RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
_________________________________________ __________________
RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 10, No. 121, Part I, 3 July 2006

NOTE TO READERS: "RFE/RL Newsline" will next be issued on July 7.

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Headlines, Part I

* ST. PETERSBURG GOVERNOR URGES THIRD PUTIN TERM IN INTERESTS OF
‘STABILIZATION’

* FORMER RUSSIAN PREMIER CONFIRMS HE WILL RUN FOR PRESIDENT IN 2008

* SOUTH OSSETIA ACCUSES GEORGIA OF PREPARING FOR WAR

END NOTE: MEDIA COVERAGE OF TURKMEN LEADER DISTRACTS ATTENTION FROM
REAL PROBLEMS
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TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

ARRESTED ARMENIAN JOURNALIST ALLEGES POLITICAL PERSECUTION. Arman
Babadjanian, editor of the independent daily "Zhamanak Yerevan,"
released a statement on June 30 claiming that his arrest four days
earlier on charges of evading military service in 2002 was
politically motivated, RFE/RL’s Armenian Service reported (see
"RFE/RL Newsline," June 27 and 28, 2006). Babadjanian said his
detention was intended "to muzzle an independent and incorruptible
media outlet that supports the removal of an illegal regime and the
establishment of a legitimate government." Prosecutors said last week
that Babadjanian, who has been remanded in pre-trial custody for two
months, has confessed to the charge against him. Babadjanian’s
statement made no mention of any such confession. LF

MAJOR KAZAKH BANK CLOSES OFFICE IN AZERBAIJAN. TuranAlem Bank, which
is one of Kazakhstan’s three largest banks and the seventh largest in
the CIS, has closed the office in Baku that it opened in August 2005,
regnum.ru and day.az reported on July 1 and 2, respectively. Although
the office was registered with the Justice Ministry, the National
Bank of Azerbaijan refused to grant it a license. TuranAlem hoped to
acquire a controlling stake in an unnamed Azerbaijani bank. It has
since made considerable investments in Georgia. LF

GEORGIAN OPPOSITION PARTIES CALL FOR AMENDMENTS TO ELECTION LAW.
Seven Georgian opposition parties and movements — the New Rightists,
the Republican party, Tavisupleba (Liberty), the Conservative party,
the Labor party, Industry Will Save Georgia, and the People’s Forum
— signed a statement in Tbilisi on June 30 demanding that the
election law be amended to provide for elections to the Tbilisi
Municipal Council to be held according to the proportional system,
Caucasus Press and regnum.ru reported. The council has 37 seats, of
which 30 currently go to whichever party polls the largest number of
votes (a minimum of 30 percent). Parliamentarian Giga Bokeria of the
ruling United National Movement rejected that demand on June 30 as
"blackmail" that "will lead nowhere," Caucasus Press reported. LF

SOUTH OSSETIA ACCUSES GEORGIA OF PREPARING FOR WAR. Georgian Defense
Minister Irakli Okruashvili told the independent television station
Rustavi-2 on July 2 that the Georgian parliament should demand the
withdrawal of the Russian peacekeeping troops currently deployed in
the South Ossetian and Abkhaz conflict zones, Interfax and regnum.ru
reported on July 3. "We must reunite the country, and I don’t care"
that "skeptics" in Europe are concerned that a demand for the
peacekeepers’ withdrawal may negatively affect Georgian-Russian
relations, Okruashvili was quoted as saying. Also on July 3, Mikhail
Mindzayev, interior minister of the unrecognized Republic of South
Ossetia, accused Georgia of preparing to launch a military offensive
against South Ossetia immediately after the G8 summit in St.
Petersburg, Caucasus Press reported. On July 1, the Georgian Defense
Ministry accused South Ossetia of "illegally" constructing
fortifications during the third week in June; Mindzayev was quoted on
July 3 by regnum.ru as saying that those fortifications were
undertaken in direct response to Georgia’s actions. Meanwhile, South
Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity told residents of Djava Raion on
July 1 that he will not instigate a referendum with the aim of
amending the constitution to enable him to run for a further term
after his second presidential term expires later this year, regnum.ru
reported. LF

