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| Park Bulvar Mall, Baku |
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| Park Bulvar Mall, Baku |
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“We, the New Rights, our partner political organizations and our supporters from the civil society, plan to offer to the society starting from November 7 a new type of opposition movement, which will be able to cope with the threats existing inside the country, as well those coming from outside, such as Russian aggression,” Pikria Chikhradze said at a press conference. “We plan to do it in close cooperation with the international organizations, the representatives of international community.”
She, however, refrained from speaking about the details of this “movement.”
“I will speak about it when time comes,” she said. “I do not plan to speak about it in advance, but this wave and this movement will be launched.”
Well, she DID speak in advance, but where is the political program? And who will take part in the "new movement"?If you like this please Link Back to this article...
Dies seien klare „Liebesgrüße aus Moskau“: Kremlchef Dmitrij Medwedjew macht dem Westen in Aserbaidschan noch unverhohlener Konkurrenz. So hat Russlands führender Energiekonzern Gazprom Baku unterbreitet, das gesamte aserbaidschanisches Erdgas aufzukaufen. Damit wäre der Traum des Westens, über den Bau der so genannten Nabucco-Pipeline erstmals auch Erdgas aus den Nachfolgestaaten der UdSSR an Russland vorbei Erdgas beziehen zu können ausgeträumt. „Russland hat mit dem Georgien-Krieg klargemacht, dass im post-sowjetischen Raum wieder alles von Moskau bestimmt wird und Baku hat dies begriffen“, sagt an anderer westlicher Gesandter in Baku. Im Energiepoker am Kaspischen Meer gehe es für den Westen in den kommenden Monaten „um alles oder nichts“."
Verteidigungsminister Anatoli Serdjukow kündigte zudem eine Umkrempelung der Armeestruktur an. Die Zahl der Soldaten soll in den nächsten vier Jahren von 1,134 Millionen auf eine Million reduziert werden. Beschnitten werden soll insbesondere das Offizierkorps: von derzeit 330'000 Offizieren auf weniger als die Hälfte. Im Visier ist auch der aufgeblähte Generalstab. Jeder zweite General müsse, heisst es in Moskau, demnächst den Hut nehmen."
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"The Fire Temple of Baku, known locally as the Atashgah ("place of fire") or Ateshgyakh ("home of fire"), is a castle-like Hindu temple and monastery complex in Surakhani near Baku in Azerbaijan. The complex is now a museum, and is no longer used as a place of worship. The fire was once fed by a natural gas vent."If you like this please Link Back to this article...
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At the same time, most Armenians have warm feelings towards Russia. Which warm feelings are not entirely requited — Russians don’t view Armenians with a lot of affection and respect — but that’s another story. Imperial Russia rescued them from the Turks, after all, and then the USSR allowed Armenia to industrialize and Armenians to rise almost to the top of the Soviet hierarchy.
There’s a widespread belief in Armenia that Russia tilts their way in the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute… probably not true, but there it is. More to the point, there are a couple of thousand Russian soldiers in Armenia; it doesn’t get a lot of publicity, but they’ve been there since the 1990s, quietly watching Armenia’s border with Turkey. Drive south from Yerevan, and you’ll see their bases, Russian flags and all.
And then of course, there’s Nagorno-Karabakh. The Armenians are grimly determined to hang on to NK. So they have a strong interest in seeing some post-Soviet boundary changes. If Russia claws off South Ossetia and Abkhazia, not just de facto but de jure, that’ll be a powerful precedent in Armenia’s favor.
All that said, Armenia’s position in the recent conflict has been… nuanced. You see, Armenia’s borders with Turkey and Azerbaijan are closed. They have a land border with Iran, but it’s short, and crossed by a single two-lane road that closes every winter. So, pretty much everything that goes in or out of Armenia — including the single rail line, the single highway, the single fiber-optic cable, and the microwave phone link — goes through Georgia. 90% of their imports come in through Georgia, and about 95% of their exports go out that way. The Georgian port of Poti is Armenia’s window on the world. Simply put, Armenia is a man trying to eat, drink and breathe through a fairly narrow hose. If the Georgians were to become sufficiently annoyed, they could devastate Armenia’s economy overnight.
So, while Armenian public opinion is firmly on Russia’s side, the Armenian government is playing it safe. They’re a friendly neutral to Russia, coolly correct to Georgia."
The full article, published August 22, 2008, can be found at A fistful of Euros.
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