also last month General Gene Renuar, the commander of the North American Aerospace Defence Command, said that Russian bombers were flying more often and closer to US territory

[Armenian]

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

That was an interesting article about Lavrov Tomservo. The following is some more information about the very influential Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, one of the major contenders for the Russian presidency - one who also happens to be half-Armenian.

Armenian

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



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.

Oskanian told reporters that he and his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov will again later this month or early next in a fresh attempt to narrow the conflicting parties’ differences over the Minsk Group’s existing peace proposals. “The goal is to continue to work on the document and to prepare for the likely meeting of the presidents [of Armenia and Azerbaijan] in June,” he said. The international mediators hope that the Armenian-Azerbaijani summit will yield a breakthrough. Lavrov said that Karabakh peace is facilitated by what he described as the absence of any differences on the issue between the three mediating powers. “This is probably the only conflict where the interests of Russia, the United States, and the European Union absolutely do not contradict each other and the interests of the conflicting parties themselves,” he said. Lavrov further assured journalists that his country is trying hard to ease Armenia’s geographic isolation which has been aggravated by the continuing Russian transport blockade of neighboring Georgia. He pointed to the upcoming launch of a rail ferry service between the Georgian Black Sea port of Poti and Russia’s Port-Kavkaz. The ferry link will be primarily used by Armenian exporters and importers.

One of Russia’s priorities – relations with Armenia - Lavrov

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday relations with Armenia is one of Russia’s priorities. “We believe that stability in the Caucasus depends in many respects on Armenia’s situation,” he told a meeting with students and professors of the Yerevan State University. “It is possible to ensure such stability not by means of creating a certain bloc, but by means of joint efforts,” he said. “Within the framework of the Collective Security Treaty Organization we do not try to fence off ourselves from others or work against anyone,” he said. The Collective Security Treaty Organization is “aimed at stability, counteraction to terrorism and drugs trafficking and open cooperation with the countries interested in resolving these tasks,” Lavrov said. He pointed out that Russia is interested in calm on its borders, stable development of neighbouring countries and “mutually advantageous and equal cooperation with them proceeding from the interests of our economies and our countries.”

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

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

U.S. journalist says Russia's Lavrov outplays Condoleezza Rice
19:26 | 07/ 09/ 2007

WASHINGTON, September 7 (RIA Novosti) - 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."

[...]

[Lernakan]

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

Russia flexes muscles with "father of all bombs" - Guardian



MOSCOW, September 12 (RIA Novosti) - An article published in a British newspaper Wednesday has called Russia's testing of a new thermobaric bomb, Moscow's response to U.S. plans to deploy a missile defense system in Central Europe.

The Guardian said Russian statements concerning the development of the world's most powerful non-nuclear weapon, dubbed the "father of all bombs," were made "at a time of growing tension between Russia and the West."

Russia announced the testing of the new bomb on its state-run Channel One television station Tuesday night, stating that the device was four times more powerful than the U.S. "mother of all bombs" thanks to a new, highly efficient type of explosives.

The Guardian also said the "series of war games with China and four other central Asian states," along with Russia's resumed strategic nuclear bombers patrols were "designed to show the country's resurgent military power and the emergence of new regional alliances outside NATO."

The Guardian quoted Sergei Rogov, director of the Russian Academy of Science's U.S. and Canada Institute, as saying that, "Relations could sink into a serious crisis in a few years," and "domestic and political factors will aggravate the situation rather than help overcome the differences."

The air-delivered thermobaric bomb uses a fuel-air explosive and can create overpressures equal to an atomic bomb, said Alexander Rukshin, deputy chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.

"It is environmentally friendly, compared to a nuclear bomb, and it will enable us to ensure national security, and at the same time stand up to international terrorism in any part of the globe and in any situation," he said.

He stressed that the bomb does not violate any of the international agreements that Russia has signed.

While the U.S. bomb is equivalent to 11 tons of TNT, the Russian one is equivalent to 44 tons of regular explosives. The Russian weapon's blast radius is 990 feet, twice as big as that of the U.S. design, the report said.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070912/78404220.html

Russia tests world's most powerful vacuum bomb



MOSCOW, September 11 (RIA Novosti) - Russia has tested a thermobaric bomb that is the most powerful in the world, a top military official said Tuesday.

