 RFE/RL Headlines 11.06.2009 A daily digest of the English-language news and analysis written by the staff of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |
| News  In Moscow, German FM Calls for 'Community Of Responsibility' German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was in Moscow for a working visit that included talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, as well as his counterpart, Sergei Lavrov. Steinmeier also reached out to Russian civil society, including a visit to the independent Russian newspaper "Novaya gazeta." More  Former Official Says Moscow Punishing Ethnic Republics A former regional official says the Russian Constitutional Court's directive this week to 11 of its "ethnic republics" ordering them to eliminate all references in their constitutions to "sovereignty" is an attempt to punish those entities, which enjoy greater autonomy from Moscow, RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service reports. More  Uzbekistan Digging Trenches Along Disputed Kyrgyz Border Uzbek authorities have started digging trenches in the disputed areas along the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz and Uzbek services report. More  Protesters Demand Kyiv Mayor's Resignation Some 300 NGO members and business owners in Kyiv picketed the Ukrainian parliament to demand the resignation of the capital's controversial mayor, Leonid Chernovetsky, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service reports. More  Provocative Artist Freed In Novosibirsk A Novosibirsk Oblast court in has released an artist from pretrial detention today, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. More  U.S. Envoy Upbeat On Turkey-Armenia Relations In Armenia on the first stop of his first tour of the region, the new top U.S. diplomat for Europe and the former Soviet Union sounded optimistic about prospects for the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations. More  Moldova's Former Parliament Speaker Leaves Communists Former Moldovan parliament speaker Marian Lupu has announced that he is leaving the Communist Party, RFE/RL's Moldovan Service reports. More  Ukraine Says Russian Sailors Immigrating Illegally Ukraine's Interior Ministry says Russian seamen are regularly violating immigration laws in Sevastopol, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service reports. More  Ahmadinejad Takes Exception To 'Insults' The president, who has suggested the Holocaust is "a lie," said opponents have appropriated the smear tactics once used by Adolf Hitler. More  Police Give Stern Warning Against Unsanctioned Rallies In an indication of how seriously authorities are approaching this election, Moghadam warned that Iranian police face a particularly difficult challenge in maintaining such order in the current pre-election environment. More  Starred Students Say 'We Exist' Dozens of Iranian students in the past four years have been banned from classes, summoned to disciplinary committees or to courts, or charged with security crimes and jailed. More About one-third of Iran's 70 million people are under 30, so young people are an especially powerful demographic in this election. And a colorful one. More  Ahmadinejad, Rezai Clash Over Economy In Last Televised Debate Incumbent President Mahmud Ahmadinejad and his conservative rival Mohsen Rezai mainly clashed over the economy in the sixth and final televised debate between Iran’s presidential candidates. More  State Broadcaster Gives Ahmadinejad Extra TV Time (Definitely Maybe) State broadcaster IRIB is rejecting reports, attributed to the president's campaign team, suggesting that Ahmadinejad was granted such "additional airtime," according to Iran's English-language Press TV. More  HRW Urges EU To Press Uzbekistan On Rights Concerns European Union representatives are due to begin a human-rights dialogue with Uzbek authorities today in the capital, Tashkent. Ahead of the meeting, the New York-based watchdog Human Rights Watch has issued a lengthy report that details HRW's main concerns with respect to the human rights situation in Uzbekistan. More The Week In Facebook Inspired by The Atlantic's mock "World Leaders" Facebook group, RFE/RL presents a Facebook-style summary of last week's events. More “The New York Times” has an interactive feature on part of a new exhibit by Iranian artist Negar Ahkami. Ahkami's piece “The Fall” speaks to the country's political and cultural upheaval, which is especially evident this week as thousands rally on the streets for their candidates in the June 12 presidential election. More  My Eye Shadow Is Also Green Kavi-e Semnan, writing in verse, explains her personal motivation for her campaign activities. More  Healthy Election Entertainment Zahra-hb says word on the street is that enthusiasm and public displays of voter preference