AFGHAN TROOPS HURT IN CAR BOMB AT NATO-AFGHAN PAKTIA BASE

17 October

At least 45 Afghan troops have been injured by a suicide car bomb attack at an Afghan-Nato military outpost in eastern Paktia province, say officials. The attacker reportedly detonated a vehicle packed with exlposives close to gates at the Zurmat base. Deputy provincial governor Abdul Rahman Mangal said most of the injured soldiers had been hit by broken glass. Foreign forces are due to withdraw from Afghanistan by 2014, which has sparked fears of a surge in violence. Militants have increasingly been targeting members of the Afghan police and military as they take over security operations. Nato said the combat outpost was attacked by "insurgents using a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device". No casualties were reported among the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf). Provincial government spokesman Rohullah Samon told the Associated Press news agency the bomb appeared to have gone off before the driver reached the camp's gates. He said most of the wounded soldiers had been in rooms hit by the force of the explosion, which shattered windows up to 3km (2 miles) away. Isaf spokesman Maj Adam Wojack said mortar fire was directed at the base after the bombing. But he denied a claim by Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid that insurgents had managed to break into the base. (BBC)

 

 

TALIBAN THREAT WORRIES PAKISTAN MEDIA

17 October

Pakistan's media have expressed alarm at Taliban threats to target journalists after critical coverage of the shooting of Malala Yousufzai. The 14-year-old education campaigner was seriously wounded as she returned home from school in the Swat valley. The Pakistani Taliban said it had shot her for "promoting secularism". The All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) said Taliban threats directed at the media were aimed at curbing the freedom of the press. Officials say the threats were uncovered in an intercepted phone call from a Pakistani Taliban leader. In the call, intercepted by Pakistan's intelligence agencies, Hakeemullah Mehsud, chief of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), reportedly gave his subordinate "special directions" to attack the media in cities including Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi and the capital Islamabad. The APNS said the Taliban was trying to "browbeat the voice of the people". The Pakistan Press Foundation said religious scholars who publicly denounced the shooting had also been alerted by the government. It said the government was taking the TPP threat seriously. The BBC says it has "taken appropriate steps to protect its staff and operations in Pakistan" following the threats to media organisations. "We are monitoring the situation and will take any necessary action to protect our staff. We continue to broadcast to Pakistan," a BBC statement said. The attack on Malala, in which two other schoolgirls were wounded, was overwhelmingly condemned in Pakistan. Groups that have previously expressed some sympathy for the Taliban's cause largely denounced the targeting of children. The strength of reaction has put pressure on the government to take more action to tackle the insurgency. Pakistani media quoted Taliban sources as saying they were angered by the level of attention that the attempted murder had received and felt the coverage was biased. Malala was flown to the UK on Monday for specialist treatment at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. A spokesman described her condition as stable and said she was responding well to treatment. He added that reports about Malala's family visiting her in hospital were wrong. "We can clarify that currently the family are still in Pakistan," the spokesman said. The teenager is widely known as a campaigner for girls' education in Pakistan. In early 2009 she wrote an anonymous diary for BBC Urdu about life under the Taliban, who, after taking over the Swat valley in 2007, banned all girls from attending school. Officials in her province have issued a 10m rupee ($105,000; £66,000) reward for information leading to the arrest of the gunmen, while Interior Minister Rehman Malik has offered a $1m reward for the capture of Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Eshan. Pakistan was named as the deadliest country for journalists in 2011 for a second year running, by campaign group Reporters Without Borders, which said that 10 journalists had been killed. (BBC)

 

TURKEY TRIES PIANIST FAZIL SAY FOR INSULTING ISLAM
18 October

World-famous Turkish pianist Fazil Say has appeared in court in Istanbul charged with inciting hatred and insulting the values of Muslims. He is being prosecuted over tweets he wrote mocking Muslims, in a case which has rekindled concern about religious influence in the country. Mr Say, who denies the charges, said recently he was "amazed" at having to appear before judges. Rejecting an acquittal call, the court adjourned the case until 18 February. Prosecutors brought the charges against Mr Say in June. He faces a maximum sentence of 18 months in prison although correspondents say any sentence is likely to be suspended. The indictment against him cites some of his tweets from April, including one where he says: "I am not sure if you have also realised it, but if there's a louse, a non-entity, a lowlife, a thief or a fool, it's always an Islamist." Dozens of the pianist's supporters gathered outside the courthouse with banners, one of which called on the ruling Islamist-based AK Party to "leave the artists alone". Mr Say has played with the New York Philharmonic, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra and others, and has served as a cultural ambassador for the EU. Egemen Bagis, Turkey's minister in charge of relations with the EU, suggested the case against him should be dismissed, saying the court should regard his tweets as being within "his right to babble". However, Mr Bagis also criticised the pianist for "insulting people's faith and values". (BBC)