ABKHAZ-GEORGIAN WORKING GROUP MEETS. The UN-sponsored Coordinating
Council working group on security issues convened on June 30 in Gali
for its first session in five years, Caucasus Press and apsny.ru
reported. Participants focused on the security situation in
Abkhazia’s southernmost Gali Raion and in the Kodori Gorge. Ivo
Petrov, who is deputy special representative of the UN
Secretary-General for the Abkhaz conflict, stressed the need for both
sides to observe the cease-fire agreement signed in Moscow in May
1994 and to draft and submit to the Coordinating Council proposals
for averting a resumption of hostilities. LF

ABKHAZ OPPOSITION LAMBASTES LEADERSHIP OVER RAIL-TRAFFIC AGREEMENT.
Representatives of various Abkhaz political parties and movements,
including the opposition Forum of National Unity established last
year (see "RFE/RL Caucasus Report," February 11, 2005) issued two
statements last week criticizing the Abkhaz authorities for endorsing
an agreement concluded among the governments of Russia, Armenia ,and
Georgia to establish a consortium to renovate the railway line from
Sochi via Abkhazia to Tbilisi and thence to Armenia, apsny.ru
reported on June 30. That agreement reportedly designates the stretch
of railway through Abkhazia as the property of the consortium, a
concession that the signatories branded contrary to Abkhaz national
interests and a threat to the unrecognized republic’s sovereignty.
Abkhaz President Sergei Bagapsh brushed off that criticism during
comments to journalists on June 29, saying it testifies to the fact
that "we are building a democratic law-based state where anyone can
express his opinion," apsny.ru reported. Bagapsh argued that the
renovation of the rail link and the resumption of rail traffic is
"strategically vital" to Russia and essential for reviving Abkhazia’s
economy. He pledged that the Abkhaz leadership will "defend its
position" vis-a-vis the Russian-Georgian-Armenian consortium. LF

DEFENDANT IN KAZAKH MURDER TRIAL REQUESTS PROTECTION. In an appeal
published on June 30 by ferghana.ru and Navigator, Rustam Ibragimov,
a defendant charged with the murder of opposition leader Altynbek
Sarsenbaev, asked Judge Lukmat Merekenov to take measures to protect
him and his family. Ibragimov said that Erzhan Utembaev, who is
charged with paying for Sarsenbaev’s killing, told him on February 15
that a high-ranking official met with Sarsenbaev on February 11, the
day the authorities have said the murder was committed. Ibragimov
also stated in the appeal that the official’s picture was shown to
him by FBI agents and the official’s name was mentioned to him by the
Interior Ministry and prosecutor-general. Ibragimov did not identify
the official, but said that now that he has made it clear in his
testimony that he knows the official’s identity, he believes that "I,
my relatives, and my lawyers are threatened by a real risk — up to
physical liquidation." A former law enforcement officer, Ibragimov
has pled innocent to the murder charge. DK

KYRGYZ OFFICIAL SAYS REMITTANCES AT $750 MILLION IN 2005. Lyubov Ten,
head of the macroeconomic policy department in Kyrgyzstan’s Economy
and Finance Ministry, told akipress.org in an interview on June 29
that remittances from migrant workers totaled an estimated $750
million in 2005. Ten said that the International Organization for
Migration puts the number of Kyrgyz migrant workers in Russia at
300,000-500,000 and in Kazakhstan at 50,000. Ten noted that the
Bishkek Consensus Institute for Economic Policy (IEP) estimates the
total number of Kyrgyz migrant workers at 400,000, including 50,000
outside the CIS. The IEP put annual remittance averages of individual
migrant workers from Kyrgyzstan in 2004-05 at $1,165 (Russia), $1,361
(Kazakhstan), and $2,050 (other countries). DK

