IFC, Armeconombank sign agreement for business development

ArmenPress
July 29 2004

IFC, ARMECONOMBANK SIGN AGREEMENT FOR BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

YEREVAN, JULY 29, ARMENPRESS: One of the leading Armenian
commercial banks, Armeconombank and the International Finance
Corporation (IFC) signed a two million credit agreement on Wednesday
to develop small and medium-size business and housing mortgage
credits.
Armeconombank managing director Ashot Osipyan said the credit will
be provided in two tranches – each with a five year of repayment
period. Central Bank chairman Tigran Sarkisian said cooperation with
foreign lending organizations gives the bank a good opportunity to
offer new services to its customers, particularly, concerning housing
mortgage credits. Osipyan said interest rates on housing mortgage
credits went down from 24-25 percent, when the bank started giving
such credits, to 16 percent now. He said the new loan will help to
take the rates down to 14 percent and extend the repayment period
from 4 to 5 years.
The great portion of the new loan–$1.5 million- will go for
business development and the rest will be added to housing mortgage
funds.
The director of IFC Central and Eastern Europe Department, Edward
Nassim, said this is the first time when the IFC provides a credit to
a commercial bank in Armenia. This proves that the situation in the
banking sector is improving, he added
Until now the IFC has invested in Armenia $7 million, of which $5
million in Marriott Armenia Hotel and $2 million to ACBA bank for
implementation of a leasing credit program.

Armenian media representatives deny Azeri newspaper report

ArmenPress
July 27 2004

ARMENIAN MEDIA REPRESENTATIVES DENY AZERI NEWSPAPER REPORT

Laura Baghdasarian, the head of Region organization of
investigative journalists, has denied today a report by a Baku-based
Russian language daily Zerkalo which claimed that twenty-three
Armenian NGOs have recognized the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan
and Georgia and have therefore been elected members of the
Confederation of Nongovernmental Organizations of the Caucasus
(CNGOC). The Azeri daily quoted the chairman of the board of the
CNGOC, Sahriyar Rasulov, as saying that the confederation was set up
two years ago and comprises 272 NGOs, of which 203 are Azerbaijani,
23 Armenian and the rest Georgian.
Rasulov added that the confederation could be joined by
organizations which recognize and respect the territorial integrity
of regional states on the basis of international legal norms. Of many
Armenian NGOs which applied for membership of the organization, he
said 23 accepted these conditions and were therefore admitted to the
CNGOC, but he did not reveal the names of Armenian non-governmental
organizations.
According to Laura Baghdasarian, some Armenian organizations do
cooperate with counterparts from Azerbaijan, including the Region
organization. She said the information by Zerkalo was not confirmed
by Ahvlat Amashov, the head of the union of Azeri investigative
journalists, who said he knew nothing about CNGOC. The existence of
such an organization was denied also by the Caucasian Media institute
in Yerevan.

Erdogan annuncia l’ordine di 36 aerei per ottenere appoggio francese

Il Sole 24 Ore, Italia
July 22, 2004

Erdogan annuncia l’ordine di 36 aerei per ottenere l’appoggio
francese alla Ue;
Ankara gioca la carta Airbus

Vittorio Da Rold

La Turchia cerca un <si’> per l’avvio dei negoziati

DAL NOSTRO INVIATO

PARIGI *c Sul piatto delle difficili trattative per sedurre la
Francia e aprire la porta ai negoziati per l’adesione della Turchia
all’Unione europea il premier turco, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, ha fatto
cadere un ordine di acquisto di 36 Airbus pari a 2 miliardi di euro.

Al termine della missione diplomatica di tre giorni del premier turco
in terra di Francia la Turkish Airlines ha reso noto, con raro
tempismo, che acquistera’ 36 Airbus del consorzio europeo
ispano-franco-tedesco e 15 della rivale americana Boeing per non
irritare troppo gli Stati Uniti, l’altro grande alleato di Ankara.