 

RUSSIA SUCCESSFULLY TESTS INTERCONTINENTAL MISSILE
19 October

The Russian Defense Ministry says that an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) has been successfully test-fired from Russia's northwestern military testing ground in Plesetsk and hit a target in the northeastern Kamchatka Peninsula.  According to the officials, the test-fire's goal was to check technical characteristics of the Topol RS-12M intercontinental ballistic missile, whose validity period has been prolonged from an initial 10 years to up to 24 years. Ministry officials say that in future the validity of Topol missiles could be prolonged to up to 25 years. The three-stage, solid-propellant Topol missiles, known in the West as SS-25 Sickle, were deployed in the Soviet Union in mid-1970s and remain the main missiles of Russia's Strategic Missile Forces. (RFE/RL)

 

RIVALS DISPUTE UNITED RUSSIA'S ELECTION VICTORY IN NORTH OSSETIA
21 October

The leadership of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party (ER) convened on October 18 to assess the results of the elections four days earlier to the legislatures of six federation subjects, including the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania. North Ossetia was the only region where ER garnered a substantially lower share of the vote than during the December 2011 elections to the Russian State Duma.  Even so, United Russia’s two main rivals in North Ossetia, Patriots of Russia (PR) and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF), have both rejected the preliminary election results as falsified.  According to those preliminary results, United Russia polled 46.2 percent of the vote (compared with 67.9 percent in December) while Patriots of Russia got 26.5 percent, compared with 0.35 percent in the State Duma ballot. The KPRF, which has traditionally placed second in North Ossetia, was relegated to third place with 10.5 percent of voters' preferences. At present, United Russia has 38 of the total 70 mandates, PR has 12, with the KPRF and A Just Russia – receiving four apiece. (By contrast, in nearby Krasnodar Krai, United Russia won 95 of the 100 mandates.) One self-nominated non-partisan candidate won in a single mandate constituency. Run-offs are scheduled for October 28 in 11 more of the 35 single-mandate constituencies. With a total of 17 parties participating, the average number of candidates in single-mandate constituencies was 8-9, and in some it was as high as 11. Between 1,000 and 2,000 PR supporters staged a protest in Vladikavkaz on October 16. They adopted a formal appeal to the republic’s Central Election Commission not to tabulate the results until all complaints of malpractice have been investigated.  Former State Duma deputy Arsen Fadzayev, elected with 56.5 percent of the vote in a single-mandate constituency, claimed PR “won a convincing victory,” which he said the republic’s authorities “are trying to steal from us.” Commentators and senior ER functionaries are unanimous in attributing PR’s impressive showing in North Ossetia primarily to Fadzayev, the former two-time Olympic freestyle wrestling gold medalist and five-time world champion who also headed the PR party list. Fadzayev, 50, is a classic example of the larger-than-life local hero who managed to parlay prowess as a wrestler into political influence in his home republic.  (Others include Eduard Kokoity, former de facto president of Georgia’s breakaway Republic of South Ossetia, and Sagid Murtazaliyev , the ex-head of Daghestan’s Kizlyar Raion, who is now in charge of the Daghestan subsidiary of the Federal Pension Fund.)  In 1999, Fadzayev was appointed as deputy head of the North Caucasus directorate of the Federal Tax Police and elected as a member of the North Ossetian parliament. He was subsequently elected twice to the Russian State Duma, in 2003 for the Union of Rightist Forces (SPS) and in 2007 for United Russia. Fadzayev formally quit United Russia four months ago, saying that, in recent years, the party had begun to distance itself from the people, and people’s problems, and had thus discredited itself “irrevocably.”  Nonetheless, it is possible that he had decided to quit earlier, given the strained relations between himself and Republic of North Ossetia head Taymuraz Mamsurov. Fadzayev had reportedly assumed he would again head United Russia’s list of candidates in last December’s State Duma elections, but Mamsurov insisted on heading the list himself, with Fadzayev placed fifth, thereby guaranteeing he would not be re-elected. It was only due to a high voter turnout (85 percent) that North Ossetia ended up with no fewer than four State Duma deputies (two from ER and two from the KPRF) compared with just one (Fadzayev) in the previous two parliaments. Just a few weeks after the Duma election, Fadzayev hinted that he would participate in the parliamentary election this fall, and in the 2015 election for republic head when Mamsurov’s second term expires. Mamsurov and Fadzayev also don't see eye to eye on Russian policy toward South Ossetia. As a State Duma deputy, Fadzayev argued eloquently in August 2008 in favor of Moscow formally recognizing the breakaway region as an independent sovereign state. Mamsurov, by contrast, makes no secret of his hopes that South Ossetia will one day be united with North Ossetia as part of the Russian Federation, although he concedes this may not happen in his lifetime. (He is 58.) North Ossetian Prime Minister Sergei Takoyev admitted last week that ER had not anticipated that rival parties would campaign “so aggressively.” Neither Takoyev nor any other senior republican official has said so openly, but PR's 26 percent share of the vote might well have been even higher if voter turnout had not been so low (just 43.8 percent). With a few exceptions, such as Chechnya, voter turnout is generally lower across Russia for republic-level polls than for national elections, as many disaffected voters are convinced that republic-level parliaments have no powers to bring about positive change, and therefore stay at home on polling day. In that respect, it will be interesting to see whether the unprecedentedly high vote for PR will motivate voters in North Ossetia to turn out in significantly larger numbers in the run-off and cast their ballots for that party. The first priority of North Ossetia’s new parliament will be to adopt in the second reading a long-term (until 2025) strategic socioeconomic development program intended to modernize and render more effective the region’s largely agriculture-based economy, raise living standards, and reduce the chronic unemployment that drives many young men to seek work elsewhere in the Russian Federation. (The unemployment problem reflects a shortage of skilled labor. A recently modernized furniture plant has just hired 14 specialist craftsmen from India.) Fadzayev’s chances of winning the 2015 ballot to find Mamsurov’s successor will hinge partly on the effectiveness of that development program over the next 2 ½ years, and partly on whether ER can field a rival candidate of comparable stature and charisma to run against him.(RFE-RL)

