SOURCE: Vremya Novostei, September 17, 2004, pp. 1 – 2
by Arkady Dubnov
Agency WPS
What the Papers Say. Part B (Russia)
September 17, 2004, Friday
ASTANA VERSES
The CIS heads of state summit in Astana that ended yesterday was a
momentous event. It was the last summit for some CIS presidents, and
the first for others. Replacing Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine, Vladimir
Putin was elected chairman of the “club of presidents.” This was
conclusive evidence that Kuchma will not run for re-election. In
fact, CIS leaders all but admitted that they would like to see Prime
Minister Viktor Yanukovich as the next president of Ukraine.
For President Mikhail Saakashvili of Georgia, this was the first
formal summit of the CIS.
In fact, the summit may mark a turning point in the history of the
CIS. President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan came up with a
concept for a drastic reorganization of the CIS – saying it is
“bogged down in bureaucracy” and “expensive even though there is
nothing to show for the spending.” Nazarbayev mentioned the
activities of the CIS Economic Court. It has considered only 62 cases
in its 10 years of existence, and issued four verdicts which “no one
actually noticed,” Nazarbayev said.
In short, Nazarbayev proposed abolishing this “pointless structure.”
Also earmarked for abolition are the council of defense ministers,
the headquarters for coordination of military cooperation, and the
international statistics committee. There is also a proposal to
reduce the staff of the CIS Executive Committee from 220 to 140
officials, the numbers of its chairmen to two, the numbers of
departments in it from nine to five, and to abolish some other CIS
bodies. Nazarbayev proposes ending the practice of appointing
“veterans and the elderly” to CIS structures. He argues that some
kind of G8 counterpart should be formed in the CIS, with an emphasis
on three spheres: security, economic cooperation, humanitarian
cooperation. It will require establishment of a CIS Security Council
comprising foreign ministers and heads of national security councils,
defense ministers and heads of secret services.
The final decision on reorganization of the CIS will be made at an
emergency summit within the next twelve months.
Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan met on September 15. Robert
Kocharjan and Ilham Aliyev spent four hours (!) talking things over.
Putin was present at the conversation at some point. When he left,
the meeting was attended by chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group (Russia,
the United States, and France). It seems that Yerevan and Baku
restored their dialogue.
The discussion of the Abkhazia issue by Putin and Saakashvili was
quite emotional. In fact, their polemics even continued into the
press conference after the meeting. Saakashvili expressed his
satisfaction with finding documents of the CIS summit confirming
adherence to the principles of the previous accords (Almaty in 1996
and Sochi in 2003) and went on criticizing Russia for what he called
collided with these provisions. The matter concerned restoration of
train runs between Sukhumi and Sochi. Putin replied that “commercial
relations do not conflict with decisions of CIS summits” – but
Saakashvili pressed on.
“Minister Fadeev’s presence in Sukhumi doesn’t align with Russia’s
position,” he said. “Besides, Russia can and should solve the problem
of the return of Georgian refugees to the Gal district of Abkhazia.”
“We have yet to discuss the matter with the president of Georgia,”
Putin frowned. “In fact, the refugees are already returning…”
Putin and Saakashvili had another meeting after that, one that lasted
20 minutes or so. No information on its results is available because
the presidents met privately. On the other hand, the fact of the
meeting itself is quite heartening. Prime ministers of Russia and
Georgia Mikhail Fradkov and Zurab Zhvania met as well.
An exchange of opinions on the Trans-Dniester conflict was also quite
sharp. “We do not understand the motives of the authorities of
Moldova when they turned down a chance to settle the conflict with
Trans-Dniester,” Kuchma said. “As for the economic blockade of the
region, it will certainly hurt its mostly Russian and Ukrainian
population.”
Saakashvili intervened again. “We support Moldova’s territorial
integrity,” he said. “All contacts with separatist regimes must be
made only with the permission from the authorities of the countries
where these regimes are located.”
The presidents of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan had an argument. Islam
Karimov of Uzbekistan was critical of Askar Akayev’s confidence that
terrorists can only be killed by means of supersonic fighter jets.
Only Aliyev didn’t say a word in front of TV cameras.
Translated by A. Ignatkin