Russia could take revenge with assault on Caucasus

Mon, Nov 30, 2009

OPINION: Suspicion over Friday’s train bomb is focused on militants from the strategic region, writes DANIEL McLAUGHLIN 

THE SHOCK-WAVES from Friday night’s bomb attack on the Moscow-St Petersburg express will be felt far beyond Russia’s two main cities.

Twenty-five people were killed, almost 100 injured, and many more are still missing, feared dead, after the Nevsky Express was hurled from the rails in remote woodland as it sped north from Moscow to Russia’s old imperial capital.

Investigators have found traces of explosives at the site, and another smaller device blew up on Saturday while rescue teams were still working on the wreckage of the train, which is the most luxurious of its type in Russia and regularly carries politicians and business executives.

No group has claimed responsibility for the atrocity, but suspicion is already focused on militants from the North Caucasus region, whose attacks on Russian targets are becoming more frequent and more audacious.

In the first nine months of ...

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Strategic considerations behind Russian proposal for new European security treaty

2009-12-02 02:09:08

by Xinhua writers Yu Maofeng, Lu Jingli     MOSCOW, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Russia on Sunday sent a draft treaty on European security to leaders of others countries and international organizations in the Euro-Atlantic space.     President Dmitry Medvedev said the draft, which should stretch "from Vancouver to Vladivostock," will "finally do away with the legacy of the Cold War."     Signing of the new pact would be beneficial to the security of Russia and Europe at large, but there is a long way to go before the United States and its European allies agree to the treaty since the parties' security interests differ dramatically, analysts here say.     TIMING OF PROPOSAL     Medvedev came up with an initiative in June 2008 to develop a legally binding treaty on European security. He proposed convening a common European summit to build ...

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Wednesday, 2 December 2009

Mark Almond on South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Mark Almond from Oxford University explains how after the collapse of the Soviet Union, both South Ossetia and Abkhazia were denied the right of self determination and how the region’s history reflects its present.

To many Russians this vast geopolitical retreat from places which were part of Russia long before the dawn of communist rule brought no bonus in relations with the west. The more Russia drew in its horns, the more Washington and its allies denounced the Kremlin for its imperial ambitions.

Unlike in eastern Europe, for instance, today in breakaway states such as South Ossetia or Abkhazia, Russian troops are popular. Vladimir Putin's picture is more widely displayed than that of the South Ossetian president, the former Soviet wrestling champion Eduard Kokoity. The Russians are seen as protectors against a repeat of ethnic cleansing by Georgians.

In 1992, the west backed Eduard Shevardnadze's attempts to reassert Georgia's control over ...
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November 30th 2009 · Prague Watchdog / Usam Baysayev ·  ALSO AVAILABLE IN:

Commissioner's justice By Usam Baysayev, special to Prague Watchdog Oslo, Norway In my schooldays the subject I cared for least was physics. I think it was because of the teacher, who too assertively tried to drum the formulas and theorems into our heads. He was so enthusiastic about his work, constantly performing experiments in his study, which he eventually turned into a kind of laboratory. While it was all very well for him to spend his time and effort on this, he often dragged us along with him, distracting us from more important things. Football, for example, or aimless strolling about town,  or hiking to nearby dachas for apples and quinces. His attacks on our freedom aroused protest. Like many of my classmates, I disliked both the teacher and his subject. I remember his name – Alexander Artashesovich. He probably regretted that his efforts went to waste, that even if their coefficient of performance was above zero, it was not ...

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