 

RUSSIA CONDUCTS LARGE SECURITY OPERATION IN NORTH CAUCASUS
21 October

Russia's National Counterterrorism Committee (NAK) says that a large operation in the North Caucasus involving forces from the Federal Security Service and Interior Ministry has resulted in 49 militants and bandits being killed, including nine whom the committee called "odious" leaders of militant and outlaw groups.  The NAK reported on October 21 that the operations were carried out in Kabardino-Balkaria and Daghestan. According to the NAK, four militant leaders were among those killed in Kabardino-Balkaria. It identified them by the names Batyrbekov, Ulbashev, Karkayev, and Tutov. At least two separate operations were conducted in Daghestan, also leading to the deaths of several men who have been described as militant commanders. The NAK said that 30 people were arrested and 20 voluntarily surrendered to authorities in Daghestan. It added that 219 "wanted" people had been taken into custody. The security operation has already resulted in the seizure of some 30 improvised explosive devices, more than 100 kilograms of material used for making explosives, more than 100 weapons, and some 530 mines, rockets, and grenades as well as a large amount of ammunition. The NAK did not provide any time frame for the security operation. News of the security sweep comes just days after Russian President Vladimir Putin applauded security and law enforcement agencies for reportedly eliminating more than 300 militants in recent months but also called on those agencies to increase their efforts to wipe out remaining groups of militants and outlaws in the North Caucasus. Putin referred to several international events scheduled to be held in Russia, such as the Winter Olympic Games in 2014 and the soccer World Cup in 2018, and said, "It is a matter of honor for all law enforcement officials to ensure that these events are staged in a normal, business-like, and festive manner, so that nothing can cast a pall over them." Violence has been increasing in Russia's North Caucasus in recent years. While Chechnya, long associated with Islamic militants, has seen a drop in incidents under Kremlin-picked strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, neighboring republics such as Kabardino-Balkaria, Daghestan, and Ingushetia have experienced an increase in violence, which has included assassinations of officials and attacks on military convoys. (RFE/RL)