KYRGYZ PROSECUTORS ASK FOR DEATH PENALTY IN PRISON MURDER CASE.
Kyrgyz prosecutors have asked for the death penalty in the trial of
Aziz Batukaev and Rustam Abdulin, who are being tried in connection
with the murders of four people, including parliamentary deputy
Tynychbek Akmatbaev, during prison unrest on October 20, 2005 (see
"RFE/RL Newsline," October 21, 2005), akipress.org reported.
Batukaev, Abdulin, and 37 other defendants are on trial in the
killings, which triggered a series of demonstrations in Bishkek last
October (see "Restive Days In Bishkek," rferl.org, October 30, 2005).
DK

KYRGYZ PRESIDENT ANNOUNCES PAY RISE FOR EDUCATION, HEALTH CARE
WORKERS. Kurmanbek Bakiev announced on July 1 that he will sign a
decree raising the salaries of teachers, doctors, and social-sector
workers by 20 percent, Kabar reported. Bakiev noted that salaries for
these workers increased by 15 percent last year, news agency 24.kg
reported. The raises will be effective July 1. DK

TURKMEN, UKRAINIAN GAS TALKS END WITHOUT AGREEMENT… Talks between a
Ukrainian delegation headed by acting Fuel and Energy Minister Ivan
Plachkov and Turkmenistan’s Oil and Gas Ministry ended on June 30 in
Ashgabat without an agreement on gas shipments for the second half of
2006, turkmenistan.ru reported. The two sides did reach an agreement
on Ukrainian arrears of $64 million for previous shipments, which the
Ukrainian side said it will pay by September. Turkmenistan offered to
sell gas to Ukraine for $100 per 1,000 cubic meters in the fourth
quarter of 2006 if Ukraine can arrange transport of the gas through
Russia, an offer the Ukrainian delegation did not accept. DK

….AND ASHGABAT CONSIDERS PREVIOUS AGREEMENT INVALID. The report
noted that Turkmenistan considers a late 2005 Turkmen-Ukrainian
contract on 2006 shipments "invalid" after Russia’s Gazprom declined
to provide a transit license for the gas. Shipments under a different
arrangement brokered with Gazprom on January 4 will be completed by
September, the Turkmen side said. Under the current agreement,
Ukraine pays $95 per 1,000 meters to Rosukrenergo, a Swiss-registered
gas trader that sells Ukraine a mixture of Russian and Central Asian
gas. The Ukrainian delegation has returned to Kyiv for consultations.
The failure to reach agreement came a day after Russia’s Gazprom and
Turkmenistan broke off talks on a gas deal for the remainder of 2006
after failing to reach an agreement on price (see "RFE/RL Newsline,"
June 30, 2006). DK

DUTCH NGO FACES CHARGES IN UZBEKISTAN. Uzbekistan’s Justice Ministry
has found the Dutch NGO AIDS Foundation East-West in violation of
Uzbek law, Interfax reported on June 30. The report said that the NGO
is "expected" to resolve the violations, but it noted that the
Justice Ministry would not say whether the organization could be
closed. Over the past two years, Uzbek authorities have shut down
most of the Western NGOs in Uzbekistan. DK

