The Moscow Times
July 20 2009
Half of CIS Leaders Skip Horse Races
20 July 2009
By Nikolaus von Twickel / The Moscow Times
President Dmitry Medvedev gathered leaders from some of Russia’s
closest allies at the Moscow hippodrome this weekend for a stylish,
though informal, CIS summit, but only half of the group’s presidents
showed up.
While racehorses, 11 of which belonged to Chechen President Ramzan
Kadyrov, circled outside, Medvedev hosted Saturday’s talks in a lavish
white tent over food and wine, winning a promise from Kazakh President
Nursultan Nazarbayev that a much discussed customs union would start
Jan. 1. He also managed to set up direct talks between the presidents
of Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Nazarbayev said in televised comments that several other CIS members
were interested in joining the customs union with Russia, Belarus and
Kazakhstan. But it was unclear which countries he meant and what was
the status of negotiations with Belarus, whose leadership is locked in
a bitter trade dispute with Moscow.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced last month that Russia would
abandon its 16-year bid to join the World Trade Organization in favor
of a joint application with Belarus and Kazakhstan.
The move has been criticized as a ploy to indefinitely postpone
Moscow’s WTO accession.
Lengthy talks on Friday and Saturday between Presidents Serzh Sargsyan
of Armenia and Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan were later labeled as `very
constructive’ by the Kremlin, but little indication emerged of any
major breakthrough over the Nagorno-Karabakh – – dispute, one of the
so-called `frozen conflicts’ left by the Soviet collapse.
`Statements by officials made after the meeting indicate that no
progress on principle issues has been made,’ said Panakh Huseinov, a
member of the Azeri parliament’s security and defense committee and an
opposition member, Reuters reported.
The Armenian government called the talks as `constructive’ and said
the leaders would meet again in the fall.
Nagorno-Karabakh, a mainly ethnic Armenian enclave inside Azeri
borders, declared independence in 1991 with support from Armenia and
fought Azerbaijan in a war that killed 35,000 people before a shaky
cease-fire was signed in 1994. No country has recognized the enclave’s
independence.
Russia exerts strong leverage on both Azerbaijan and Armenia, and
analysts say mediation over Nagorno-Karabakh could consolidate its
strong role in the South Caucasus.
Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon and Moldovan leader Vladimir Voronin
were the only other CIS leaders at the summit. But the presence of the
presidents of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, whose separatist republics
were recognized as independent by Moscow after last year’s war with
Georgia, upped the Kremlin’s official number of heads of state to
eight.
No invitation was issued for Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili,
whose country’s withdrawal from the Commonwealth of Independent States
is to be finalized next month.
Yet five leaders of the currently 12-member CIS declined to come.
Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov apologized, saying a
close relative was sick, national media reported.
Kyrgyz leader Kurmanbek Bakiyev explained that he had to prepare for
presidential elections in his country on Thursday.
A spokesman for Ukraine’s Viktor Yushchenko said the president went
for a traditional ascension and prayers in the Carpathian Mountains.
Uzbek President Islam Karimov did not even bother to explain his
absence, Interfax reported.
Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko, who has been sparring with
the Kremlin recently, did not consider a horse race an appropriate
place for negotiations, said a senior Belarussian diplomat, Oleg
Ivanov. `Our president does not plan to attend an event like that,’
Ivanov said, Interfax reported.
It later emerged that Lukashenko instead gave his attention to steel
horses that day, showing up on a Harley Davidson at a biker festival
in Belarus.
Lukashenko snubbed a CIS security summit in Moscow in June, prompting
a rebuke from Medvedev, who complained that the Belarussian leader had
not even bothered to personally explain his absence.
The no-shows should not be interpreted as a sign of further cracks in
the CIS, said Vladimir Zharikhin, the deputy director of the
Moscow-based CIS Institute, a think tank.
`Everybody could choose to attend or not to attend,’ Zharikhin told
The Moscow Times. `So some came for the horse race, others for a photo
opportunity with Medvedev, and still others decided they didn’t need
either.’
Ivanov, the Belarussian diplomat, said Lukashenko planned to attend
the next Collective Security Treaty Organization summit in Kyrgyzstan
at the end of this month.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