 

RUSSIAN ANTI-PUTIN ACTIVIST 'ADMITS RIOT PLOT'
23 October

Russian investigators say a detained anti-Kremlin activist has admitted trying to foment riots with funding from a Georgian MP. Leonid Razvozzhayev disappeared in the Ukrainian capital Kiev on Friday, after meeting officials at the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, a UN official said. Fellow opposition activists say he was kidnapped by Russian agents. Russia's Investigative Committee (SK) says Mr Razvozzhayev turned himself in and confessed to Russian police. He is an aide to Russian opposition MP Ilya Ponomarev and an ally of leftist opposition activists Sergei Udaltsov and Konstantin Lebedev. Last week the SK - a Russian police body modelled on the American FBI - confined Mr Udaltsov to Moscow after questioning him about an alleged plot to seize power in Russia. A recent documentary on Russia's NTV channel, which is seen as close to the Kremlin, showed what it said was footage of Mr Udaltsov meeting officials from Georgia to discuss mounting a coup in Russia. The SK said it had begun an investigation into Mr Udaltsov, Mr Razvozzhayev, Mr Lebedev and others on the basis of the allegations made in the documentary, Anatomy Of A Protest II. In its latest statement, the SK says an arrest warrant was issued for Mr Razvozzhayev on 18 October. On Sunday he turned himself in to the SK and said he wanted to make a confession, the statement added. He will soon be charged with attempting to foment riots, it said. "In it he gave details of the preparations by him, Sergei Udaltsov, Konstantin Lebedev and other individuals for organising mass unrest in the Russian Federation, and also about those named individuals' involvement in the public disorder that took place on 6 May 2012, on Bolotnaya Square in Moscow," the SK statement said. "According to Razvozzhayev's confession, [Georgian MP] Givi Targamadze financed this unrest." A spokeswoman at the UNHCR in Kiev, Alexandra Makovskaya, told the BBC that Mr Razvozzhayev had come to the UNHCR's office on Friday to request asylum. He had stepped outside during a break in the discussions and disappeared, she said. A video published on the LifeNews.ru website showed a man - apparently Mr Razvozzhayev - being escorted by police and shouting to reporters: "Tell everyone that they tortured me. For two days. They smuggled me in from Ukraine." (BBC)

 

TURKMEN LEADER VOWS TO RAISE SALARIES, PENSIONS
23 October

The president of Turkmenistan has pledged to raise salaries and pensions and transform the country from an agrarian nation into an industrial one.  President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov told a 2,500-strong audience of elders, ministers, and regional delegates in Turkmenbashi on the Caspian coast that salaries would be raised by 10 percent and pensions by 15 percent starting from next year. He said he would use the country's gas wealth to push up living standards. Turkmenistan will celebrate the 21st anniversary of its independence from the Soviet Union on October 27. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasts Turkmenistan will enjoy real GDP growth of about 8 percent in 2012-13, after a strong 14.7 percent rise in 2011 on the back of bigger gas exports to China and increased public investment. (RFE/RL)

 

CANADIAN FIRM DISCOVERS OIL FIELD IN NORTH AFGHANISTAN
24 October

A spokesman for Afghanistan's Mining Ministry, Jawad Omer, has told RFE/RL that the Canadian company Terraseis has located a large oil field in the northwestern part of the country.  "This area is situated between the Khan Charbagh and Aqeena border districts, where technical research has been conducted," Omer said. The site is in Faryab Province, near the border with Turkmenistan. Omer said more exploration would be done to get an accurate assessment of the size of the oil field. The news comes as the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) started commercial production at an oil field in the neighboring Sar-e Pol Province on October 22. Mining Minister Wahidullah Shahrani called it a "historic" day for his country, "that for the first time the process of commercial production of crude oil has started in Afghanistan." The CNPC is initially expected to produce nearly 2,000 barrels of oil per day at the Amu Darya site in Sar-e Pol Province but plans for a drastic increase in volume as more wells are opened. The CNPC signed contracts to develop oil and natural-gas fields in northern Afghanistan in December 2011. The CNPC contract also calls for construction of Afghanistan's first oil refinery. China is already developing a gas field across the border in Turkmenistan and has provided loans to the Turkmen government to develop the massive South Yolotan-Osman gas field in southern Turkmenistan. The South Yolotan-Osman field is one of the world's largest, with conservative estimates claiming there are some 4 trillion cubic meters of gas there and some other estimates saying the field has more than 14 trillion cubic meters. There is speculation that the field extends across the border into Afghanistan. At a June summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Beijing, Afghan President Hamid Karzai also lent his support to plans for a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan through northern Afghanistan and Tajikistan to China. Afghan gas could be included in the pipeline. The news of the oil discovery in Faryab and start of production in Sar-e Pol has Afghan officials talking about energy self-sufficiency for the country. Northwest Afghanistan is believed to hold vast deposits of oil and natural gas. (RFE/RL)