END NOTE

MEDIA COVERAGE OF TURKMEN LEADER DISTRACTS ATTENTION FROM REAL
PROBLEMS

By Gulnoza Saidazimova

Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov has been called
outlandish, eccentric, insane, ruthless, and described as a
tyrannical dictator. But the international media’s comic portrayals
of Niyazov distract attention from many of the very serious problems
the country is facing, observers say.
Turkmen citizens have no chance to enjoy ballet, opera, a
philharmonic orchestra, or a circus because Niyazov — also known as
Turkmenbashi the Great or the "Father of All Turkmen" — has banned
them, saying they contradict Turkmen national values.
Niyazov has also ordered the dismissal of several thousand
health-care workers and replaced them with military conscripts, while
also closing down many rural hospitals. Turkmen children only go to
school until the ninth grade ever since the government reduced public
education — making it impossible for them to study at foreign
universities
Only adherents to Sunni Islam and Russian Orthodoxy are free
to worship in Turkmenistan, as those who follow any other religion or
religious sect usually face harsh repression, with some churches
having been bulldozed. And Turkmens are constantly forced to better
their knowledge of the nation’s history and present by learning
phrases from "Rukhnama," Niyazov’s book on spirituality and proper
behavior, which is compulsory study in schools.
Many Turkmen citizens live in poverty since Niyazov cancelled
or cut payments to a large portion of the country’s pensioners and
cancelled maternity and sick-leave payments for others in February.
If Turkmens criticize the government or work for foreign
media outlets, they are likely to be persecuted and can be internally
exiled, evicted from their homes, or forcibly put in psychiatric
hospitals while their personal property is confiscated.
This is the dire but realistic picture of Turkmenistan,
according to exiled Turkmen dissidents and international human rights
groups. Many of them say the Western media, however, does not give an
adequate picture of the country because they are too busy reporting
about Niyazov’s cult of personality or his strange behavior and
comments, such as his criticism of gold-capped teeth, long hair and
beards, and female TV anchors’ use of make-up — or his decision to
ban the use of tobacco.
But focusing on such things creates a distorted picture of
life in Turkmenistan and takes attention away from the truly
difficult issues that Turkmens are facing, says Eric Freedman of the
journalism school at Michigan State University. "It’s obvious that he
does a lot of strange things. Some of them [are] building an ice
palace in the desert, renaming the days of the weeks and the months
of the year, building the world’s largest mosque [or] his putting up
giant posters [of himself] all over the country," Freedman says.
"Those kinds of things draw attention to him as a person and
they obviously have a public-policy implication," Freedman continues.
"But the press doesn’t tend to look at those kinds of public-policy
issues. It’s easier to put attention on things that are a little
strange. There are some problems with that, I think, because you as a
reader in the West get a distorted picture."
Farid Tukhbatullin, an exiled human rights activist and head
of the Vienna-based nongovernmental group Turkmen Initiative for
Human Rights, says that the media portrays Niyazov as a "clown
dictator" and his decrees as whims and eccentricity. He says foreign
media seem to forget that nearly 5 million people have to live a
"tragic life" under Niyazov’s rule.
Tukhbatullin believes it is because ordinary people in the
West are not interested in finding out more about Turkmenistan,
noting that since he arrived in Europe, "I learned that people know
practically nothing — not only about Turkmenistan — but also about
other former Soviet republics.
"Unfortunately, the foreign press only portrays Turkmenistan
as a country with a president who has a screw loose," he adds.
"Journalists and perhaps their readers are not interested in having
an in-depth knowledge about Turkmenistan. They are probably satisfied
with reading about [Niyazov’s] odd remarks and behavior over coffee,
at their leisure."
Michigan University’s Freedman recently conducted research on
several Western media outlets’ coverage of Turkmenistan, and noted
that personality-driven media coverage of other leaders is very rare.
"If the situation were reversed and it were foreign media covering
events in the U.S. when Bill Clinton was president, it would be as if
most stories about U.S. trade or military included references that
Bill Clinton was not faithful to his wife, or had smoked
marijuana…or had this ‘Slick Willie’ kind of image," he says. "And
if you put it that way, you realize how ridiculous it would be for
the foreign press to do that about the United States. So why wouldn’t
it be equally ridiculous for the Western press to do that about
another country?"
Freedman says Western media coverage becomes more serious
when prominent international groups, like Amnesty International,
Human Rights Watch, or the World Health Organization take interest in
certain events in the country.
Allison Gill, head of Human Rights Watch’s Moscow office,
tells RFE/RL’s Turkmen Service that the media should stop making fun
of Turkmenbashi and pay more attention to his regime’s disastrous
human rights record. "There is absolutely not enough attention to the
human rights situation in Turkmenistan," Gill says. "Many people have
forgotten about Turkmenistan or consider that the president is
somewhat funny in his building of [his own] statues and his creating
a cult of personality to himself. But there is nothing funny about
what is happening in Turkmenistan. It is an incredibly serious and
dire human rights situation that demands the attention of the world
community."
Freedman, however, says that the odd and the bizarre about
Turkmenbashi are likely to continue dominating media coverage as they
attract a greater audience.