Se Noel Forgeard, chief executive di Airbus, getta acqua sul fuoco
delle polemiche e parla solo di <semplici rapporti commerciali>,
Thomas Pickering, vice presidente per le relazioni internazionali di
Boeing, e’ semplicemente furibondo e parla apertamente di <pressioni
politiche> e di un uso spregiudicato dell'<allargamento europeo da
parte di Parigi come argomento di vendita degli aerei Airbus>.

Nei numeri della maxi-commessa turca (36 Airbus al consorzio europeo
e 15 Boeing per gli Stati Uniti) sono gia’ delineate, in percentuale,
le linee guida della politica estera della Turchia e l’enorme
importanza che il premier Erdogan, un islamico moderato che guida un
governo monocolore, pone nella possibilita’ di avere il via libera il
17 dicembre a Bruxelles, sotto la presidenza olandese, l’avvio dei
negoziati per l’ingresso nell’Unione europea.

Nella missione diplomatica effettuata a Parigi il premier turco ha
incassato all’Eliseo il personale sostegno del presidente della
Repubblica, Jacques Chirac, il beneplacito del primo ministro
Jean-Pierre Raffarin, il timido assenso dei socialisti di Frantois
Hollande (che pongono pero’ la condizione del riconoscimento del
genocidio degli armeni), e la netta opposizione dell’Ump e dell’Udf,
i due partiti del Centro-destra.

Frantois Bayrou, leader dell’Udf, il partito centrista alleato della
maggioranza a Parigi e della Margherita di Francesco Rutelli al
Parlamento di Strasburgo, ha riaffermato la sua contrarieta’
all’ingresso della Turchia senza mezzi termini: <Se l’Europa deve
continuare a estendersi senza limiti e inglobare Paesi che
appartengono ad altri continenti e altre culture allora ci sara’
un’Unione sembra piu’ debole>, ha affermato in un’intervista a Rtl.

Anche Alain Juppe’, ex presidente dell’Ump, il partito di maggioranza
relativa che sostiene il capo dello Stato Jacques Chirac, ha preso
posizione contro l’ingresso di Ankara. Ma e’ soprattutto l’opinione
pubblica a essere fortemente ostile nella sua maggioranza (60% degli
intervistati) all’ipotesi di iniziare i negoziati per l’adesione:

secondo gli ultimi sondaggi la Francia e’ il Paese europeo piu’
ostile all’allargamento dell’Unione alla Turchia.

La maggioranza dei francesi teme un’ondata di immigrazione da un
Paese musulmano che con i suoi 72 milioni di abitanti diventerebbe il
secondo, nella speciale graduatoria per popolazione, dell’Unione
europea dopo la Germania.

Temi molto delicati che si intrecciano con la decisione del
presidente Jacques Chirac di indire nella seconda parte del 2005 un
referendum sulla Costituzione europea dagli esiti molto incerti.

Secondo gli analisti politici sara’ molto difficile che Parigi possa
<aprire> ad Ankara prima della consultazione popolare sulla Carta
europea prevista nella seconda parte del 2005 vista la contrarieta’
della maggioranza della popolazione e l’ostilita’ della forte
comunita’ armena (450mila persone). E allora al premier turco
Erdogan, dopo aver precisato con uno scatto d’orgoglio che la
questione armena non e’ contemplata nei criteri imposti dalla Ue per
l’accesso ai negoziati, non resta che far vedere la nuova faccia del
Paese della Mezzaluna in materia di rispetto dei diritti umani e
puntare sui progressi (riduzione dell’inflazione e ripresa della
crescita) in campo economico. Magari strizzando l’occhio al mondo
degli affari transalpino: un mercato composto da 72 milioni di
consumatori non puo’ essere lasciato a lungo fuori dalla porta.

