The Other Russia: Report Critical Of Putin Reaches Wide Audience
|
posted by eagle on July, 2010 as ANALYSIS / OPINION
July 29th, 2010 • Related • Filed UnderThe Levada Center, a well-respected public opinion research institution in Russia, has released the results of a survey on an opposition report critical of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The report, "Putin. Results. 10 Years” was released by two co-leaders of the Solidarity opposition movement, former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov and former Deputy Energy Minister Vladimir Milov. Hundreds of thousands of copies of the report were confiscated by police upon its release in mid-June, but were returned to the authors when analysis for hints of extremism came up empty. Nemtsov analyses the survey results on his blog: The Levada Center has published the results of a survey on whether or not Russian citizens know about our report: "Putin. Results. 10 Years.” A presentation of the report was held on June 14 and the report was published on the Internet, and 300 thousand copies were confiscated in St. Petersburg and in a print shop in Smolensk in result. After an analysis ...
comments (0)
RFE/RL: Controversy Over New Georgian Draft Constitution Continues
|
posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
Controversy Over New Georgian Draft Constitution ContinuesIs Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili preparing to "do a Putin"? Georgian opposition parties, legal experts, and NGOs are continuing their last-ditch battle to prevent the formal adoption by parliament of a new draft constitution formulated in such a way as to enable President Mikheil Saakashvili to retain supreme power as prime minister once his second presidential term expires in 2013. Meanwhile, an opinion poll conducted by the U.S. National Democratic Institute found that only 26 percent of respondents support the prospect of Saakashvili becoming prime minister, while 32 percent are against it; almost half those polled (48 percent) favor retaining the current strong presidential system. The new draft constitution is the brainchild of a commission established by Saakashvili last summer. Its members formally approved the draft on July 19 and submitted it on July 21 to the parliament, which published it for a one-month nationwide discussion. Experts from the Council of Europe's Venice Commission are due to arrive in Tbilisi on September 16-17 to review the draft, ...
comments (0)
World Tribune: Does Kosovo’s Status Give Green Light To Separatist Movements?
|
posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
Monday, July 26, 2010Does Kosovo’s status give green light to separatist movements? PARIS — In what clearly represents surmounting a significant legal hurdle for the young state of Kosovo, the International Court of Justice has ruled that the ethnic-Albanian province’s declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008 did not violate international law. Yet, the court’s ruling was characteristically equivocal insofar as it did not say that the new State of Kosovo in itself was legal. Nonetheless many international observers argue that the ruling gives a green light to separatism in a score of regions, some in Europe itself.
The World Court passed an 10-4 non-binding advisory opinion which said that international law contained "no prohibition of declarations of independence,” and thus Kosovo’s declaration of independence "did not violate international law.” As would be expected the Serbs rejected the ruling. Ironically Serbia successfully lobbied the UN General Assembly to bring the case to the Hague court in the first place. Writing in Le Figaro, Pierre Rousselin commented editorially, ...
comments (0)
Window On Eurasia: Baksan Dam Attack Shows Moscow Unprepared To Cope, Experts Say
|
posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
Paul Goble
Staunton, July 26 – The bombing of the Baksan Dam in Kabardino-Balkaria this week shows both that terrorism is not on the wane in the Russian Federation, as some officials have suggested, and that the powers that be are both incapable of preventing further disasters or holding accountable those responsible for preventing such disasters.
Today, "Novaya versiya” published the responses of four experts to the question – "How can infrastructure be defended from terrorist attack?” Their answers are disturbing because they suggest Moscow is quite obviously incapable of doing so without a return to Soviet-style controls and because (versia.ru/articles/2010/jul/26/zaschita_predprijatij_ot_terrora).
Gennady Gudkov, deputy head of the Duma’s security committee and a member of Just Russia, said that "it is necessary to learn to struggle with terrorism at the stage of the preparation of a crime and not after its commission.” Unfortunately, while Russia has had "certain successes” against the militants,” this is ...
comments (0)
Caucasian Forum: A Black Sea tour: Sukhum
|
posted by circassiankama on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
Wednesday, July 21, 2010 22:26
 We got our first job Suhum'a visa formalities are to handle. Edited by Abkhazian authorities have shown that our invitation and visa fees paid at a bank in the city after we went to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In ten minutes the same as in Nagorno-Karabakh as a separate paper, processed our visa was ready. Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia was similar to the input-output, your passport does not leave any trace, but the visa had to be shown the way out.
Approximately 80 thousand to 200 thousand people live Suhum'da in Abkhazia. Sukhum, consisting of regular positions in an ancient Russian city, a tourist resort in the time of Czarist Russia had become an old castle. Suhum'da 19 century buildings, structures, and classical Stalinist Communist apartment blocks in the cock-a sub-tropical vegetation has an interesting mix. The old buildings have been restored at the edge of the beach, but ...
>> full
comments (0)
|