(Gulnoza Saidazimova is an RFE/RL correspondent based in Prague.)

RUSSIA

ST. PETERSBURG GOVERNOR URGES THIRD PUTIN TERM IN INTERESTS OF
‘STABILIZATION.’ In an interview published on June 30 in "Moskovskiye
novosti," Valentina Matvienko argued that she considers it of
"fundamental importance" that Vladimir Putin should be permitted to
serve a third term as Russian president after his current term
expires in 2008. Doing so, Matvienko reasoned, would enable Putin to
complete what he has begun and to "make the most important processes
irreversible." Speaking to journalists on July 1, Matvienko again
said the economic, financial, social, and political changes Putin has
effected "need to be consolidated and made irreversible," and that a
third Putin term would help preserve stability both within Russia and
abroad, Interfax and regnum.ru reported. She admitted, however, that
it is for Putin himself to decide whether the current constitution
and legislation should be amended to permit one person to serve three
presidential terms. An opinion poll published on June 7 by the Levada
Center in Moscow indicates that 59 percent of respondents would
approve amending the constitution to enable President Putin to run
for a third term (see "RFE/RL Newsline," June 8, 2006). Speaking two
weeks ago in Shanghai, however, Putin said he will not run for a
third term, as doing so would require changing the constitution,
which in turn would deprive him of the moral authority to govern (see
"RFE/RL Newsline," June 16, 2006). LF

FORMER RUSSIAN PREMIER CONFIRMS HE WILL RUN FOR PRESIDENT IN 2008.
Former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov told a congress of his
People’s Democratic Union (NDS) in Moscow on July 1 that he intends
to put forward his candidacy in the 2008 presidential ballot,
Interfax reported. At the same time, he said he does not plan to head
any political party. When the NDS was launched in April, commentators
suggested it was formed specifically to back a Kasyanov presidential
bid (see "RFE/RL Newsline," February 28, March 16, and April 10,
2006). LF

SPEAKER AGAIN SAYS FEDERATION COUNCIL MEMBERS SHOULD BE ELECTED…
Echoing comments he made days earlier in Lipetsk, Sergei Mironov told
Interfax on July 1 that he believes members of the upper chamber of
the Russian parliament should be elected rather than centrally
appointed (see "RFE/RL Newsline," June 27, 2006). He suggested that
regional governors or presidents and the regional or republican
legislature should nominate two candidates each. Mironov pointed out
that if the relevant legislation is enacted by the end of this year,
such elections could be held concurrently with regional elections in
March 2007. Mironov also recalled that the principles under which
parliamentary elections are held are being reformed and as of 2007,
Duma deputies will be elected only from party lists and not from
single-mandate constituencies (see "RFE/RL Newsline," May 12, 2005).
Also on July 1, President Putin told journalists in Lesniye Dali,
Moscow Oblast, that he supports the proposal by the pro-Kremlin
Unified Russia party that 20 percent of the candidates on parties’
election lists should be "young people," Interfax reported. It is not
clear if either Putin or Unified Russia has stipulated an upper age
limit. LF

….CALLS FOR PUBLIC CHAMBER TO OVERSEE MEDIA. Mironov also called in
his July 1 interview with Interfax for greater state control over the
media. At the same time, he argued that a Public Chamber comprised of
"decent and respected people" should be established to ensure that
the media conform to the state’s information policy, as giving that
responsibility to either the State Duma, the Federation Council, or
the Press Ministry would be tantamount to a return to censorship. LF

VOTERS OPPOSE ABOLITION OF ‘AGAINST ALL’ OPTION. According to a poll
of 3,000 respondents conducted on June 17-18 in 63 Russian regions,
54 percent of voters considered it necessary to preserve the option
of being able to vote "against all" candidates in elections, while
only 28 percent favored abolishing it, regnum.ru reported on July 1.
Some 63 percent could not name a single advantage in abolishing that
option, as the State Duma voted to do in the final reading on June 30
(see "RFE/RL Newsline," June 30, 2006). Nearly one-third — 31
percent — of the poll respondents said they have voted "against all"
on at least one occasion. LF