VITTORIO DA ROLD

Law Restrict Sanitary Inspections’ Struggle for Sanitary Safety

ARMENIA’s LAW RESTRICT SANITARY INSPECTIONS’ STRUGGLE FOR SANITARY
SAFETY

YEREVAN, JULY 21. ARMINFO. The State Epidemiological and Hygienic
Inspection, RA Ministry of Health, has no right to conduct inspections
at enterprises or trading institutions without notifying them, Head of
the Inspection Artavazd Vanyan told ARMINFO.

He said that the law allows inspectors to conduct sanitary inspections
only once a year, notifying the enterprises three days in
advance. “Enterprises have time to get ready for inspections, and they
do not produce any results,” Vanyan said. Enterprises often close
their doors before inspectors, and small ones suspend their
activities. According to Vanyan, if inspectors find any violations of
sanitary conditions of producing or keeping foodstuff, they can
decided to impose a 1,000 AMD fine on the enterprise or order it to be
closed. However, in a number of cases punishment does not produce any
effect, and the law breaker pay little fines and continue their
work. To control the situation the State Inspection elaborated new
sanitary norms, which are to be included in the draft law on sanitary
safety to be submitted to the Government late this year or early next
year. Also, the Inspection submitted proposals for amendments to the
Code of Administrative Offences, which stipulate fines of 50-100
thousand AMD for violating sanitary standards. High fines and legal
specification of the Inspection’s activities will enhance the
efficiency of sanitary control at all institutions, Vanyan said.

Voice of Russia starts broadcasting on FM in Georgia and Armenia

Voice of Russia starts broadcasting on FM in Georgia and Armenia

RIA news agency
20 Jul 04

MOSCOW

The Russian State Radio Company, Voice of Russia, has started
broadcasting internally in Georgia and Armenia. In Tbilisi and
Yerevan, Voice of Russia programmes are broadcast on FM for six hours
every day, the broadcaster told RIA-Novosti.

In Yerevan programmes from the Commonwealth channel are available
between 0800 and 1000 and between 2000 and 2200. From 1145 until 1900
the news programme Voice of Russia can be heard for the last fifteen
minutes of every hour. The programmes are rebroadcast on 103 FM.

The programmes of Russian International Radio and the Commonwealth
channel are broadcast in the Georgian capital from 1000 to 1300 and
1900 to 2200 on 99.8 FM.

“Now Voice of Russia is exploring the possibility of partnership in
Azerbaijan,” the company said.

Since April, Voice of Russia programmes have been broadcast internally
in Lithuania and in all the major towns in Crimea.

ArmRosgazprom to increase gas supplies to Armenia 16.6% in 2004

Prime-Tass English-language Business Newswire
July 20, 2004

ArmRosgazprom to increase gas supplies to Armenia 16.6% in 2004

YEREVAN, July 20 (Prime-Tass) — Russian-Armenian joint venture
ArmRosgazprom plans to supply 1.4 billion cubic meters of natural gas
to Armenia in 2004, up from 1.2 billion cubic meters in 2003, but
down from the initially planned 1.6 billion cubic meters, the
company’s press service reported Tuesday.

This change is due to relatively low natural gas consumption in the
Armenian energy sector.

In January-April Russian natural gas monopoly Gazprom supplied 513.9
million cubic meters of natural gas to Armenia.

In 2004 ArmRosgazprom expects to invest 8.273 billion Armenian drams,
including 6.126 billion drams to expand the gas distribution network.

In 2004-2007 ArmRosgazprom plans to invest about 50 billion Armenian
drams.

ArmRosgazprom, the sole natural gas supplier to Armenia, was set up
in 1997 by Gazprom with a 45% stake, Russia-based international gas
trader Itera with 10% and Armenia’s Energy Ministry with 45%. (522.37
Armenian drams – U.S. USD 1) End

Overseas workers nab much of the summer employment

Tourism chief considering in-state jobs strategy
Overseas workers nab much of the summer employment

By SCOTT WILLIAMS
[email protected]
Posted: July 17, 2004

Wisconsin’s top tourism official is considering stepped-up efforts to
promote summer job opportunities in the tourism industry as many
attractions recruit workers from overseas despite unemployment here.

