Author: Chavushian

Forbes
May 24 2005

Chirac says EU constitution would put back Turkey accession
05.24.2005, 12:47 PM

PARIS (AFX) – President Jacques Chirac said that the adoption of the
EU constitution would extend the timeframe for Turkey’s accession
into the union.

Chirac’s comments came in a letter to the France-based CCAF
association of Armenian organisations, and at a time when key
proponents of the constitution ramp up efforts to convince the
electorate ahead of the referendum on Sunday.

Polls released over the past two weeks have indicated strongly that a
vote against the treaty is likely.

Chirac told the CCAF that Turkey ‘still has a long way to go’ in its
bid for EU membership, and that this will become even harder under a
constitution which will ‘recognise fundamental rights and
liberties… and guarantee them to all European citizens.’

The Armenian community in France, some 400,000-strong, has been
expected to lean towards a ‘no’ vote as a means to stop Turkey’s
accession. Community leaders have insisted that France urge Turkey to
acknowledge the 1915 genocide which left an estimated 1-1.5 mln
Armenians dead, as part of the accession talks.

L’Express
23 mai 2005

4 questions à… Frédéric Charpier; Le système Devedjian à Antony

par Lautrou Pierre-Yves

La jeunesse de Patrick Devedjian fut engagée et agitée. De 1963 à
1967, il milite au sein d’Occident, un mouvement d’extrême droite
violent, en compagnie d’un certain nombre de futurs élus, comme Alain
Madelin, Gérard Longuet et Claude Goasguen. Frédéric Charpier, auteur
de Génération Occident (Le Seuil, 2004), nous éclaire sur cette
période.

Patrick Devedjian semble parfaitement assumer ce passé encombrant,
affirmant qu’Occident n’avait rien à voir avec l’extrême droite
d’aujourd’hui. Est-ce le cas? Comme les autres, il assume l’histoire
qu’il veut bien raconter, mais il ne dit pas la vérité. Ils cherchent
tous à minorer la durée et la nature de leur engagement. Par exemple,
ils rappellent qu’ils combattaient avant tout le communisme et le
totalitarisme, mais, à l’époque, Occident soutenait tous les régimes
totalitaires.

Quelle est l’origine de son engagement? Il entre à Occident par
“instinct patriotique”, selon ses propres termes. La guerre d’Algérie
lui a rappelé comment ses ancêtres catholiques arméniens ont été
massacrés par les Turcs musulmans. Alors, il se demande si, une fois
de plus, l’Islam n’a pas fait un sort aux chrétiens. Lui qui veut
devenir un bon petit Français croit que c’est du côté des
nationalistes qu’il doit être.

Quel militant est-il? Personne, au cours de mon enquête, ne m’a dit
du bien de lui. Tous en gardent un mauvais souvenir, celui d’un
garçon arrogant, hautain, solitaire. Dans l’entretien qu’il m’a
accordé, lui insiste sur son côté mouton noir – il était surnommé
“l’Arménien” – victime d’ostracisme, voire de racisme.

Quelles influences garde-t-il de cette époque? Comme beaucoup, il
conserve une sorte d’élitisme, cette assez haute idée de soi partagée
par nombre des anciens d’Occident, qui se prenaient pour une nouvelle
aristocratie. Il n’y a donc rien d’étonnant à retrouver beaucoup
d’entre eux chez les libéraux. Il lui reste aussi un côté “dur”: à
Antony, il n’a jamais célébré lui-même le 19 mars 1962 et refuse
encore les subventions au Secours populaire…

