AZERBAIJANI OPPOSITION ACTIVIST: AGENCY FOR CIS ESTABLISHED IN RUSSIA WILL NOT SAVE THE NONVIABLE BODY FROM ITS AGONY
Regnum
May 13 2008
Russia
The government formed by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin consists
of well-known in Russia professional and several people coming from
St. Petersburg, on whom he can always rely on, deputy leader of the
opposition People’s Front Party (Azerbaijan) Gasan Kerimov told a
REGNUM correspondent.
According to him, the reason for the reshuffle in the government was
that Vladimir Putin was and is a charismatic leader and therefore he
posed a wider range of tasks to himself than the previous premier,
Viktor Zubkov. Kerimov believes that the Russian ex-president is aware
that his new post is rather vulnerable and the ranks of his opponents
will increase. That was the range of the tasks and the necessity to
undertake some unpopular measures that made Putin change the staff
and abolish state committees by turning them into agencies or handing
over their functions to other bodies.
Speaking on the decision to establish an agency for CIS affairs, the
politician noted that the new agency would not save the nonviable body
from its agony, one member of which, Armenia, is silently allowed
to occupy territories of another one, Azerbaijan. "Just remember
the relations between the small Georgia and the big Russia. Can the
relations between them be called friendly and allied?" asked Kerimov.
In conclusion, he stressed that an attempt made by the Russian premier
to combat corruption was commendable, but said it had the same chance
for success as a similar intention of the Azeri prime minister. Kerimov
explained his skepticism about a possibility to eradicate corruption
both in Russia and in Azerbaijan by lack of democracy and rule of
law in society. Besides, he said, both Moscow and Baku have shown
increase in authoritarianism accompanied by passiveness of society.
As REGNUM reported earlier, Russia Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
outlined three directions to combat corruption. He said it was
necessary to get rid of excessive functions in control and licensing,
improve the legislation and raise salaries of government officials.