PUTIN ADVISER PREDICTS THAT 1 MILLION RUSSIANS WILL RETURN FROM
ABROAD. Kremlin adviser Modest Kolerov told Interfax on July 1 that
more than 1 million Russians, most of them "professionals" currently
living in unspecified countries that are undergoing "a socioeconomic
crisis," plan to take advantage of the repatriation program announced
by President Putin on June 26. That program guarantees benefits and
support for persons who agree to settle in border regions in the Far
East. Returnees will also be permitted to settle in regions where the
population is declining rapidly, or where major investment programs
are under way (see "RFE/RL Newsline," June 27, 2006). In Primorsky
Krai, the authorities are already allocating land for repatriates to
settle, while in Irkutsk, Governor Aleksandr Tishanin said on June 29
that the oblast is ready to house in 2007 up to 1.5 million ethnic
Russians from former Soviet republics who wish to settle in the
Russian Federation, regnum.ru reported. LF

CHUVASH PRESIDENT WARNS GOVERNMENT TO CURB RISING INFLATION. Nikolai
Fyodorov warned republican Prime Minister Sergei Gaplikov during a
session of the republican government on June 30 that unless the
inflation rate is brought down, he will demand the resignation of the
entire government, regnum.ru reported. Chuvashia has until now
experienced lower-than-average inflation, but experts have predicted
that consumer prices will rise by almost 10 percent this year. LF

RUSSIA, PARIS CLUB SIGN PROTOCOL ON DEBT REPAYMENT. Russian Deputy
Finance Minister Sergei Storchak signed a multilateral protocol on
June 30 with the Paris Club of creditors under which Russia will
repay in full by August 21, 2006, the approximately $22.3 billion it
owes those countries, Interfax reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," June
26, 2006). Storchak told journalists after the signing that Moscow
hopes that international ratings agencies will upgrade Russia’s
country rating in the wake of that agreement. Speaking on July 1 on
the Russian television program "Vesti-24," Finance Minister Aleksei
Kudrin said that the early repayment of Russia’s debt to the Paris
Club puts it in a position to lay claim to assets abroad, including
real estate, which other former Soviet republics ceded to Russia in
return for a pledge to repay their share of the former Soviet foreign
debt, Interfax reported. LF

SHAREHOLDERS ENDORSE ARCELOR-MITTAL MERGER. Meeting in Luxembourg on
June 30, shareholders of the steel company Arcelor SA voted to
endorse the merger of Arcelor with Mittal Steel to form the world’s
largest steel company, rather than to go ahead with a previously
agreed merger between Arcelor and the Russian Severstal, the
"Financial Times" reported on July 1 (see "RFE/RL Newsline," June 26
and 27, 2006). Arcelor will pay Severstal 140 million euros ($179
million) in compensation for backing out of the previous deal, under
which Severstal would have invested 14 billion euros in assets in the
merged company in exchange for 32 percent of the total shares. On
July 3, "Nezavisimaya gazeta" reported that Severstal’s owner Aleksei
Mordashov plans an initial public offering of 3 billion euros on the
London Stock Exchange in a bid to increase his company’s
capitalization prior to making a takeover bid for either the
U.K.-based Corus Group or another European steel company. LF

GAZPROM WILL TREAT CIS, EUROPE ALIKE. Aleksei Miller, who is CEO of
Russia’s state-owned gas monopoly Gazprom, told a general
shareholders’ meeting in Moscow on June 30 that Gazprom intends to
abide by the same conditions in its relations with CIS states as with
Europe, presumably meaning that CIS countries will be required to pay
the full market price for gas, regnum.ru reported. On July 1, Gazprom
spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov warned that the revision of the January
2006 gas deal between Russia and Ukraine that the new Ukrainian
government under Yuliya Tymoshenko is demanding "endangers the
security and continuity" of Gazprom’s supplies to Europe, Interfax
reported. LF