YBP CHANGES EXTERNAL DESIGN OF ITS PRODUCTION TO MAKE IT
DISTINGUISHABLE FROM THAT OF COMPETITORS

YEREVAN, MAY 23, NOYAN TAPAN. The Yerevan Brandy Plant (YBP) has
changed the external design of its whole production. This was
announced at a press conference held on the occasion of the 30th
anniversary of the French company Pernod Ricard – the owner of the
plant. According to YBP Chairman Erve Karoff, the changes are aimed at
making brandies “Ararat” distinguishable from the production of
numerous competitors. Besides using a new external design, labels and
bottles bearing the engraving “Ararat”, YBP has divided its production
into new groups: regular – 3-5 years, premium – 6-10 years and
superpremium – 15-20 years. According to YBP Head, the company spent
over 1.5 mln dollars for changing its production’s external design,
and anticipates a 8-9% increase in sales in 2005 alone. Asked by NT
correspondent how much the consumer will pay for the new design, Erve
Karoff said that prior to this, the prices of all the production of
“Ararat” had been increased, and only Superpremium brandies of the new
design will be sold at higher prices. YBP Chairman noted that more
than 4 mln litres of brandy is produced annually by the plant. Over
90% of the production is exported, which makes more than half of the
brandy exports from Armenia. The company purchases both bottles and
raw materials exclusively in Armenia. It is cooperating with about 4
thousand vine-growers. In 2004, over 20 thousand tons of grapes was
purchased, while this year it is planned to purchase about 25 tons,
for which 6-8 mln USD will be spent. The French company Pernod Ricard,
in which the Yerevan Brandy Plant was included in 1998, was founded in
1975 through a merger of two small family companies Pernod and
Ricard. At present, Pernod Ricard is the third largest producer of
alhoholic drinks in the world.

RIA Novosti, Russia
May 20 2005

“COLOR” REVOLUTIONS IN GEORGIA AND UKRAINE DO NOT INFLUENCE RUSSIA’S
RELATIONS WITH EU
16:01

MOSCOW, May 20 (RIA Novosti) – The change in the governing elites in
Georgia and Ukraine has not spoiled Russia’s relations with the
European Union, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Chizhov
said.

“We do not see any problem in the fact that some CIS countries
announced their intention to enter the European Union in the future,”
he said, answering the question of how real the perspective for
Russia is to find itself in isolation if the integration processes
within the EU will outstrip the process of concluding agreements
between the Russian Federation and united Europe.

Chizhov believes that in this process Russia sees “a certain
potential for deepening its cooperation both with the EU and with the
CIS republics.”

“Another thing is important: the integration processes in the West
and the East of Europe, oriented on the EU and developing in the
territory of the CIS countries, including the EurAsEC (Russia,
Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan), the Common European
Space (Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Ukraine) and the Russian-Belarus
Inter-State Union must not compete with each other but must
supplement each other. This idea was reflected in one of the road
maps, adopted at the summit,” he said in an interview with
Rossiiskaya Gazeta.

“Our political dialogue with the European Union concerning the
situation in those countries which are our common neighbors gives a
possibility for an open exchange of opinions, ” Chizhov continued.

“Another topic is the so-called ‘frozen conflicts’ in the territory
of the CIS countries – the Transdniestrian, Karabakh,
Georgian-Abkhazian, and Georgian-Ossetian conflicts. Russia and the
European Union understand the necessity of respecting the existing
negotiation formats,” he said. (Moldova, however, proposes to expand
the existing five-sided format of the negotiations on Transdniestria
– both sides of the conflict plus Russia, Ukraine and OSCE – by
including in it the USA, Romania and the EU.)

MP appeals to Bush

Baku, May 17, AssA-Irada

MP from pro-government Ana Vatan (Homeland) party Zahid Oruj has
appealed to US President George Bush over the US position on the
Garabagh conflict and policies on democratic processes in the region.

“The US-Azeri relations have been developing on a mutually-beneficial
basis since 1993. But the fact that Section 907 has been kept in
force for a long time has hampered a more rapid development of ties”,
the document says.

Section 907 to the Freedom Support Act, passed by the US Congress, bans
direct assistance of the United States to the Azerbaijani government.

The appeal further says that the Azerbaijani public has lately grown
concerned over the US approach to the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict
over Upper Garabagh and democracy.

“Conflicts have turned into a tool of ruling the region. The
strengthening of the United States’ position in the South Caucasus
region is aside from ensuring the territorial integrity of states
and truly assisting in implementing the fundamental rights of nations.”

The appeal further said that if the US wants to set an example for
the entire Islamic world, it should not compromise the integrity of
Azeri land for its goals and assist the entire society for the sake
of freedom and independence. “The future of democracy will depend on
whether justice will prevail”, it said.

MP Oruj further called on other parliament members to join the appeal.*

Police captain pleads not guilty in planes bombing case

Itar-Tass
17.05.2005, 14.42

DOMODEDOVO, May 17 (Itar-Tass) – A police captain figuring in the
case over the bombings of two airliners last August, pleaded not
guilty at the trail.

“I have not committed this crime; I’m innocent,” Mikhail Artamonov
said.

The defendant filed a petition to the court to request the Prosecutor
General’s Office to attach to his case the copies of the air tickets
used by the suicide bombers to fly from Makhachkala to Domodedovo and
the evidence proving their departure from Moscow’s Domodedovo airport.