 

 

 

RUSSIA'S LOWER HOUSE VOTES TO BROADEN HIGH TREASON LAWS
24 October

Russia's parliament has voted to widen the definition of high treason in a move critics say is a further attempt to stifle dissent in the country. Under the proposed new law, high treason and espionage will include supporting "those seeking to damage Russia's security". Those illegally obtaining secret state information could face an extended prison sentence. The bill is expected to be swiftly passed by parliament's upper house. The legislation, which was voted through the Duma 375 votes to two, will then need to be signed into law by President Vladimir Putin. Commentators noted that the bill was originally conceived under Mr Putin's previous presidency, but was not pushed through by President Dmitry Medvedev. "The current Duma vote can be seen as a symbol of the restoration of Putin's power" said the centrist daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta. Current law describes high treason as espionage or other assistance to a foreign state damaging Russia's external security. The new bill expands that definition to include moves against Russia's "constitutional order, sovereignty and territorial and state integrity". In addition, the proposal adds multinational organisations to a list of groups that could benefit from state secrets. Human rights campaigners have said that this could mean that sharing information with international organisations such as Amnesty International or even lodging an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights could become a criminal act. The law "places a Damocles sword above virtually every citizen who talks to a foreigner for work, or even as part of a harmless day-to-day meeting," said Konstantin Rivkin, a lawyer, quoted by gazeta.ru. Alexander Cherkasov, an activist at the rights group Memorial, said the law had been designed for "arbitrary interpretation". "The adoption of this law is a continuation of the present feverishly prohibitive legislative trend," said Ella Pamfilova, former head of the Presidential Human Rights Council, in gazeta.ru. Last month, the government ordered USAID to halt its activities in the country, accusing the US government aid agency of attempting to influence domestic politics. USAID had funded several Russian non-governmental organisations, including those engaged in election monitoring. (BBC)

 

PARLIAMENT VOTE ON NEW GEORGIA CABINET
25 October

Georgia’s parliament is expected Thursday to vote to confirm Bidzina Ivanishvili as prime minister at the head of a new government.  Approval of the cabinet is virtually certain, as Ivanishvili’s formerly opposition Georgian Dream bloc won a majority of 85 seats in the 150-member parliament in the October 1 elections. Ivanishvili, a billionaire businessman, on Wednesday told the parliament in Kutaisi that he plans to quit politics in just 18 months and become a member of civil society. Ivanishvili has pledged to continue President Mikheil Saakashvili’s pro-Western foreign policy, including pursuing European Union and NATO membership. But he has also promised to improve relations with neighboring Russia, which fought a brief war with Georgia in 2008 over the Georgian separatist-led territory of South Ossetia. (RFE/RL)

 

ARMENIAN, AZERBAIJANI FOREIGN MINISTERS TO MEET IN FRANCE
25 October

The Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers are scheduled to meet in France on October 27 to discuss the issue of the breakaway Azerbaijani region of Nagorno-Karabakh. 
 The announcement was made by the Armenian Foreign Ministry on October 25. It said the meeting between Armenia's Edward Nalbandian and Azerbaijan's Elmar Mammadyarov will be mediated by the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group. Nalbandian and Mammadyarov last met in Paris in June. Ties between Armenia and Azerbaijan worsened after Azerbaijan's president pardoned a soldier who had been sentenced to life in prison in Hungary for murdering an Armenian soldier. Armenia and Azerbaijan have been in conflict for more than two decades over Nagorno-Karabakh, which has a majority Armenian population. A fragile cease-fire has been in place since 1994. (RFE/RL)