RUSSIAN, TURKISH PRESIDENTS MEET. Ahmet Necdet Sezer met with
President Putin on June 29, the second day of his three-day official
visit to Russia, according to a June 30 statement on the website of
the Russian Foreign Ministry (). Speaking to
journalists after their talks, the two presidents noted with
satisfaction the boom in bilateral trade over the past 15 years, from
$1.5 billion in 1991 to $15 billion today; Sezer predicted that the
figure could reach $25 billion. Sezer noted in particular the
positive impact on bilateral economic relations of the Blue Stream
pipeline that carries Russian natural gas to Turkey. Putin noted the
talks focused on the Middle East, Iraq, the Iranian nuclear standoff,
regional developments in the Black Sea region, and coordinating
efforts in the fight against terrorism. He said that the two
countries’ positions on all international issues discussed either
coincide or "have become much closer." Writing on July 1 in the
"Turkish Daily News," columnist Mehmet Ali Birand enthused that
"Turkey’s love for Russia is increasing every day." But "Novye
izvestiya" on June 29 noted that Russia and Turkey are still in
competition over the transport of Caspian hydrocarbons to world
markets. LF

RUSSIA, ITALY DISCUSS PREPARATIONS FOR G8 SUMMIT. Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov met in Moscow on June 30 with his Italian
counterpart Massimo D’Alema to discuss bilateral relations,
preparations for the G8 summit in St. Petersburg on July 15-17, and
various international issues, according to the Russian Foreign
Ministry website. The two ministers agreed to maintain "close working
contacts" with regard to the agenda for the upcoming summit. They
also agreed that the international community should strictly abide by
accepted principles of international law in order to prevent possible
"destabilizing consequences" of the referendum whereby Montenegro won
independence from its former joint state with Serbia (see "RFE/RL
Newsline," May 22, 2006), or of the ongoing Kosova status talks.
Other issues discussed included the Middle East, Iraq, and Iran’s
nuclear agenda. D’Alema also met in Moscow on June 30 with Finance
Minister Kudrin to discuss the possibility of Gazprom and Italy’s
state-owned ENI cooperating to extend the Blue Stream pipeline from
Samsun to Ceyhan, Interfax and regnum.ru reported. Kudrin said an
agreement on building that pipeline could be signed "very soon." LF

CHECHEN ADMINISTRATION HEAD SAYS MURDERERS OF RUSSIAN DIPLOMATS
SHOULD BE HUNTED DOWN. Russia should not spare either financial or
other resources in its efforts to apprehend and bring to justice
those responsible for the execution of a Russian diplomat and three
embassy employees abducted in Baghdad, pro-Moscow Chechen
administration head Alu Alkhanov told Interfax in Moscow on July 1.
Every terrorist organization should know that Russia will never leave
any hostage-taking or murder of her compatriots without retaliation,
Alkhanov said. The four men were abducted in early June by the
Mujahedin Shura Council, an Iraqi-based group with links to Al-Qaeda.
On June 28, President Putin ordered unspecified Russian "special
services" to take "all measures to find and eliminate" the killers
(see "RFE/RL Newsline," June 27, 28, and 29, 2006). LF

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* Daniel Kimmage, Central Asia, KimmageD@rferl.org
* Jan Maksymiuk, Belarus/Ukraine/Moldova, MaksymiukJ@rferl.org
* Kathleen Ridolfo, Iraq, RidolfoK@rferl.org
* Bill Samii, Iran, SamiiA@rferl.org
* Amin Tarzi, Afghanistan, TarziA@rferl.org
* Victor Yasmann, Russia, YasmannV@rferl.org
* Luke Allnutt, Editor, AllnuttL@rferl.org
* Pete Baumgartner, Editor, BaumgartnerP@rferl.org
* Andrew Heil, Editor, HeilA@rferl.org
* Mike Scollon, Editor, ScollonM@rferl.org
* Dan Wisniewski, Editor, WisniewskiD@rferl.org

FREELANCE AND OCCASIONAL CONTRIBUTORS
* Laura Belin, Jonas Bernstein, Richard Giragosian, Roman Kupchinsky,
Aleksander Maksymiuk, Mark Rich, Vahid Sepehri, Brian Whitmore

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