Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

RFE/RL CAUCASUS REPORT 30.11.2012 A review of RFE/RL reporting and analysis about the countries of the South Caucasus and Russia's North Caucasus region. For more stories on the Caucasus, please visit and bookmark our Caucasus page .

 

Rumblings In The Republics: New Russian Nationalities Policy Sparks Outcry  A new nationalities policy sets guidelines for policies affecting Russia's nearly 200 ethnic groups. Its drafting has provoked intense concern among them that the status of non-Russian nationalities could be diminished. More    As HIV Grows In Armenia, Migration Seen As Major Factor  HIV/AIDS is relatively rare in Armenia, with just over 1,300 officially registered cases, but the rate of infections is growing. Health care professionals say that in many cases, Armenians contract the virus while living abroad and contribute to its spread back home. Produced by Lilit Harutyunyan, RFE/RL’s Armenian ServiceMore    Georgian President, Prime Minister Exchange Barbs Over High-Profile Arrests  An ongoing war of words between the new Georgian government headed by former businessman Bidzina Ivanishvili and the former ruling United National Movement (ENM) shows no sign of abating. More    Audit Targets Tbilisi Mayor's Sanitation Service  Georgia's State Internal Financial Control System officers have resumed their audit of the Tbilisi mayor's Sanitation Service. More    Daghestani Brothers Struggle To Bridge Religious, Political Divides  Russia's North Caucasus republic of Daghestan has been coping with a low-level insurgency, as well as a tense conflict between the Sufi and Salafist branches of Islam, for years. RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service spoke to two brothers -- one of whom practices the officially accepted Sufi Islam while the other has converted to the banned Salafist faith -- about how their religious differences have strained their family bonds. More    Avar Who Killed Russian Freed  A Moscow court has released the defendant in a high-profile case that sparked ethnic tensions. More    EU Urges Georgia 'Good Governance'  European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton held talks with President Mikheil Saakashvili and Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili in the Georgian capital on November 26, urging them to "find good ways to have what I think we call cohabitation...between the president and the prime minister [of Georgia] and their teams." More    'Chechenization' To 'Daghestanization' -- Curious Changes In Russia's Armed Forces  Russia’s Interior Ministry has given the green light for the creation of a special experimental Daghestani battalion, which will be the destination for some of the young men drafted into the Russian armed forces from that republic this fall. More    For U.S. Athlete And Georgian Birth Family, A Past And Present Revealed  U.S. Paralympic swimmer Elizabeth Stone has come a long way since being given up for adoption shortly after her birth in an impoverished Georgian village. News of her achievements made its way to the family that gave her up more than two decades ago, and ended decades of fear and uncertainty. More    Armenian Presidential Election Slate Still Unclear  Armenia is due to hold a presidential election in just three months, but the Central Election Commission has still not yet set the exact date. More    Imported Cattle No Bovine Boon For Azerbaijan  Azerbaijan's government has spent millions of dollars on thousands of European pedigree cows in an effort to boost milk production. But the cows aren't cooperating. More    Senior U.S. Official Warns Against Creating Perception Of 'Selective Justice' in Georgia  U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip H. Gordon has stressed to Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili the need to avoid creating the impression that an ongoing investigation of alleged abuses of authority selectively and unfairly targets Ivanishvili’s political adversaries. More    Kadyrov Picks New Quarrel With Ingushetian Counterpart  For six weeks last summer, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and his Ingushetian counterpart, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, engaged in a protracted and acrimonious public polemic, until ordered by the presidential envoy to the North Caucasus to desist. Now Kadyrov has attacked Yevkurov over the burial of insurgents. More    Daghestan Denies Floating Initiative To Rename Russia's 'Ethnic' Republics  Daghestan's presidential press service has rejected as untrue an article by "Izvestia" claiming that the republic's leadership was preparing recommendations to the federal leadership to rename Russia's national republics. More