Artamonov also asked to attach to the case the footage which he claims
shows the suicide bombers, and the protocol of the questioning of
the police officers who had searched the terrorists before they flew
from Makhachkala.

He said he had not seen this evidence, but knows about its existence
from persecutors. He said he had no idea what persons were meant
because no identification procedures had been carried out.

Artamonov said he was unaware of any regulations under which he should
have taken the woman to the police station.

The police captain is accused of negligence that facilitated terrorist
acts on Tu-154 and Tu-134 airliners in August 2004.

According to investigators, female suicide bombers from Chechnya,
Aminat Nagayeva and Satsita Dzhebirkhanova, arrived at Moscow’s
airport Domodedovo on a flight from Dagestan’s capital Makhachkala.

The airport’s police took away their passports and turned over to
Artamonov the baggage of the two women for a check for explosives.

However, Artamonov did not inspect their belongings and let Nagayeva
and Dzhebirkhanova go.

They bought tickets for other flights with the help of Armen
Arutyunyan, a ticket scalper, who charged each woman 5,000 roubles
for procuring tickets rapidly.

Dzhebirkhanova happened to get a seat aboard the Tupolev-154 jet
of the Sibir Airlines bound for the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
Arutyunyan arranged her flight via Nikolai Korenkov, the airline’s
check-in manager whom he paid a thousand rubles for admitting the
terrorist aboard.

Just two minutes before completion of the check-in, Arutyunyan handed
over to Dzhebirkhanova her air ticket with Korenkov’s decision on it
clearing her for the flight to Sochi.

The Tu-154 and Tu-134 planes exploded in the air at a small interval on
August 24, 2004, near Rostov-on-Don and Tula. There were no survivors
among the 89 people on board.

On April 15, the Domodedovo court sentenced Korenkov and Arutyunyan to
18 months in prison, finding them guilty of bribery for personal gains.

A1plus

| 14:11:24 | 16-05-2005 | Social |

BRIEFING ABOUT NOTHING

How many buses does the capital need to expel the microbuses from
exploitation? Asked this question Yerevan municipality Transportation
department head Tigran Ghazaryan answered, “Import buses as we do,
microbuses will work all the same, the only difference is that not
all of them will work”.

Today during the following briefing in the municipality the head of the
department informed that at present there are 46 bus, 125 microbuses
and 7 trolley-bus routes in the capital. 6 bus and 6 microbuses new
routes will be opened. Ghazaryan denied the news that the transport
fees will become more expensive. «There will be no such a thing»
he claimed.

As for the microbuses working for 200 drams at late hours, according
to the head of the department, they act against the law. However,
Mr. Ghazaryan did not even give a hint about the action of the
municipality to cease their activity. It is worth mentioning
that Mr. Ghazaryan skillfully avoids every question concerning the
transportation problems of the capital proving every time that he is
simply “fooling people”.

–Boundary_(ID_BYkotc7zD2vGcXygc7UvhQ)–

“ORRAN” TO ORGANIZE FESTIVITIES ON INTERNATIONAL DAY OF CHILDREN’S
PROTECTION AT “KASKAD” COMPLEX

YEREVAN, MAY 13, NOYAN TAPAN. On June 1, the International Day of
Children’s Protection, a festive celebration will be organized at the
Yerevan “Cascade” complex on the initiative of “Armenia’s Youth for
Achievements” and “Orran” (Cradle) charity organizations. As Susanna
Manukian, the Press Secretary of “Orran” informed the Noyan Tapan
correspondent, the event will be headed under the titles “Children for
Children,” “Peace to World” and “Stars to Children.” It was mentioned
that an exhibition-sale of hand-workings of pupils of the NGO
“Armenia’s Youth for Achievement” will be organized the same day.
Profit to come out of it will be given to children from socially
unprovided families. Besides, a concert with the participation of
stars of the Armenian pop music will take place, artists of the
Yerevan State Circus will give a performance. The festivities will end
with an illumination.

IRNA, Iran
May 15, 2005 Sunday 9:33 PM EST

Aram I visits city of Arak

Tehran

Arak, Markazi prov, May 15, IRNA The spiritual Leader of the World
Armenians Archbishop Jasliq Aram I Keshishian visited the city of
Arak in central Iran on Sunday.

Speaking to IRNA, Keshishian said that religious minorities prepare
the ground for peaceful coexistence among followers of divine
religions and dialogue among civilizations.