are at a fever pitch. More  Spilled Milk Russia has banned hundreds of dairy products from Belarus, citing health concerns. But the move is widely seen as retaliation for Minsk's defiant tone and recent coziness with Europe. Not for the first time, Russia has allowed its public health chief to flex his muscles amid high-profile diplomatic spats with its neighbors. More  Omagh Victims' Victory Adds New Counterterrorism Tool A civil court in Belfast has awarded about $2 million in damages to relatives of some of the 29 people who were killed by the 1998 terrorist bombing in Omagh, Northern Ireland. The lawyer for the victims' relatives says the decision has created a new legal tool in the fight against terrorism -- civil lawsuits forcing individual terrorists and their helpers to pay financial compensation for what they've done. More  Ex-President Says Incumbent Playing With 'Fire' Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has inflamed an already heated presidential race. In an open letter to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, Rafsanjani calls on Khamenei to prevent the "fire" sparked by President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's accusations against his main rival from spreading “through the election and beyond." More  New Era As Gas Giant's Profits Plummet A year ago, Gazprom was sitting on top of the world, but the fortunes of Russia's state gas company have taken a dramatic turn for the worse. While the company still ranks among the world's most valuable, it's worth less than half what it was in 2008, and a number of problems lurk on the horizon. More  Apprehension On Evidence As Pullback Looms All U.S. combat forces are preparing to withdraw July 1 from bases and outposts in Iraq's cities, towns, and villages to peripheral areas. In effect, they will abandon many of the facilities used to maintain presence in communities and deny terrorists and insurgents access to the areas. More  Checkered Past In Iran Leaves Much In Doubt Polling in Iran suggests that two reformist candidates could pose serious challenges to incumbent President Mahmud Ahmadinejad in this week's voting. But opinion polls there are notoriously inaccurate, particularly when trying to predict election results for the entire country. More  China, Russia Line Up To Buy IMF's First Bonds For the first time, the International Monetary Fund is planning to issue bonds. It's one of the ways the fund is trying to boost its resources to help countries hit by the economic crisis. China and Russia have already lined up to buy billions of dollars' worth. More  Voters Send Anti-Immigration Message Europeans in 27 countries voted last week for the 736 seats in the European Parliament. A record low turnout of voters rejected the ruling center-left and handed victories to center-right parties, and in some cases, far-right anti-immigration parties. In Britain, meanwhile, the rulning Labour Party turned in its worst showing since World War I, with less than 16 percent of the vote. RFE/RL asked Fraser Nelson, the political editor of "The Spectator" and an expert on European politics, what these More  Are EU's Russian Energy Supplies Perpetually At Risk? An EU delegation embarks on a two-day mission to Kyiv and Moscow in a bid to avert a future gas spat with Russia and Ukraine. Kyiv recently prevented an immediate crisis, but five months after Russia's shock cutoff, the threat of a new disruption looms large. More  Russian Constitutional Court's 'Unconstitutional' Decision A new Russian Constitutional Court decision represents the opening round of a new Moscow campaign against the Russian Federation's so-called ethnic republics, and thus is certain to provoke new tensions between the central government and the peoples and governments of these republics. More  Even Iran Can Change It seems there's a real chance of Mahmud Ahmadinejad becoming the first Iranian leader since the Islamic Revolution 30 years ago to be turned out of office after just one term -- if turnout is high, that is. More  East-West Corridor Still Functioning, Integrating Whether Turkey will be persuaded to sign on remains to be seen, but whatever the outcome, confidence in the transformative power of the East-West Energy and Transport Corridor should remain high. More  What Armenia Can Do To End The Karabakh Dispute The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan involving the region of Nagorno-Karabakh has lasted more than 20 years and displaced 1 million people. But whose interests are served by destabilization and rising tensions in the South Caucasus? More  Moldova Crisis Is An Opportunity For The EU Events in Moldova have provided the European Union’s fledgling Eastern Partnership an early and excellent opportunity to prove its relevance and responsiveness to the six participants. More |
