RUSSIA, ARMENIA PRACTICE QUELLING ANTI-GOVERNMENT UNREST
Agence France Presse — English
October 10, 2005 Monday 4:03 PM GMT
Russian and Armenian special forces practiced quelling an
anti-government uprising at a joint exercise in southern Russia on
Monday, an interior ministry spokesman said.
“Russian and Armenian special forces are ready to fulfil the tasks
they are set,” Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev was quoted
by the spokesman as saying after watching the exercises involving
some 1,500 officers near the city of Krasnodar.
In a mock-up of a real protest around 50 demonstrators led by
“provocateurs” converged on a square in front of a government building
demanding their wages be paid and the authorities’ resignation,
the spokesman told AFP.
Special forces officers intervened as demonstrators burst into the
building and took a number of hostages.
The exercises come amid signs of nervousness in the Russian
administration following popular uprisings in the three former Soviet
republics of Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan.
Armenia is Russia’s closest ally among the former Soviet republics
of the southern Caucasus.
It saw scores of anti-government demonstrations in 2003 and 2004
calling for the resignation of President Robert Kocharian after his
re-election in what opponents said was a rigged vote in March 2003.