Newsday (New York)
May 15, 2005 Sunday
ALL EDITIONS

ANALYSIS;
Geo-political tide turns in old Soviet republics

BY SEBASTIAN SMITH. SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT; Lena Vozdvizhenskaya in
Moscow contributed to this story.

MOSCOW – When President George W. Bush triumphantly declared Tuesday
that “freedom will be the future of every nation and every people on
Earth,” the crowd of 120,000 in Tbilisi, capital of ex-Soviet
Georgia, cheered him in rock concert fashion.

So, too, would have Mikhail Obozov – had he been able to hear the
speech. Obozov, 21, is an engineering student in the Russian city of
St. Petersburg, 1,400 miles north of Tbilisi. He is founder of a
fledgling youth movement dedicated to opposing Russian President
Vladimir Putin.

But there was no point in his switching on the television. Russian
broadcasters are mostly under state control and did not provide live
coverage of Bush’s speech describing Georgia and its 2003 “rose
revolution” as a “beacon of liberty.”

“Across the Caucasus, in Central Asia and the broader Middle East, we
see the same desire for liberty burning in the hearts of young
people,” Bush said. “They are demanding their freedom, and they will
have it.” Russia’s establishment found the speech incendiary. Obozov,
who read it on the Internet, was delighted.

“Maybe our turn will come too,” he said. As a leader of the group
“Walking Without Putin,” he is on the front line of a democracy
movement taking on entrenched governments throughout the vast former
Soviet Union – a movement that could maintain it’s a part of what
Bush calls “the global struggle for freedom.”

There have been some spectacular successes.

Georgia’s revolution ousted Eduard Shevardnadze, bringing in
charismatic and pro-Western Mikhail Saakashvili, who at 37 is one of
Europe’s youngest presidents.

In Ukraine’s “orange revolution” in December, youthful crowds forced
a re-run of rigged presidential elections, bringing victory to Viktor
Yushchenko, also a Westward-looking politician. This spring in
Kyrgyzstan, on the border of Russia and China, another dubious vote
count led to the overthrow of the government in what was dubbed the
“tulip” or “yellow” revolution.

The burning question is where next?

In Uzbekistan, Islamic militants briefly took control of a provincial
capital last week, emptying the jail and organizing a rally demanding
the ouster of President Islam Karimov. His forces fired at the
crowds, reportedly killing dozens.

Rainbow revolution?

One theory making the rounds of Tbilisi cafés is that the revolutions
follow the spectrum of the rainbow. It’s a wacky idea, but reflects a
widespread sense that the revolts are not haphazard. To date, the
concept even works: Red, orange and yellow revolutions have occurred;
green would be next – perhaps for Uzbekistan.

One method of predicting revolutions – for those who believe the
United States is pulling the strings – is simply to learn the career
plans of Richard Miles, U.S. ambassador to Georgia. When he was the
U.S. representative in Serbia, Miles was widely credited with helping
set up the revolution that deposed Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. Many
in Tbilisi believe he was also midwife to the Georgian revolt of
2003. False rumors last year that he would be posted to the
neighboring ex-Soviet state of Armenia caused a flurry of excitement
– and panic.

A sounder guide would be to examine the regional election calendar.
Each revolution so far began with claims of ballot stuffing. So if
votes were counted fairly, the thinking runs, most of the region’s
corrupt and unpopular governments would have to go. If the
governments cheated, the masses would take to the streets and force
them out.

By this yardstick, the former Soviet Union will soon be a busy place.
Governments in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia,
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have reputations for fiddling with
elections – and all are to hold presidential or parliamentary
elections by 2008. There was not, however, a hint of revolution when
Belarus held what Western observers said were flawed parliamentary
elections last year.

There is no doubt that a shift is under way across what used to be
the heartland of the Soviet empire. But there are big differences in
opinion over what it means.

What Bush is exporting

Bush talks of liberty. Many Russians think the United States wants to
gain control of major new energy sources and, in the aftermath of the
9/11 attacks, tighten its grip on the greater Middle East, including
Afghanistan.

Moscow appears almost mesmerized by what it sees as the United
States’ almost unstoppable momentum. A “revolution export service,”
is what the Russian daily Vremya Novostei called Bush last week. What
is sure is that American soft power – aid, trade and diplomatic
maneuvering – can prove far more effective in the battle for regional
influence than what often is perceived as Russian bullying.

In an unusually candid interview with the Russian daily Moskovsky
Komsomolets, Russian ambassador to Kyrgyzstan Yevgeny Shmagin said he
could not compete. In its 15 years of independence, Kyrgyzstan has
accomplished little, he said. “The Americans, who discovered
Kyrgyzstan after September 11, have been pumping in $50 million
annually.”