Known as a vacuum bomb, it uses a fuel-air explosive and can create overpressures equal to an atomic bomb, said Alexander Rukshin, deputy chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.

"It is environmentally friendly, compared to a nuclear bomb, and it will enable us to ensure national security and at the same time stand up to international terrorism in any part of the globe and in any situation," he said.

He stressed that the bomb does not violate any of the international agreements that Russia has signed.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070911/78058645.html

Russia tests ‘Father of all bombs’

Russia has tested the “Father of all bombs,” a conventional air-delivered explosive that experts say can only be compared with a nuclear weapon in terms of its destructive power.

The device is a fuel-air explosive, commonly known as a vacuum bomb, that spreads a high incendiary vapour cloud over a wide area and then ignites it, creating an ultra-sonic shock wave and searing fireball that destroys everything in its wake.

A Russian state TV showed the test site, which "looked like a lunar landscape", including the shattered remains of a town, following the blast at an undisclosed location recently.

'The results of tests of the aviation explosive device have shown that it is comparable with nuclear weapons in its efficiency and potential," armed forces deputy chief of staff Alexander Rukshin told journalists.

But, he added, "it is environmentally friendly, compared to a nuclear bomb, and it will enable us to ensure national security and at the same time stand up to international terrorism in any part of the globe and in any situation."

In 2003 the US tested a vacuum device, officially called the Massive Ordinance Air Blast weapon, which was quickly dubbed the "Mother of All Bombs" by American commentators.

Russian experts are referring to the allegedly mightier Russian incarnation as the "Father" — the Russians claim their new weapon is much smaller than the US vacuum bomb, but four times more powerful.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=df7617fc-4f3a-4d09-be33-8a481eef4aa6&&Headline=Russia+tests+%e2%80%98Father+of+all+bombs%e2%80%99

[Armenian]

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

Perhaps an intentional slip. Nevertheless, this story about Russia's new secret submarine project, as well as the recent testing of the world's most powerful nom-nuclear explosive device, is another indicator of the fast pace progress of Russia's military industry.

Armenian

************************************************** ***********

Oops - Russians post 'secret' sub plan on web



Foreign spies in Russia have been handed an unexpected gift by officials in the town of Sarov who accidentally posted details of a new top secret submarine on the local administration’s website. The embarrassing leak followed what was supposed to be a confidential meeting between the commander of the secret submarine and officials in the closed town, which is home to Russia’s main nuclear research facility. advertisementInstead, overly assiduous officials wrote a press release that covered the meeting in minute detail, not only naming the prototype vessel’s commander as Capt Sergei Kroshkin but even revealing the project’s code number: 20120.

Other technical and tactical specifications were also given, including the submarine’s water displacement of 3,950 tonnes. It was not until the story was dutifully picked up by local newspapers that officials noticed the slip. The offending press release has now been removed from the website, and Russia’s navy, defence ministry and armament manufacturing industry have all denied the existence of project 20120.

Military analysts who have studied the data suggest the new craft, also named the Sarov, is similar in appearance — although much larger — to the fabled Soviet Kilo Class “Turbot” submarine, acknowledged as one of the quietest vessels in the world. Leading Russian newspaper Kommersant said the leaked details suggested that the 20120 contained technology radically different from any other submarine in service. It hypothesised that the Russian navy had revived, perhaps successfully, a Soviet era plan to install a small nuclear reactor on a diesel powered submarine — making it capable of patrolling underwater without surfacing for 20 days.

Current Russian submarines have to surface at least once every three or four days. The revelations are the latest sign of Russia’s rapid rearmament. The country’s defence budget has quadrupled since Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, came to power in 2000. Earlier this year, Russia launched its first new-generation nuclear submarine since the Cold War while yesterday generals said they had successfully tested the world’s largest non-nuclear vacuum bomb — a device they christened “the Father of all Bombs”.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...wrussia212.xml

[TomServo]

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.

[Armenian]

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

A very interesting article.

Once we Armenians are able organize our "cultural strength" within a massive superpower like the Russian Federation, the Armenian Republic will be a regional powerhouse - economically, culturally and militarily. For the foreseeable future Armenia's prosperity is directly and indirectly connected to Russia's prosperity and to a lesser extent, Iran's.

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.