 RFE/RL Headlines 7/27/2009 5:09:46 PM A daily digest of the English-language news and analysis written by the staff of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |
| News  Russian Rights Activist Attacked Near Moscow A Russian rights activist was shot and severely wounded in an attack in the Russian city of Khimki, near Moscow. More  British Foreign Secretary Outlines Afghan Strategy British Foreign Secretary David Miliband has delivered a major speech on Afghanistan at NATO headquarters in Brussels, with an emphasis on reconciliation with elements of the insurgency. He also called for finding ways to improve governance at the local level and for the development of a regional stability strategy whereby Afghanistan's neighbors contribute to and benefit from its stability and development. More  Kyrgyz Runner-Up Rejects Election Results Kyrgyz opposition leader Almazbek Atambaev has refused to accept the official results of last week's presidential vote giving incumbent Kurmanbek Bakiev the win. He called for nationwide protests before heading for a short trip to Russia to seek Kremlin backing. But few expect Atambaev to gain significant support -- either in Kyrgyzstan or Russia -- in his standoff with Bakiev. More  Russian Patriarch Visits Kyiv, But Motives Questioned Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, has begun a 10-day visit to Ukraine. But some in Ukraine suspect the visit is not so much pastoral as aimed at boosting Russian political influence in their country. More  EU Ministers To Discuss Georgia, Iran, Iceland EU foreign ministers are convening in Brussels for their first monthly meeting under the Swedish presidency. Sweden, which took over the bloc's reins on July 1 for six months, will seek to keep the EU's foreign-policy focus on its eastern neighborhood. More  Chechen President Vows To Continue Fighting Insurgents Pro-Moscow Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov announced today that operations against rebels will continue despite an attack that killed six people in Grozny. More  U.S. Tajik Ambassador: U.S. Not Playing 'Great Game' U.S. Ambassador to Tajikistan Tracey Ann Jacobson denied that Washington is involved in a new "Great Game" in Central Asia with Russia or China, RFE/RL's Tajik Service reports. More  Moldovan NGOs Cite Pre-Election Problems Two Moldovan NGOs have released their final reports on the election campaign ahead of the July 29 parliamentary elections, RFE/RL's Moldovan Service reports. More  Swine Flu Arrives In Central Asia Kazakh health officials say a German citizen was found to be carrying the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports. More  Jailed Reformist 'Cried During The Whole Meeting' The wife of prominent reformist figure and journalist Saeed Hajarian, who was arrested during the postelection crackdown, has said after seeing her husband in jail that his health situation is critical. More  Chomsky On The Iran Protests U.S. linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky spoke to RFE/RL's Radio Farda on July 24 about the postelection unrest in Iran. More  Neda's Mother Breaks Silence The mother of Neda Agha Soltan, a young Iranian woman slain during a June 20 protest in Tehran, has broken her silence to accuse Iran's Intelligence Ministry of ordering mosques not to hold mourning ceremonies for those killed in the postelection crackdown. More  Son Of Rezai Campaign Aide Reported Killed In Iranian Prison Officials were said to have told the family that Mohsen Rouholamini would be released in the near future, and the circumstances of his reported death are unclear. More Photojournalist Ali Zare talks to Reporters Without Borders about his detention in Iran. More  Kyrgyz Presidential Candidate Votes In Wrong Polling Station The likely landslide reelection of incumbent Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiev is looking more farcical by the minute. More  What's Behind The Tough U.S. Talk On Iran, North Korea? As a candidate for U.S. president, Barack Obama criticized the administration of George W. Bush for refusing to negotiate directly with Iran and North Korea unless they met conditions that included abandoning their nuclear programs. More  A Decade With Putin We are fast coming up on the 10th anniversary of Putinism. On August 9, 1999, Putin was named first deputy prime minister after the government of Sergei Stepashin was dismissed. The same day, President Boris Yeltsin named Putin acting prime minister and anointed him the presidential successor. On August 16, the Duma approved Putin as premier, making him Russia’s fifth prime minister in 18 months. And the rest is history: Yeltsin resigned on New Year’s Eve, and Putin was elected president on March 26, 2000. More  Chechen Leadership In Exile Calls For Moratorium On Attacks On Police Members of the Chechen Republic Ichkeria (ChRI) government and parliament in exile met in Berlin on July 25 to discuss the formal announcement in Oslo the previous day that ChRI Prime Minister Akhmed Zakayev and Dukvakha Abdurakhmanov, speaker of the pro-Moscow Chechen Republic parliament, have embarked on consultations aimed at stabilizing the situation in Chechnya. More  Balkars Again Protest Perceived Discrimination Some 1,500 Balkars congregated on July 25 at the monument near Nalchik to the victims of Soviet-era political reprisals to discuss the impact and repercussions of the "counterterror operation" conducted in the Elbruz district in the extreme west of the Kabardino-Balkaria Republic (KBR) from June 30 until early on July 13. More  Georgia Moves To Alienate South Ossetia, Abkhazia Further The working group on territorial integrity and local self-government, one of nine created within the framework of the 70-member commission set up to draft amendments to the Georgian Constitution, proposed on July 22 dropping from the reworked constitution the designation "South Ossetia" in favor of "Tskhinvali region," Caucasus Press reported. More Daghestan Interior Ministry spokesman Colonel Mark Tolchinsky was quoted on July 22 by the Russian news agency Regnum as saying his ministry has no information that would corroborate allegations that a group of Islamic militants crossed from Daghestan into Azerbaijani territory one week earlier. More  Abkhazia, South Ossetia Object TO U.S. Joining EU Monitoring Mission Senior officials of the unrecognized republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia have voiced their objections to Georgian hopes to augment with an unspecified number of U.S. personnel the European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM) currently deployed on the Georgian side of Georgia's internal border with those two republics. More  Nabucco's Latest Hitch Turkmenistan is preparing to take Azerbaijan to international court to resolve a long-standing dispute over ownership of three oil and gas fields in the Caspian Sea. A recent bilateral thaw had fueled hopes of a new era of cooperation that could lead to the construction of a pipeline to bring Turkmen gas across the Caspian to Azerbaijan and on to Europe. More  Integration And Islamic Education In Germany About 4 million Muslims live in Germany today. Many have been there for decades, and debate about their integration has been waged nearly as long. Now a German university has announced it is establishing a department of Islamic theology. Is it a promising step toward normalization? More  Post-Soviet Musicians Hit U.S. Mainstream The U.S. pop music scene owes a certain debt of gratitude to post-Soviet musicians like Regina Spektor, Eugene Hutz of the band Gogol Bordello, and other acts that are steadily climbing into the American musical mainstream and bringing, in varying degrees, their ethnic heritage with them. More  'Confrontation Is Almost Inevitable' It has become a routine event for all of us to join rallies, get beaten, and then escape through the alleyways and then scream our lungs out at 10 p.m. every night with chants of "God is great." More  Iranian Journalist Implicates Nokia In His Arrest Issa Saharkhiz, a prominent journalist and former senior Culture Ministry official, has told his family in a short phone call from prison that several of his ribs were broken during his arrest in northern Iran on July 4 in the postelection crackdown. More  Can Chechen Talks Bring Peace To North Caucasus? Representatives of the Chechen government in exile and the pro-Moscow Chechen Republic have announced that they have started consultations aimed at promoting national reconciliation in Chechnya. Is this process likely to bring an end to the ongoing fighting across the North Caucasus? More  Q & A: What's At Stake? Voters in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region go to the polls on July 25 for parliamentary elections and a ballot on their next president. RFE/RL correspondent Ron Synovitz spoke with Joost Hiltermann, deputy director of the International Crisis Group's Middle East and North Africa program, about the forces involved and the significance of the elections. More  Presidential Debate Takes Place Without Karzai Afghans tuned in to the first televised debate of the presidential campaign on the evening of July 23, but while they had the opportunity to watch two top contenders face off, President Hamid Karzai was noticeably absent. More  A British 'Friend Of Iran' Discusses Crisis Lord Lamont of Lerwick is a leading Conservative member of Britain's House of Lords. Lamont served as chancellor of the Exchequer in John Major's government, and he held several ministerial positions in the administration headed by Margaret Thatcher. He is chairman of the British-Iranian Chamber of Commerce and serves on the advisory board of the Iran Heritage Foundation. He is widely regarded in Europe as someone who wants better diplomatic and economic ties between Iran and the West. Lamont recently spoke with RFE/RL Executive Editor John O'Sullivan. More  Video: Is Kyrgyz President A Democrat? RFE/RL correspondent Bruce Pannier explains why critics say Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiev has failed to live up to his democratic promises. More  Representative Wexler On Engagement And Soft Power U.S. Representative Robert Wexler (Democrat-Florida), the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Europe, held a hearing in Congress that looked at the role of “soft power” in the world – specifically, the role that international broadcasters like Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Voice of America play in countries where the media is neither independent or free. After the hearing, he spoke with RFE/RL correspondent Pavol Babos about U.S. foreign policy, President Barack Obama’s first six months More  It's Time To Get Serious On The Southern Corridor Looking at media coverage of Nabucco, one would think the strategic project to bring Caspian gas to European markets while bypassing Russia was already under construction. But competing visions are still on track to eclipse EU and U.S.-backed ambitions. More |