Tourism Secretary Jim Holperin said he has no indication that theme
parks and other popular destinations are intentionally passing over
Wisconsin workers. But he said the state lacks a comprehensive
strategy for matching Wisconsin’s jobless to tourism jobs, which often
go to workers from Poland, Finland or other foreign countries.

A state job center in Wisconsin Dells, for example, has stopped
sending representatives to job fairs in Milwaukee, relying instead on
the Internet to reach job seekers in the state’s largest metropolitan
area.

“There might be a programmatic gap,” Holperin said, meaning not
everyone who needs a job is being reached by existing programs.

Destinations in the Dells, Door County and other popular tourist spots
began wide-scale recruiting of foreign workers, typically college
students, when low unemployment in the late 1990s created a labor
shortage. Although the economy has since gone flat and Wisconsin
joblessness is up, many attractions continue hiring from out of the
country for their summer seasonal help, citing other forces in the
marketplace.

Some say residents who live in Milwaukee and those who live in other
areas of high unemployment cannot be coaxed into relocating for the
summer, and that young people in Wisconsin generally must return to
school before the tourist season ends.

At Landmark Resort in Door County, Personnel Director Joanne Stanzel
has hired several college-aged students from Armenia and Romania,
primarily for housekeeping jobs.

Stanzel said some Wisconsin residents seem uninterested in the
drudgery of scrubbing bathrooms and arranging bedsheets.

“Even in desperate times they don’t want to do housekeeping,” she
said.

“It’s sad to say.”

One housekeeper, Lilit Vasilyan of Romania, said she worked as a
waitress in her home country but wanted to visit the United States
this summer to improve her English.

Vasilyan, 20, said she is enjoying her job at Landmark and is most
impressed by Door County’s natural scenery.

“I imagined how it would be,” she said. “It’s beautiful.”

Dells uses foreign labor In the tourism mecca of Wisconsin Dells, just
about every tourist-related business seems to employ at least one
foreign employee, said Tom Diehl, president of Tommy Bartlett Inc.

Bartlett hired about 70 young people from Finland this summer to work
on the company’s famous water shows and other attractions.

With so many businesses experiencing peak demand during the summer
months, Diehl said, nobody in or around the Dells should complain
about not being able to find work.

“Anybody who says they can’t find a job here isn’t looking very hard,”
he said.

The state job center manager at the Wisconsin Dells said the summer
tourist season in the Dells creates as many as 8,500 jobs.

Many destinations have built relationships with international exchange
organizations or other groups that can arrange for large numbers of
young people to clear immigration channels and come to the U.S. to
work.

Tim Gantz, president of Noah’s Ark Family Park in the Dells, said he
has hired 140 students this summer from Hungary, Poland, Finland and
elsewhere to fill a variety of jobs in his water theme park. That
number actually is down from 200 not long ago, Gantz said, because the
rise in unemployment has made hiring locally easier. Park employment
is about 550 during the summer.

“We have a lot of people who want to work for us. We can probably pick
the cream of the crop,” Gantz said. “I can’t say we turn any American
away – you know, good ones.”

Lifeguards from afar Noah’s Ark lifeguard Tito Suero of the Dominican
Republic is spending his third summer in the Dells, earning about
$1,000 a month compared with the $50 a month he would earn doing
similar work in his homeland.

“I feel pretty lucky,” the 23-year-old medical student said.

Like other tourist destinations, Noah’s Ark says it pays international
employees the same salaries as American workers. Many businesses, such
as Noah’s Ark, also have built dormitories to provide housing for
seasonal employees.

The practice of recruiting from overseas has drawn criticism from
organized labor and elsewhere.

In the late ’90s, unemployment in Wisconsin was below 3%, and
employers in tourism and other industries complained about being
unable to find enough workers. Today, unemployment is 5%, which means
about 150,000 people are out of work, according to federal
figures. Some 70,000 more Wisconsin residents are out of work than
there were five years ago.

