Field Reports

The Electoral Commission of South Ossetia announced on April 9 that the former head of the region’s State Security Committee, Leonid Tibilov, had become the de-facto president of the region. Georgia, as well as the international community minus Russia and a handful of other states, considers the elections illegitimate.

In preparation of the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest, Europe's largest television event which will be hosted by Azerbaijan in May, the national security forces have conducted mopping-up operations throughout the country. On April 12, Russian news agency Interfax cited an article published on Ummanews.com, stating that an author who introduced himself as Muslim threatened the participants of the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest in Baku. Ummanews.com, a Russian-language web site, presents itself as an “international Islamic information portal” opened by a group of Islamic students studying abroad. (The word ummah means the community of Muslims or even the whole Muslim world.) According to the article published on April 8, Eurovision was termed “a nightmare” for all Muslims. “The forces of the Devil, perverts and homosexuals from across the world should not think that they can so easily come to the land on which the blood of faithful Muslims was shed and behave any way they want. They will certainly be attacked,” the author allegedly said.
It added that “no Mossad, MI6, CIA, NSM [National Security Ministry] or other three-letter organizations can protect them from the punishment they deserve.”

While lavish festivities have not been rare in post-independence Tajikistan, the week-long celebration of Novruz this year, from March 21-25, surpassed most previous events in scale and grandeur. Parades, concerts, sports events, and fairs were held across the country, both in towns and villages, leaving few neighborhoods uninvolved. Tajiks were given a week-long vacation to participate in these events, which culminated in a massive theatrical performance in Dushanbe on March 25. The performance involved some 5,000 students and about 500 professional actors and actresses, and was attended by Afghan, Iranian, and Pakistani leaders. The extensive celebrations were used by the authorities to foster a sense of national pride and cohesion, and to emphasize the Tajiks’ Persian roots.

Parliamentary elections will be held in Armenia on May 6. The elections hold several important implications for the country. First, the country’s leadership has promised that these elections will be the cleanest held in Armenia so far. As can be understood from other reports, this will be an important precondition for continued Western support to Armenia. However, all elections held in the country to date have drawn international criticism.

The U.S. Senate confirmed Richard Norland as the new ambassador to Georgia on March 29. A Foreign Service veteran, who worked in Georgia in the early 1990s in the capacity of the U.S. representative and acting head of the OSCE Mission to Georgia, will replace John Bass, the incumbent U.S. ambassador serving in Tbilisi since 2009. Norland has spent most of his 32 years of diplomatic service on U.S. relations with Russia and other former Soviet states. In different periods, he was a political officer at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in Latvia, and U.S. ambassador to Uzbekistan.

On March 26 and 27, South Korea hosted the second World Nuclear Summit, which followed an inaugural gathering of world leaders in Washington in April 2010, where they had discussed the issues of non-proliferation and nuclear safety. This year’s high-profile event, attended by dozens of heads of state and government including the presidents of Russia, China, and the United States, highlighted Kazakhstan’s special place on the non-proliferation agenda. Twenty years ago, Nursultan Nazarbayev, elected as the first president of a sovereign Kazakhstan, ordered the closure of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site, where the first Soviet atomic bombs exploded back in 1949. This decision further materialized in a joint U.S.-Russian operation to remove remaining nuclear materials from the dismantled facilities.

The most recent dispute in Georgian politics contains serious allegations of government misconduct ahead of the October 2012 elections and ambitions to form armed militias to intimidate opposition supporters. The allegations come as campaigning for the parliamentary election in October gain speed and can be viewed in the context of a framing contest between the government and opposition that has been ongoing for several years, the ultimate price of which is the international legitimacy of power in Georgia. 

On March 14, Russia began transferring troops from Chechnya to the unstable highland- and forest districts in Central Dagestan. This move was effectuated after a series of violent events during the transition period between winter and spring had demonstrated that the aforementioned regions will very likely continue to be the core of the North Caucasus insurgency.

On March 19, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met with the leaders of the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEc) to discuss the prospects of regional integration. In his statement to the press, he reconfirmed the intention of EurAsEc member states to work out a comprehensive treaty establishing the Eurasian Economic Union by January 1, 2015. In this regard, the participating heads of state signed a preliminary agreement which launched formal consultations with a view to modifying the current legal basis of the EurAsEc by expanding its scope of action and providing it with more substantial executive powers. Another agreement, also signed during the meeting, formally empowers the Eurasian Economic Commission to implement the functions of a supreme supervisory body headed by Russia’s former minister for industry and trade.

Khadija Ismayilova, an outspoken Azerbaijani journalist with a reputation for investigating the “secret” business of President Ilham Aliyev’s family, has been targeted by threats and blackmail. She believes that ruling circles are behind the smearing campaign aiming to silence her, whereas officials deny any connection to the blackmailing.