Russia 090818 Basic Political Developments
Georgia officially withdraws from CIS
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- Georgia waves goodbye to the CIS
- Russia says Arctic Sea was hijacked, suspects arrested
Georgia officially withdraws from CIShttp://en.rian.ru/exsoviet/20090818/155839605.html TBILISI, August 18 (RIA Novosti) - Georgia officially ended its membership of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) on Tuesday. Tbilisi announced its desire to quit the Russian-dominated organization after a five-day war with Russia over the Georgian breakaway republic of South Ossetia last August. In line with the CIS Charter, formal withdrawal comes into effect 12 months after the CIS executive committee is informed of the decision. Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister David Jalaghania said on Monday the Georgian authorities are ready to continue cooperating with the members of the post Soviet alliance provided that its territorial integrity is respected. In February 2006, Georgia officially withdrew from the CIS Council of Defense Ministers, saying that the country was bidding to join NATO and could not be part of two military alliances simultaneously. The CIS comprises Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Moldova, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Ukraine is a founding and participating country but technically not a member state. Turkmenistan holds associate status.
Moscow warns Georgia over the consequences, which may follow to its defection from the Commonwealth of Independent States, an international organization formed after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russian Foreign Ministry has released a special statement, which says that the act of defection will inflict damage on the ordinary citizens of Georgia. `Dramatizing of the events is not really necessary. Each sovereign state, Georgia among them, has a right to decide its membership in any organization,` the statement says. Georgia`s membership of the CIS has been officially finished today. The decision was made a year ago by Georgian president but the required procedures took whole year to complete the defection procedures. The statement also says the defection of the country from the CIS will only affect the interests of ordinary citizens of Georgia. Georgia waves goodbye to the CIShttp://www.russiatoday.ru/Politics/2009-08-18/georgia-waves-goodbye-cis.html/print 18 August, 2009, 06:15 Georgia has finalized plans to withdraw from the Commonwealth of Independent States, a regional alliance of former Soviet republics. Tbilisi initiated the withdrawal on the 14th of August 2008 when the country’s parliament unanimously supported president Saakashvili’s motion to do so. The decision came immediately after the conflict in South Ossetia. According to CIS regulations, the legal action to leave the organization takes a year. Therefore, as confirmed by representatives of both Georgia and the CIS, the country’s membership will end on the 18th of August 2009. The CIS executive committee has, however, pointed out that Georgia has expressed a desire to continue to participate in agreements ratified over the course of its membership. Russia’s Foreign Ministry noted that the situation should be taken at face value:
Nevertheless, the ministry is concerned that Georgia’s withdrawal may have a “negative effect on the country’s citizens”. Leonid Slutsky, the deputy chairman of the Russian Duma committee on foreign affairs, agrees with this view:
By Helena Bedwell Aug. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Russia plans to build a “Berlin- style” wall along the de facto border between Georgia and its separatist region of Abkhazia, Georgia’s Foreign Ministry said. “This once again proves that Russia’s real intention is to turn Abkhazia into a military outpost and to isolate the region from the rest of the world,” Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Davit Jalaghania told reporters in the capital Tbilisi today. Abkhaz Foreign Minister Sergei Shamba said planned improvements of border defenses “may involving building a wall in some areas that are considered dangerous.” The Abkhaz government is still demarcating the border, which runs along the Inguri River, Shamba said by telephone from the regional capital Sukhumi. Russia routed Georgia’s U.S.-trained army in a five-day war last August over the breakaway region of South Ossetia. Moscow later recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia as sovereign states, a move condemned by the U.S. and many European countries. Russia has agreed to defend both regions’ borders. Russia has deployed 1,700 soldiers in Abkhazia and will increase that number to 3,636 by the end of this year when renovations are completed at its military base in the region, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said on Aug. 12. The number of Russian military personnel stationed in South Ossetia is slightly smaller, Serdyukov said. To contact the reporter on this story: Helena Bedwell in Tbilisi at hbedwell@bloomberg.net Last Updated: August 17, 2009 05:51 EDT Russia says Arctic Sea was hijacked, suspects arrestedhttp://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/russia-says-arctic-sea-was-hijacked-suspects-arrested-20090818-eowy.html August 18, 2009 - 5:54PM The Arctic Sea cargo ship was hijacked on July 24 by pirates including Russian, Latvian and Estonian citizens and suspects have been arrested, Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said Tuesday. Russia detains ship 'hijackers' http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8206691.stm Eight people have been arrested for hijacking the cargo ship Arctic Sea, Russia's defence minister says. Anatoly Serdyukov said the group of suspects included Russian, Estonian and Latvian nationals. The Finnish-owned Arctic Sea went off radar after passing through the English Channel in late July, but was found on Sunday night off Cape Verde. Speculation swirled after the ship vanished, with suggestions of piracy, a mafia dispute or a commercial row. Russian Navy Questions Sailors After Missing Freighter Is Found http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601116&sid=acf13UYxUZr8 