Enough in-state recruiting? Jim Cavanaugh, president of the
Madison-based South Central Federation of Labor, questioned whether
the tourism industry has recruited heavily enough for Wisconsin
workers, including adults.

Plenty of laid-off factory workers and other adults would gladly
accept a tourist job for the summer just to get a regular paycheck,
Cavanaugh said.

“They would be as interested in those jobs as (in) any other jobs,” he
said.

Tourist destinations say they recruit heavily from high schools and
colleges throughout Wisconsin, as well as participate in job fairs and
take other steps to find local seasonal workers.

Holperin, the state tourism chief, said the idea of launching an
intensified effort to promote those job openings statewide is still
just a concept in early stages of discussion.

Uncertain on the extent to which foreign employees are filling the
industry’s needs, Holperin said he only knows there have been no
recent complaints about worker shortages. He suspects that businesses
fearful of a tight labor market returning are hesitant to cut off
sources of international manpower.

“They are going to keep those connections,” he said. “They are
reluctant to give those up.”

To check job listings or other resources of the state Department of
Workforce Development, go to

www.dwd.state.wi.us.

Armenian TV chief’s resignation due to mismanagement

Armenian TV chief’s resignation due to mismanagement

Arminfo
16 Jul 04

YEREVAN

Aram Abramyan’s resignation from the post of director of the Aravot TV
channel has nothing to do with politics, Aram Abramyan wrote in his
article entitled “Provincial management” in Aravot newspaper today.

The article said that during his management of the TV channel, nobody
exerted political pressure on him and his political activity was not
influenced. Moreover, nobody asked him to resign from his post, on
the contrary, he was asked to stay and continue his work. The reason
for his resignation from the post of the TV channel’s director, he
said, is the incorrect management of the channel. As an example, he
cited the submission of the channel’s balance for 2003 only on 15 July
2004 and other failures in financial management.

All this, as Aram Abramyan said, does not allow the TV channel to
develop professionally, and the director did not want to manage the TV
channel which has no high quality programmes. “Programmes of low
quality would have discredited my professional reputation,” Aram
Abramyan wrote.

Georgia unleashed an express war

Agency WPS
What the Papers Say. Part B (Russia)
July 16, 2004, Friday

GEORGIA UNLEASHED AN EXPRESS WAR
SOURCE: Kommersant, July 16, 2004, p. 10

Vladimir Novikov, Alexander Gabuyev

The latest round of talks within the framework of the Joint Control
Commission in Moscow yesterday ended with nothing to show for it.
Georgia has finally released the Russian relief aid it sezied. CIS
Executive Secretary Vladimir Rushailo and Stephen Mann, the US
president’s travelling trouble-shooter, have visited Tbilisi.

The envoys of Moscow and Washington envoy never expected to meet each
other in Tbilisi. Both tried hard to make out that their visits were
planned diplomatic events. Rushailo pointed out repeatedly that he
regularly tours CIS capitals and “has just visited some Central Asian
countries.” Mann repeated over and over that he is not visiting
Georgia alone, but “also Armenia and Azerbaijan to discuss
Nagorno-Karabakh settlement there.” Needless to say, the
representatives of Moscow and Washington claimed in practically
identical terms that their visits to Tbilisi had nothing to do with
the situation in South Ossetia. Mann only said on the subject of
South Ossetia that he had exhaustive information on the state of
affairs and reiterated that “the United States supports a peaceful
solution to the problem.”

Rushailo was more communicative. After meetings with President
Mikhail Saakashvili and Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania he said that he
had come to meet new leaders of Georgia and specify the date of the
next CIS summit in Kazakhstan. Rushailo left the positive news for
the end of the news conference. Rushailo said, “Emphasis in the talks
with the president of Georgia was made on facilitation of integration
with neighbors, first and foremost with Russia.”

