 RFE/RL Headlines 05.05.2009 A daily digest of the English-language news and analysis written by the staff of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |
| News  On Eve Of NATO Exercises, Tbilisi Claims Coup Plot Georgia sent tanks to put down a rebellion at a military base near the capital, Tbilisi. President Mikheil Saakashvili called the rebellion a "serious threat" but said the mutineers had been isolated. Tbilisi accused Russia of financing a "coup," a charge Moscow denies. More  Moldovan Communists Urge Opposition To Vote Moldova's ruling Communist Party is asking three opposition parties to reverse plans to block the election of the country's next president in an effort to force early parliamentary elections, RFE/RL's Moldovan Service reports. More  U.S. Urged To Appoint Ambassador To Turkmenistan The U.S. Commision on International Religious Freedom has recommended that Washington appoint an ambassador to Turkmenistan as soon as possible. More The Iraqi Interior Ministry is creating a special force to guard archaeological and historical sites, RFE/RL's Radio Free Iraq (RFI) reports. More  Kazakh Families Face Eviction In Almaty Twenty-four families living in a private dormitory in Almaty face eviction as a district court confirmed its previous ruling that the families are staying their illegally, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports. More  Armenian Police Block Roads Ahead Of Opposition Rally Armenian authorities seriously restricted transport between Yerevan and the rest of the country before an opposition rally in the capital on May 1, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reports. More  New Synagogue Opens In Dushanbe Dushanbe's only synagogue has been officially opened in the central part of the Tajik capital, RFE/RL's Tajik Service reports. More  The Wrong Sort Of Flowers Why can't we have a day of mourning? That is the question troubling many Azerbaijani students who still don't understand why the government refused to honor the victims of last week's campus shooting, where 12 people died. More  Lukashenka's Grand Ecumenical Ambitions Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka continues his campaign of wooing the West. More A journalist parses local youth culture in Azerbaijan by looking at the various graffiti on one wall in Baku. More  It Depends On Who’s Asking There has been a lot of analysis in recent months (even years) about the ways the ruling elite in Russia has bolstered its ideological infrastructure – that is, the network of purportedly independent political parties, nongovernmental organizations, think tanks, and the like that are brought to bear in many situations to press the Kremlin’s line or, at least, to blur the non-Kremlin lines. More  Georgian Opposition Doubts Claims Of Military Coup Having failed to mobilize more than a few thousand people in support of their demands for President Mikheil Saakashvili's resignation, Georgian opposition leaders announced on May 2 a planned change of tactics, beginning on May 4. They see the announcement by the Georgian authorities on May 5 of an alleged Russian-orchestrated military coup by a tank battalion stationed at the Mukhrovani military base as a crude attempt to thwart their plans to block temporarily major access roads to Tbilisi. More  Karzai's Choice Of Running Mate Draws Criticism Afghan President Hamid Karzai registered to run for reelection on May 4 and named former Vice President and Defense Minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim to run with him as the senior of two vice presidents. Once Afghanistan's most powerful warlord, Fahim’s choice as Karzai running mate has drawn considerable criticism. More NATO's decision to expel two Russian diplomats on spying charges is only the latest espionage incident in a long line of such cases. The Western alliance was a natural target of Soviet espionage efforts during the Cold War, and Russia has evidently inherited that interest. And of course, the West has had its own agents working for the benefit of the alliance. More  Rough Road To 'Reset' The road to resetting relations between Russia and the West is increasingly riddled with potholes. NATO is set to begin a training exercise in Georgia that Russia's president has denounced as a "blatant provocation," and Moscow has now pulled out of a scheduled NATO meeting in protest. More  EU Seems To Be Getting Serious About Southern Energy The EU's energy summit in Prague on May 8 -- with leaders of key Central Asian and South Caucasian states, as well as Turkey -- will mark a milestone in the bloc's effort to lessen its dependence on Russian fossil energy reserves, key among them natural gas. Senior EU officials briefing journalists in Brussels ahead of the summit said the bloc is prepared to give "whatever" political, economic, and financial support needed to pipeline projects needed to forge direct links with countries around the Caspian Sea. More  Turkey Massacre Raises Questions About Arming Civilians Turkey says there are no signs that a massacre at a wedding ceremony in southeastern Turkey was a terrorist attack. Instead, it appears to be the result of a feud between two families. But because both families are tied to the government-controlled Kurdish paramilitary force, the Village Guards, the events also raise a larger question -- the wisdom of arming citizen militias as a force for stability. More  Obama Announces New Plan To Close U.S. Tax Shelters Two of the most important problems facing the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama during the current worldwide recession is putting more Americans back to work and reducing the country's huge deficit. Obama has announced a program that he says will address both by eliminating the tax shelters for companies that outsource jobs to other countries and giving tax incentives to those who create jobs in the United States. More  Why The Sochi Election Was Lost What was the most daunting obstacle facing Boris Nemtsov in the recent mayoral election in Sochi? It wasn't the falsification of the vote or the massive abuse of administrative resources. It was the despair of the people, their lack of faith in the idea that their lives could be changed for the better. More |
