Russia-Georgia talks in Geneva end with no agreement
09:12, December 17, 2010
Russia and Georgia concluded their 14th round of talks on Thursday, without reaching agreement on security and other issues of mutual concern.
According to the press communique delivered by the co-chairs of the talks, discussions were carried out by two separate working groups -- one on "a review of the security situation on the ground " and the other on "humanitarian issues." None of the working groups produced concrete agreement.
In a press conference following the talks, Georgia's First Deputy Foreign Minister Giorgi Bokeria regarded the round as " quite disappointing."
He blamed Russia for not only refusing to pledge non-use of force against Georgia, but also conducted "further militarization" in the region by deploying additional weapon systems.
Responding to Bokeria's remarks, a Russian representative at the scene attributed the "broken" dialogues to Georgia's own decision to "commit aggression against Ossetia in August, 2008."
"We have not used force on our initiative", but ...
Race Riots in Russia, by Julia Ioffe - The New Yorker
The New Yorker, December 16, 2010
Wednesday was shaping up to be a day of excitement in Moscow. But the verdict expected in the second trial of the jailed oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky (whom David Remnick writes about in the current issue) was postponed; an unceremonious note taped to the courthouse door announced the delay. Meanwhile, across the ice-clogged Moscow River, a gathering army of police was bracing for a race riot, the second in four days. Tensions have been running high here ever since the night of December 6th, when a soccer fan named Egor Sviridov was killed, allegedly by a group of eight men from the Caucasus, a region between the Black and Caspian Seas whose residents are stereotyped much like Italian-Americans once were in the United States: as dark-haired, swarthy, passionate southerners with a taste for organized crime. Their complexions are why Russians call them "black,” or, worse, ...
The recent riots offered yet more proof that Russia still has not come to terms with what or who it is – a debate that has been simmering since the country’s foundation.
Nationalists screamed "Russia for Russians” as they fought people from the North Caucasus, which is part of the Russian Federation.
This is a clear sign that many people – and not just xenophobes, racists, and nationalists – have not come to terms with the country’s identity following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Russia’s confused, and often absent, national identity poses serious problems for the country, in particular the recent riots, and society quickly needs to foster a healthy form of nationalism.
Many will argue that nationalism is inherently bad, but it is crucial to forming a working state and democracy. If the people cannot decide who they are, then how can they choose who will represent them, ...
Racist Rampage Casts Shadow On Russia's 2018 World Cup Dream
December 16, 2010
By Claire Bigg, Kevin O'Flynn
WATCH: RFE/RL spoke to Russian sports fans visiting Prague for a soccer game about the threat of further interracial violence.
MOSCOW -- With Muscovites still reeling from a series of violent ethnic clashes, police on December 15 detained more than 1,000 people across the capital to prevent a replay of this past weekend's violence.
Thousands of ultranationalists and soccer hooligans, many of them wearing their club's scarves, screamed racist slogans and attacked non-Slavic bystanders on December 11. It was the worst outbreak of racially motivated rioting in the Russian capital since the 1991 Soviet collapse.
The rioters hurled stones and assaulted police officers with metal bars before storming a ...
Clashes between radically-minded youths and Caucasians continue in Moscow as the second disturbance in a week December 15 resulted in the arrests of several hundreds. No fatalities were reported, as police have stepped up patrols especially in public transport.
Ethnic tensions have sparked in Russia's capital since December 11, when football fans staged a rally at the city’s Manege Square demanding punishment for those responsible for the death of FC Spartak fan Yegor Sviridov who was killed in a December 6 scuffle with a group of natives of the North Caucasus. Mass disturbances followed resulting in several injuries. Political analyst Alexander Iskandaryan, Director of Caucasus Institute in Yerevan believes certain political forces in Russia are inciting ethnic-based fighting. Iskandaryan says ...
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The New Yorker, December 16, 2010