A day before Rushailo’s visit, however, Saakashvili was in London and
made quite different statements there. “The West should continue
putting pressure on Russia,” he said. “We have to show Russia that
Georgia will not be pushed around.” Should the West follow the
advice, according to Saakashvili, “several thousand people in South
Ossetia will join Georgia within six months.” Saakashvili even
boasted that “the Georgian special forces trained by NATO instructors
are better than any Russian unit.”

Georgia Express 2004 exercise, an element of the British program of
military assistance to the Tbilisi regime and of the NATO’s
Partnership for Peace Program, began on July 3 as though to confirm
Saakashvili’s words. The exercise is taking place at the Vaziani base
near Tbilisi, where almost 170 British and 230 Georgian servicemen,
supported by two helicopters, have until July 18 to capture a village
overrun by hypothetical guerrillas and protect journalists from
terrorist attacks. Iraqi Shiites were chosen for the hypothetical
enemy. This demonstration of strength must have had its effect. The
South Ossetian government Tskhinvali is seriously afraid of an
invasion.

Meanwhile, the confrontation in Ergneti between Russian troops
escorting relief aid to Ossetian villages and the Georgian financial
police continued. Tbilisi went on claiming that the shipment must
clear customs. Saakashvili eventually said that by way of exception
he himself would pay the Finance Ministry. The convoy was about to
continue on its way when the Ossetian side kicked up a scandal. The
Ossetians demanded peacekeeping contingent commander Svyatoslav
Nabzdorov to prevent the Georgian police from escorting the convoy.
Leaving Ergneti, the trucks were supposed to cross the territory of
Georgia before making a turn into South Ossetia, and Nabzdorov could
not very well forbid the Georgian police from escorting the shipment
on the territory of Georgia. It was a dead-end, and the sides got
down to thoroughly unproductive negotiations again.

Translated by A. Ignatkin

Russia: The Caucasus’ friend in need?

Eurasianet Organization
July 12 2004

RUSSIA: THE CAUCASUS’ FRIEND IN NEED?
Igor Torbakov: 7/12/04
A EurasiaNet commentary

Amidst the ongoing standoff with Georgia over South Ossetia, Russian
analysts have begun pushing for a policy that presents Moscow as the
guarantor of peace and stability in the Caucasus.

The June `8-‘9 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in
Istanbul has fueled the campaign for a transformation of Russian
strategy in the region. [For background see the EurasiaNet Insight
archive]. Nearly `3 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union,
most Russian analysts believe that the Kremlin has failed in its
struggle to maintain its influence throughout the former USSR. With
NATO now having expressed a clear interest in both the Caucasus and
Central Asia, that loss of influence could pose a longer-term
strategic threat, the thinking goes.

With the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania now all
members of NATO, the alliance’s military infrastructure already
touches Russia’s northern flank. That leaves Central Asia, an area
that has recently begun to show its willingness to entertain Russian
overtures, and the Caucasus, a region where, according to one recent
commentary published in Noviye Izvestia, a “bitter rivalry” between
East and West is already taking place.

Given its past as the region’s overlord, both in Soviet and tsarist
times, Russia is determined to prevent the Western security
collective from gaining a geopolitical foothold in a territory it has
long considered its “soft underbelly.”

Yet rather than attempting to preserve the post-Soviet status quo,
the Kremlin’s strategists appear to have begun to favor a policy that
looks on Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia as sovereign neighbors and
potential partners and allies. That strategy has most recently been
put to work with Georgia, where Russia played a leading role in
securing the resignation of Ajarian strongman Aslan Abashidze, a key
goal of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili. [For background see
the EurasiaNet Insight archive]. Additional signs of this policy of
engagement have occurred with promises to increase Russian investment
in Georgia. Initially, the strategy appeared to have worked: Russia
has been asked to advise on changes to Georgia’s tax code and the
appointment of Kakha Bendukidze, a Georgian-born Russian “oligarch,”
as Georgia’s economics minister has emphasized those trade links
still further.