By Peter S. Green and Lyubov Pronina Aug. 18 (Bloomberg) -- The Russian navy was questioning the captain and crew of the Maltese-flagged freighter Arctic Sea after the ship, missing for three weeks, was found off the west coast of Africa. The 15 Russian crewmembers were being held aboard the Ladny, a Russian warship that found the merchant vessel about 300 nautical miles off the Cape Verde islands, Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said yesterday. Russian sailors searched the vessel for 12 hours, the state-owned RIA Novosti news agency reported yesterday. Serdyukov said the crew was well and that more details of its voyage would be released. The crew “are being interrogated now in order to find out what happened,” Serdyukov said. He said the ship didn’t appear to be under armed guard when the navy found it. The Arctic Sea was en route from Finland to Algeria with a cargo of timber valued at about 1.3 million euros ($1.8 million) and belonging to Europe’s largest papermaker, Stora Enso Oyj, according to Helsingin Sanomat, a Finnish newspaper. Swedish police said July 30 that the ship’s Finnish owner reported the vessel was boarded on July 24 in Swedish waters by a group that claimed to be police officers, and allegedly tied up the crew, then fled in an inflatable speedboat, the Associated Press reported. The owner, Helsinki-based Oy Solchart Management AB, received a ransom demand, Finnish police said on Aug. 15, before the ship was located. International Mystery The disappearance of the 98-meter (320-foot) cargo ship created an international mystery. After the alleged encounter with pirates, the ship continued through the North Sea and the English Channel to the Atlantic. Radio contact was lost when it was off the coast of Portugal, RIA Novosti said. The Arctic Sea may have been attacked a second time off Portugal, Martin Selmayr, a spokesman for the European Commission, the 27-nation European Union’s executive arm in Brussels, said on Aug. 14. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered Serdyukov to conduct a thorough investigation of the incident and to inform “all interested parties,” including the media, of the results. On Aug. 12, Medvedev ordered Serdyukov to take “all necessary steps” to find the ship and, if necessary, to free its crew. Russia used satellites and naval vessels, led by the Ladny, to search for the freighter. The ship was scheduled to deliver its cargo to Bejaia, Algeria, on Aug. 4, the Sovfracht maritime news service reported. To contact the reporters on this story: Peter S. Green in New York at psgreen@bloomberg.net; Lyubov Pronina in Astrakhan at lpronina@bloomberg.net
MOSCOW, Russia - Mystery over the Arctic Sea cargo ship deepened Tuesday as Russia failed to provide promised details a day after locating the missing vessel in the ocean off Africa and taking its crew onboard a warship. Authorities in the Cape Verde capital Praia said a Russian anti-submarine naval ship with the Arctic Sea crew onboard was heading for the island of Sal where a Russian plane was standing by to fly the group to Russia. But in Russia itself, officials offered no further information on a range of questions surrounding the Arctic Sea intrigue, including on the whereabouts of the vessel itself, despite promises more information would be forthcoming. In his announcement Monday that the 3,988-tonne Russian-owned ship and crew had been found, Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov told President Dmitry Medvedev that details would be given "in the coming few hours." "I think that we will be able to recount more details by the end of the day," Serdyukov told Medvedev during a meeting that was broadcast on Russian state television. That was late afternoon Monday, Moscow time, already more than 16 hours, according to Serdyukov, after the Arctic Sea was located 300 miles (483 kilometres) from the Cape Verde archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean. Serdyukov said he expected a debriefing of the crew aboard the submarine hunter Ladny to yield more information about the cargo ship, specifically "what happened to it, why communications with it were lost, why it changed course." In response to Serdyukov's comments, Medvedev said: "Explain it, report to me and inform the media." The Arctic Sea saga captured international attention soon after the Maltese-flagged ship left Finland on July 23 on its way to Algeria with a crew of 15 and a cargo of sawn timber estimated to be worth 1.16 million euros. All contact with the ship however was lost shortly thereafter amid reports of multiple pirate hijackings, a zig-zagging itinerary and speculation that the vessel was carrying a secret, illicit cargo. In an apparent effort to dispel the intrigue surrounding the ship's fate, Medvedev called for a full investigation of the Arctic Sea mystery and vowed that "all interested parties" would be informed on the results. In a report on the finding of the vessel however, the liberal Russian daily Kommersant ran a sub-headline reading: "Interested Parties Have Agreed to Keep Silent About the Circumstances of the Ship Hijacking." "Circumstances of the disappearance and the subsequent discovery of the cargo ship, along with information about what went on aboard the ship all this time, was not divulged yesterday by the interested parties," the paper noted. Finnish authorities on Sunday dismissed reports that the Arctic Sea was bearing a cargo of nuclear material, saying the vessel underwent radiation tests in Finland before leaving port. Directory: gifiles -> attach attach -> British Forces – Akrioti, Greece Griffin Fighter Squadron (84 Squadron raf) MoD announced possible Typhoon and Tornado arrivals to the base France attach -> Russia 110204 Basic Political Developments attach -> Unclassified//for official use only attach -> Adaptability Sustainment attach -> Pop-up 1 ("C" Chechnya) Header Text: Emir of the Caucasus Emirate Doku Umarov Image attach -> Russia and Islam are not Separate attach -> Chapter 13: The Northern Caucasus attach -> Russia 100209 Basic Political Developments attach -> The evolution attach -> The devolution Download 282.9 Kb. Share with your friends:
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