 

AFGHANISTAN MOSQUE SUICIDE BOMB ATTACK KILLS AT LEAST 37
26 October

A suicide bomber targeted worshippers who had gathered at a mosque in north Afghanistan for prayers to mark Eid al-Adha, killing at least 37 people. More than 30 people were wounded in the attack, which happened as people were leaving the mosque in Maymana, capital of Faryab province. Senior provincial government officials were also attending the prayers. The victims were mainly civilians and police officers. Senior officials appeared to escape serious injury. "We had just finished Eid al-Adha prayers and we were congratulating and hugging each other," deputy provincial governor Abdul Satar Barez told the AFP news agency. "Suddenly a big explosion took place and the area was full of dust and smoke and body parts of police and civilians were all over the place. It was a very powerful explosion." He said the provincial police chief, Abdul Khaliq Aqsai was wounded, but it was not clear if he had been the target. The BBC's Bilal Sarwary in Kabul says that security had been very tight around the mosque, and questions will now be asked as to how the attacker managed to get past at least four security checkpoints. Mr Barez said the attacker had been wearing a police uniform. Attacks in northern Afghanistan are far less common than in the south and east, and Faryab province has been considered to be relatively peaceful. However, there have been a spate of assassinations in Maymana in recent days, our correspondent says. A senior former Taliban commander, who had defected to the government side, was killed along with son, as well as a number of very prominent tribal elders seen to be giving crucial support to the government. (BBC)

 

TBILISI SAYS NO DIPLOMATIC TIES WITH RUSSIA WHILE IT OCCUPIES GEORGIAN TERRITORY
26 October

Georgia's new foreign minister, Maia Panjikidze, has reiterated to journalists her government's position that it will continue a policy of refraining from formal diplomatic relations with Moscow until Russia ends its "occupation" of two breakaway Georgian regions.  The incoming government led by Georgian Dream leader Bidzina Ivanishvili was confirmed by lawmakers on October 25. Critics and political rivals have sought to paint Ivanishvili, a billionaire who made much of his fortune in Russia, as overly cozy with Moscow. He has vowed to improve relations crippled since a five-day war between Georgia and Russia in August 2008 over two breakaway Georgian regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. "Twenty percent of Georgian territory is occupied by Russia, and Russia is the country that is occupying Georgia," Foreign Minister Panjikidze said on Octover 26. "It opened two embassies in Tskhinvali and Sukhumi, and as long as what I have said remains a fact, diplomatic relations with Russia will not be restored. Despite the fact that we don't have diplomatic relations, it's possible to have a dialogue, just as the former government was able to work with Russia in different spheres." Following the 2008 war, Moscow recognized the independence of the separatist-led South Ossetia and Abkhazia. (RFE/RL)

 

