NEWS: RFE/RL Caucasus Report 1/5/2010 (rferl.org)

A review of RFE/RL reporting and analysis about the countries of the South Caucasus and Russia's North Caucasus region.

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Has The 2013 Georgian Presidential Campaign Already Started? Mikheil Saakashvili's second term as Georgian president does not expire for another three years. But the preparations for municipal elections in late May 2010, including that for Tbilisi mayor, already increasingly resemble the first stage in what promises to be a no-holds-barred fight to succeed him. More

Georgia's Russian-Language TV Venture Georgia has launched a new Russian-language television channel that critics say will fan tensions with Russia, still high after the brief 2008 war between the two countries. More

Low Turnout, Alleged Violations Mar Azerbaijani Local Elections Voters from three villages in Azerbaijan's Sabirabad Raion staged a protest on December 28 against perceived procedural violations during the December 23 municipal elections. More

Playing Into Moscow's Hands Paul Goble says few can doubt that recent Russian claims that Georgia is providing support for Islamist and nationalist militants in the North Caucasus are absurd provocations. But he also says even fewer in Tbilisil seem to recognize that far more is riding on their responses. More

No End In Sight To Daghestan Presidential Cliff-Hanger While some have construed Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's assertion that new elections will take place in several municipalities in Daghestan as setting a laudable precedent for annulling local ballots that are openly and blatantly rigged, others see it as way of not reappointing Mukhu Aliyev as the republic's president. More

Breaking Down The Azerbaijani-Iranian Border "The New York Times" yesterday highlighted Tehran's fears of its "increasingly aggressive separatist groups," so a rare video dug up by RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service is an interesting reminder. More

Ill Armenian Oppositionist Returned To Jail Imprisoned Armenian opposition figure Sasun Mikaelian was returned to jail on December 28 after spending more than three weeks in a civilian hospital in Yerevan, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reports. More

Georgia Denounces Rosneft-Abkhazia Deal The Georgian Foreign Ministry says an oil agreement between Russian oil company Rosneft and the separatist region of Abkhazia is a violation of Georgian and international laws, RFE/RL's Echo of the Caucasus reports. More

Requiem For The Revolutions As Europe this year marked two decades since the fall of the Iron Curtain, the wave of democratic expansion that swept across the former Soviet space appeared to be ebbing. Has the democratic dream of 1989 run its course? More

Defector Describes 'Amoral' Conditions In South Ossetia Twenty-five-year-old Vitaly Khripun, a border guard with the Russian Federal Security Service in South Ossetia, defected from his post on December 21 and has asked for political asylum in Georgia. Khripun was serving in the Java district along the administrative border that has separated South Ossetia from Georgia proper since last year's five-day war between Russia and Georgia. In his first interview since his defection, Khripun says he was motivated to act by the culture of corruption and crue More

Not Such A Riot Armenian riot police have long been accused by civic groups of using disproportionate force against citizens. More

Picking Up The Pieces Of The Georgian War Memorial Tragedy If the story of Georgia's destroyed Glory Memorial began as a tragedy, it is ending as farce. Today, Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov picked up on Vladimir Putin's wily proposal that the Soviet-era Kutaisi monument -- razed, with tragic consequences, by order of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili -- be rebuilt in a more appreciative city. More

Putin Piles On As Georgia Grapples With War Memorial Tragedy The fallout continues in Georgia over the fatal demolition of a war memorial in the western city of Kutaisi. More

Georgian President Blasted Over Monument's Demolition The demolition of a Soviet-era war memorial in the western Georgian city of Kutaisi was meant to make space for a new parliament building. But many opponents say the act shows blatant disregard for the country's World War II sacrifices, and the death of a mother and daughter in the blast has only increased their anger. More

Russia Marks 130 Years Since Stalin's Birth Russia is marking the 130th anniversary of the birth of Soviet leader Josef Stalin with medals and marches in his honor, as well as an exhibition that shows his crude and vindictive side. But even as many Russians continue to revere Stalin as a strong leader, others remember his cruel legacy as the man responsible for millions of deaths during his nearly 30-year rule. More

BLOG: Wie ist die Situation in Süd Ossetien? (caucasusreports.blogspot.com)

Russland versprach große Hilfsgelder für den Wiederaufbau und Wiederbelbung der Region. Doch die Nachrichtenagentur AP berichtete, dass einige frühere Offizielle Süd Ossetiens enttäuscht sind über die Nachkriegssituation, vor allem die "Tyrannei und offizielle Korruption" florrieren. "Was geschah praktisch ein Jahr nach dem Krieg? Nichts. Keine Wohnung wurde wiederaufgebaut, kein Geschäft geht seinen Gang" konstatierte ein früherer Sicherheitsfuktionär, der jetzt in der Opposition ist. Der Analyst Paul Globe beschreibt in der The Moscow Times, dass Süd Ossetien als ein Schwarzes Loch, ein gesetzesfreier Raum.

Der ganze Text (in englisch - by Matthew Collin) >>>

BLOG: South Ossetia should be fre from law. (windowoneurasia.blogspot.com)

Window on Eurasia: South Ossetian Leader’s Authoritarianism Posing Problems for Moscow
By Paul Goble

On the one hand, the Kremlin could not do less. General Anatoly Barankevich, a hero of the August 2008 war, said that as a result of Kokoity’s authoritarianism, “that territory is free from law” and rapidly being discredited in the eyes of the population there because of its falsification of elections, corruption, and attacks on opposition groups.

more >>>

more here in the Moscow Times >>>

BLOG: Window on Eurasia: Stalin Deported Balkars to Give Their Territory to Georgia, Activists Say

By Paul Goble

Vienna, March 9 – On the 65th anniversary of the Stalin-era deportation of the Balkars, activists of that national group said that the Soviet dictator had taken that step in order to transfer part of their territory to the Georgian SSR, a charge that could have contemporary relevance given Moscow’s continuing campaign against Georgia.
Yesterday, the leaders of the Balkar nation held a meeting in memory of the deportation of the Balkar people to the wilds of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan in 1944, an action as the result of which more than a third of the members of this Turkic people died and one which continues to cast a shadow on the North Caucasus (www.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/150579).
On the one hand, disputes between the Balkars and the Kabardinians continue not only over political power in that republic but also over its administrative-territorial divisions, arrangements that the Balkars and some of their supporters in Moscow and elsewhere say work against the Turkic nationality (www.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/kbr_podpisi).

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BLOG: 180 Families in Ingushetia Currently Involved in Blood Feuds (windowoneurasia.blogspot.com)

By Paul Goble

Vienna, February 15 – Ingush President Yunus-Bek Yevkurov yesterday appealed to the 180 families in his North Caucasus republic who are now involved in blood feuds to resolve their differences and allow law enforcement agencies there to bring to justice those guilty of the crimes which have triggered these disputes up to now.

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Paul Goble is a longtime specialist on ethnic and religious questions in Eurasia. Most recently, he was director of research and publications at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy. Earlier, he served as vice dean for the social sciences and humanities at Audentes University in Tallinn and a senior research associate at the EuroCollege of the University of Tartu in Estonia. While there, he launched the “Window on Eurasia” series. Prior to joining the faculty there in 2004, he served in various capacities in the U.S. State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and the International Broadcasting Bureau as well as at the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He writes frequently on ethnic and religious issues and has edited five volumes on ethnicity and religion in the former Soviet space. Trained at Miami University in Ohio and the University of Chicago, he has been decorated by the governments of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania for his work in promoting Baltic independence and the withdrawal of Russian forces from those formerly occupied lands. Mr. Goble can be contacted directly at paul.goble@gmail.com