Sergei Markov, a political analyst with links to the Kremlin,
conceded Russia has no strategy. “Following the chaos of the 1990s,
most of Moscow is afraid of change, so they work instead to maintain
the status quo.”

He discounted the idea that Bush’s real interest is democracy,
pointing out that in Georgia there was far more opposition activity
under Shevardnadze than Saakashvili, who has used his initial
popularity to shut out most opponents.

“Moscow looks on these revolutions as geopolitical, not democratic,”
Markov said, naming Belarus, then Armenia, as next likely for
revolution, “because they are allies of Russia.”

Skepticism about U.S. rhetoric on democracy may have some grounds.
For example, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, like
Uzbekistan, all have autocratic, or dictatorial leaders. But
Washington, which needs the countries’ oil and natural gas, as well
as the air corridor to Afghanistan, is also keen to see them remain
stable.

Uzbekistan’s Karimov government, which stands accused of allowing
horrific torture of its people, agreed in the wake of the Sept. 11
attacks to host a major U.S. airbase.

Few independent observers believe the revolutions are wholly
stage-managed. Fifteen years after the Soviet collapse, popular
frustration with corruption, rigged elections and a stifled media is
real enough. And the revolution phenomenon is not necessarily going
to follow set patterns. Although the Georgian and Ukrainian revolts
almost mirrored each other, the Kyrgyz revolution took many by
surprise and turned out to be part uprising, part palace coup.

One rarely mentioned explanation for the relative ease of the
revolutions in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan is that the overthrown
governments refused to use force against mass demonstrations. Other,
harder-minded leaders will not go so quietly.

The White House has branded President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus
as the last dictator of Europe, but he shows no sign of bending. “All
these colored revolutions are pure and simple banditry,” he says.

When a street protest challenged Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
in 2003, he ordered a brutal police crackdown and the detention of
hundreds of people, including all opposition leaders. It is equally
possible that opposition movements will radicalize. Central Asian
governments such as Uzbekistan fear Islamic parties so much they
often lock up people simply for their beliefs. The ultimate question
mark hangs over Russia, one of the world’s chief exporters of oil,
gas and other raw materials and possessor of a huge nuclear arsenal.

Putin not all-powerful

Putin, the KGB veteran who was elected president in 2000, is usually
portrayed as invincible.

True to his vision of “managed democracy,” he has brought the media
and the country’s clique of super-wealthy business tycoons under
Kremlin control. He has scrapped elections for regional governors and
is instituting rules that will make parliament far less diverse.

But clear limits to Putin’s power have appeared.

The rose and orange revolutions were Russian foreign-policy
disasters. A brutal, five-year war in Chechnya drags on, bringing
more, not less of the terrorism it was supposedly meant to stop. If
the price of oil drops from its current heights, the economy will be
in trouble.

And earlier this year when the Kremlin tried to reform the social
benefits system, demonstrations led by pensioners swept the country,
shaking Putin and forcing the authorities into a retreat. Inevitably,
there were murmurs about a “gray revolution.”

Putin must step down after his second term ends in 2008, but many
political observers in Russia believe he will handpick a successor or
change the constitution to stay in power.

Dissident Obozov and his outfit, Walking without Putin – named in
mockery of a pro-Putin youth organization called Walking Together –
think that can be prevented. With only about 120 members in St.
Petersburg and Moscow, the movement hardly looks threatening. “So far
we have no office or computer. We meet in cafés and in the street. I
suppose we could use some support,” Obozov said.

But the authorities are taking no chances. As soon as Walking without
Putin was launched, another pro-Kremlin youth group called Ours
appeared, describing all Putin opponents as “fascists.”

Obozov is undaunted. His activists are young, Internet savvy and
bravely risk police harassment.

He thinks the movement, which was founded in January, could become a
Russian version of the Ukrainian organization Pora, (“It’s time”),
which helped lead Ukraine’s orange revolution.

Already it is part of a strange, but growing coalition of liberals,
communists and nationalists “all united against the current
authorities,” Obozov said. “We would like a change to happen quickly,
but we are ready to gather our forces for 2008.”

He does not yet have a color in mind for the revolution. He laughed:
“We’re going to need professionals to decide that.”

Lena Vozdvizhenskaya in Moscow contributed to this story.

Ripe for revolt?