RUSSIAN POLICE DETAIN OPPOSITION LEADERS AT MOSCOW RALLY
27 October

Russian police have detained three opposition leaders during an unauthorized demonstration in the center of Moscow.  Correspondents on the scene reported that policemen surrounded Aleksei Navalny and Ilya Yashin on Pokrovka Street and forced them into a police vehicle. Left Front leader Sergei Udaltsov reported earlier on his Twitter account that he also had been detained. "What are these people doing? They are not holding any placards, they just approached Udaltsov," Udaltsov's lawyer Violeta Volkova told Reuters after Udaltsov was detained. "Is it prohibited? Do we have a law prohibiting more than three people to gather? I think that he [Udaltsov] was detained illegally." Moscow police say that all three detained leaders will face administrative charges for violating public order. The opposition rally by some 200 people on October 27 was in support of arrested activists including Leonid Razvozzhayev, who claims to have been kidnapped from Ukraine and forcibly brought to a Moscow jail earlier this week. The rally began near the headquarters of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), where protesters displayed banners declaring, "I am against torture and repression." The protesters then spread out, apparently trying to make use of a Russian law that says a person can protest alone without any permission from the authorities. The banners carried by the protesters referred to Razvozzhayev's claim he was tortured after he was abducted by unidentified men in Kyiv, where he was applying to the UN for asylum. Razvozzhayev told human rights leaders who visited him in detention in Moscow that he was forced by his abductors to sign a confession that he had plotted mass riots. His lawyer says he has since disavowed his confession. Investigators earlier this week said that Razvozzhayev had turned himself into police in Moscow and confessed voluntarily. Razvozzhayev, along with Udaltsov and Udaltsov's assistant Konstantin Lebedev, were charged this month with plotting mass riots after a documentary aired on a pro-Kremlin television channel claimed the trio want to overthrow President Vladimir Putin. Meanwhile, members of a number of Ukrainian nongovernmental organizations on October 27 picketed the building of the Ukrainian Security Service in Kyiv. The demonstrators demanded that the circumstances of Razvozzhayev's departure from Ukraine be clarified. They also demanded that the chiefs of the  Security Service and the Border Service be suspended until the country's leadership explains what happened. In other news, Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, who finished third in Russia's presidential election in March, said he's leaving business to focus full-time on politics. The 47-year-old Prokhorov, believed to be worth about $13 billion, told reporters at a congress of his Civil Platform party in Moscow that he has signed a trust agreement under which the partners of his investment group ONEXIM will manage his assets. He said that he wanted to lead "a third power" in Russia that will compete both with the Kremlin and the opposition. Prokhorov competed in Russia's presidential election amid speculation that his candidacy was orchestrated by the Kremlin, a charge he denied. His return to politics comes after he has remained silent during the past five months of the Kremlin's crackdown on the opposition. (RFE/RL)

 

WTO READY TO APPROVE TAJIKISTAN'S MEMBERSHIP
29 October

The World Trade Organization (WTO) has announced that it would likely approve Tajikistan's bid to join the WTO this December.  The WTO said on October 29 that "all members" are expected to approve the documents that Tajikistan's working group submitted for entry. The decision is expected during a meeting of the WTO's General Council on December 11-12. Tajikistan vowed to undertake a series of commitments designed to meet all WTO regulations. Tajikistan has been attempting to join the WTO since 2001. If Tajikistan meets all the criteria and WTO members approve the country's entry, Tajikistan should become a full member of the organization in 2013. (RFE/RL)

 

RUSSIA, SERBIA SIGN FINAL AGREEMENT ON SOUTH STREAM PIPELINE
29 October

Russia's state-owned gas giant Gazprom and Serbia have signed the final investment agreement on the South Stream gas pipeline.  Gazprom announced the October 29 signing with its partner in Serbia – Srbijagas -- in a statement on the Russian company's website. Srbijagas director-general Dusan Bajatovic said the deal clears the way for the construction of the pipeline to start on Serbian territory. Bajatovic said Serbia should earn some 200 million euros annually from the project. South Stream aims to bring some 63 billion cubic meters of Russian gas across the Black Sea into Europe.

 

TAJIK, UZBEK LEADERS HOLD RARE PHONE TALK
29 October

Tajikistan's presidential press service says President Emomali Rahmon called his Uzbek counterpart, Islam Karimov, on October 29 to mark the 20th anniversary of Tajik-Uzbek diplomatic ties.  The leaders exchanged congratulations by telephone, expressing hopes "to bring the bilateral ties on a higher level." The call is noteworthy since the two presidents barely communicate with each other. Dushanbe-Tashkent relations remain strained due to disputes over water and energy resources and transit routes. Uzbekistan openly opposes Tajikistan's project to complete the Roghun hydropower plant, saying that the project will leave Uzbekistan without water. Tashkent has been cutting electricity and natural gas supplies and closing road and railway connections between the two countries. (RFE/RL)

 

NEW GEORGIAN PROSECUTOR-GENERAL TO INVESTIGATE EX-PRIME MINISTER'S DEATH
30 October

Georgia's new prosecutor-general is vowing to start investigating high-profile cases, including the death of Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania in February 2005.  Archil Kbilashvili's appointment was confirmed on October 29 by President Mikheil Saakashvili.  Zhvania died from what officials claimed was carbon monoxide poisoning due to an inadequately ventilated gas heater. However, Zhvania's relatives question the official version of his death. Zhvania's brother Georgy says his brother was assassinated by Georgia's leadership. Georgy Zhvania is a member of the new parliament. He is part of Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili's Georgian Dream coalition that defeated ruling United National Movement party in Parliamentary elections on October 1. (RFE/RL)