Given Russia’s own status as a former Soviet republic trying to
identify its national mission, the argument goes, it is better
equipped than NATO or the European Union to understand the needs of
newly formed countries in the Caucasus and throughout the Collective
of Independent States. To reinforce this connection, some Russian
analysts have emphasized that these countries in any case will not be
likely candidates for EU or NATO membership for at least two more
generations. Still others have presented NATO as failed peacekeepers
in Afghanistan and Iraq – a reason, they say, for CIS countries to
pay little heed to the alliance’s overtures to secure peace and
security.

How events will unfold in response to the recent crisis over South
Ossetia will present a critical test for this new policy, however.
[For background see the EurasiaNet Insight archive].While dialogue is
being held with the Kremlin to find a resolution to the stand-off,
the Georgian government has also asked US Secretary of State Colin
Powell to act as a mediator for the conflict. [For background see the
EurasiaNet Insight archive].

Such a role no doubt will only underline to Russian security and
defense analysts the need to retain Moscow’s two military facilities
in Georgia for as long as possible. In their eyes, Georgia is the key
to the entire Black Sea and South Caucasus region. The bases’
advantage, however, is primarily political. With the bases in Batumi
and Akhalkalaki as a “rear guard,” Russia can “restrain the push of
new [geopolitical] rivals into the post-Soviet space,” Sergei
Kazennov, a researcher at the Institute of World Economy and
International relations, argued in a recent commentary posted on the
Politcom.ru Web site.

For that reason, close attention is also being paid to recently
announced plans for a railroad that will provide – for the first time
in five years – a direct link between Azerbaijan and Turkey. The
railway, which would run from Baku to Kars via Tbilisi, will skirt
Russia’s base at Akhalkalaki. If Russia withdraws from its bases, the
thinking goes, the way would be clear for Turkey to begin shipping
military hardware to Georgia and Azerbaijan via the rail route.

Given these concerns, chances are few that the Kremlin will withdraw
from these installations. At the NATO summit in Istanbul, Russia
firmly rejected pressure to remove its troops from both Georgia and
Moldova, under the terms of a `999 agreement. “These demands are not
legally correct as agreements on settling things with the bases in
Georgia and the pullout of Russia military equipment from the
Dniester region [in Moldova] were of a political rather than legal
nature,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the Russia-NATO Council.
Nor is an offer by alliance member states to ratify the modified
Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) – a `990
agreement between the US and the USSR to slash troops and weapons
stockpiles in Europe recently ratified by Russia – sufficient
incentive for such a move. “It would be stupid to swap the withdrawal
of troops [from Georgia and Moldova] for the ratification of an
outdated treaty,” argued Kazennov. “It’s not an equal exchange.”

Ironically, despite the push to treat CIS countries as strong players
in their own right, this decision is predicated on Russia’s relations
with the US, rather than on ties with Georgia itself. The Russian
political class clearly sees Washington as the locomotive for NATO’s
eastward expansion, a move that is reckoned as “a continuation of the
tug-of-war between Moscow and Washington for the control over the
former Soviet republics,” according to one commentator.

So far, in the opinion of most Russian analysts, the Kremlin has come
out as the loser in the struggle with the US for dominance in the
Caucasus and beyond. With Georgia’s recent announcement that it
expects to join NATO within four years, it is a game of geopolitical
chess that Russia is increasingly determined to win.

Editor’s Note: Igor Torbakov is a freelance journalist and researcher
who specializes in CIS political affairs. He holds an MA in History
from Moscow State University and a PhD from the Ukrainian Academy of
Sciences. He was Research Scholar at the Institute of Russian
History, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow; a Visiting Scholar at
the Kennan Institute, Woodrow Wilson International Center for
Scholars, Washington DC; a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University,
New York; and a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University. He is now
based in Istanbul, Turkey.