Repressed civil liberties and stagnant economies are often the
breeding grounds of revolt. That combination is evident in several of
the former Soviet republics. The not-for-profit Freedom House
evaluates the level of liberty enjoyed by each nation, from most
unfree to most free. Rankings are from the report “Freedom in the
World 2005,” reflecting status as of the end of 2004.

MOST FREE

BELARUS

Population: 10.3 million

Economy: Has maintained closer ties with Russia than any other former
Soviet republic. Tight controls over currency and private enterprise.

Government: Republic in name,functioning as a dictatorship

TURKMENISTAN

Population: 4.9 million

Economy: Hydrocarbon and natural gas reserves could boost
underdeveloped economy.

Government: Republic in name; authoritarian presidential rule

UZBEKISTAN

Population: 26.4 million

Economy: Largely closed system. Recent measures have increased
government’s control over business.

Government: Republic in name, authoritarian presidential rule; strong
Islamic militant presence

NOT FREE

ARMENIA

Population: 3.0 million

Economy: Development was hampered by conflict with neighboring
Azerbaijan from 1988 to 1994.

Government: Republic

AZERBAIJAN

Population: 7.9 million

Economy: Oil production has increased each year since 1997. Conflict
with Armenia has delayed progress.

Government: Republic

KAZAKHSTAN

Population: 15.1 million

Economy: Booming energy sector has led to robust recent development.
Potential exists for explosive growth.

Government: Republic, with near complete presidential power

KYRGYZSTAN

Population: 5.1 million

Economy: Largely agricultural Kyrgyzstan has been progressive in
carrying out market reforms and was the first former Soviet republic
admitted into the WTO.

Government: Anti-government rebellions led to collapse of former
President Askar Akayev’s government. Re-establishing order is first
test for provisional government.

RUSSIA

Population: 143.8 million

Economy: A 1998 financial crisis resulted in foreign debt exceeding
90 percent of GDP. Strong oil exports since have helped the recovery.
Questions remain over government’s eagerness to reassert control over
some industries.

Government: Federation, recent years have seen recentralization of
presidential power

TAJIKISTAN

Population: 7.0 million

Economy: Poorest nation in central Asia. Economic development was
slowed by five-year civil war that ended in 1997.

Government: Republic

PARTLY FREE

GEORGIA

Population: 4.7 million

Economy: Despite problems, some progress on market reforms has been
made recently. Oil pipelines hold key to any potential long-term
growth.

Government: Republic

MOLDOVA

Population: 4.4 million

Economy: Poorest nation in Europe; economy depends largely on
agriculture.

Government: Republic, first former Soviet state to elect a Communist

president (2001)

UKRAINE

Population: 47.7 million

Economy: Initial attempts at reforms met with government resistance,
but have gained momentum with strong demand, low inflation and
consumer confidence.

Government: Republic; recent election controversy ended with
pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko in power.

FREE

LATVIA

Population: 2.3 million

Economy: Vibrant financial services center; state still holds large
stakes in several industries. Latvia is a member of the WTO and the
EU.

Government: Parliamentary democracy, member of NATO

LITHUANIA

Population: 3.6 million

Economy: Has rebounded from Russian financial crisis of 1998 to
become one of the most robust economies among former Soviet states.
Member of EU and WTO.

Government: Parliamentary democracy, member of NATO

MOST FREE

ESTONIA

Population: 1.3 million

Economy: Member of WTO and European Union. Has transitioned
effectively to market economy.

Government: Parliamentary republic, member of NATO

SOURCES: CIA WORLD FACTBOOK, FREEDOM HOUSE

GRAPHIC: 1) AFP/Getty Images Photo-“Walking Without Putin” youth
members shout anti-Putin slogans during a rally for Mikhail
Khodorkovsky, the jailed founder of Russian oil giant Yukos, in
Moscow last month. 2) AP Photo – Georgian President Mikhail
Saakashvili, right, introduces President George W. Bush to the crowd
of supporters in Freedom Square in Tbilisi, Georgia. 2) AFP / Getty
Images Photo – Belarus special forces, below, clash with members of
the Yabloko political movement during rally in Minsk last month. 4)
AFP / Getty Images Photo – Viktor Yushchenko. Newsday Chart/Map by
Linda McKenney – Ripe for revolt? (see end of text). Map-Freedom
House Analysis: Map depicting locations in Soviet republics that are:
1) Most unfree. 2) Not free. 3) Partly free. 4) Free. 6) Most Free
(map not in text database)