Latvian Idealist

Luzhkov Case - The Opportunity We Missed

2011-01-18T10:29:00.003+02:00

Former Mayor of Moscow City Yury Luzhkov has applied to Latvian authorities for a permanent residence permit - a situation Latvia could use as a tool to promote its image within Russia, but unfortunately Latvian leadership failed to use this opportunity.

The amendments to the Immigration Law or what is all about

In July 2010, the Parliament of Latvia adopted several amendments to the Immigration Law thus broadening the eligibility criteria for obtaining a temporary residential permit. According to the new version of the law a foreigner has the right to request a temporary residence permit:

· for a period of time not exceeding five years, if he or she has invested in the equity capital of the capital company at least LVL 25 000 and during a financial year the capital company pays in total in the budget of the State and self-government as taxes at least LVL20 000;

· for a period of time not exceeding five years, if he or she has acquired in the Republic of Latvia and he or she owns one or several immovable properties in Riga, Riga planning region or cities, the total amount of transactions of which is at least LVL 100 000, one or several immovable properties outside Riga, Riga planning region or cities, the total amount of transactions of which is at least LVL 50 000, as well as in the case, if he or she does not have and never has had debts of payments of immovable property tax and the payment of the amount of transactions has been performed by clearing; and

· for a period of time not exceeding five years, if he or she has made financial investments in the credit institution of the Republic of Latvia in the amount of at least LVL 200 000 in the form of subordinated capital (subordinated loan or subordinated bonds) of a credit institution, if the term of such transaction is not less than five years and in accordance with the deposit provisions it may not be terminated prior to the term of repayment of the deposit.

According to the news reports, Yury Luzhkov has invested to the subordinated capital of Rietumu banka LVL 200 000 – a minimal sum required by the law to apply for a temporary residence permit. Latvia media reported that Luzhkov is going to move to Latvia for living, but it seems that his main goal was “freedom of movement” around Europe. However, the emotional reaction of Latvian authorities has indicated the lack of strategic vision and has exposed problems in internal communication which is not a surprise for those who closely follow Latvian politics.

Luzhkov – a reaction

Yury Luzhkov is a notorious figure for Latvian politicians due to his critical attitude towards Latvia and support of the introduction of Russian as the second state language. His last visit to Riga in capacity of Mayor of Moscow in August 2010 was completely ignored by the Latvian government (he was invited by the head of the Riga City Council) which was a clear signal that he was unwelcomed guest on the Latvian soil.

The Interior Minister Linda Murniece (“Unity”), was quick to react saying to the Russian News Agency that Yury Luzhkov did not deserve a temporary residence permit due to his negative attitude towards Latvia. She indicated also that most probably he will not get a permit. “As a minister, I have a right to make this decision if this question is not resolved other way around,” said Murniece. The Defence Minister Artis Pabriks (“Unity”) was of a different opinion saying to journalist that it would not be a tragedy if Luzhkov is granted a temporary residence permit in Latvia and that he has all the rights to apply for it according to the law. However, the security authorities have started to investigate the nature of the capital invested by Luzhkov trying to find legal basis to refuse in granting a temporary residence permit. One day later former Mayor of Moscow was included into the so-called “black list” and was banned to enter Latvia.

The opportunity we missed

A situation when Defence Minister comments on events which are in the area of responsibility of Foreign Minister or where Foreign Minister is expected to voice his opinion has already become a normal situation in Latvia. Moreover, Defence Minister has been appointed by the Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis (“Unity”) as a coordinator of the Latvian EU presidency in 2015. This logic easily explains us the “internal kitchen” of Latvian leadership, but this is not the theme of my post today.

The difference in opinion of two ministers indicated two things

Lack of internal communication. In order to avoid any collisions in opinion and to show integrity of Latvian leadership, before coming out with her comments the Interior Minister had to discuss Latvian position in this case with Foreign Minister or even with Prime Minister. You can question the necessity of this step as Yury Luzhkov does not occupy any political position in Russia anymore, but the fact that this case attracted media attention in Russia shows us that we had to use this opportunity to promote Latvia’s image in Russia;
Absence of strategic approach towards Russia. The remarks of Interior Minister were based on emotions and lacked strategic vision. Instead, Latvian politicians had to say publicly that they are very glad that Mr. Luzhkov has changed his mind on Latvia and he considers Latvia as a country where he could stay for living. Yes, 10 days later the security authorities could announce that he is not even allowed to enter the country. But at least it would not have been viewed as a decision made by one person and based on emotions and maybe personal dislike. The Defence Minister Pabriks being a wise diplomat was very cautions in his comments, and , I think, he understood that this opportunity could be used in Latvian interests and be a part of a strategy towards Russia.

In his last annual phone-in session with citizens of Russia, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin mentioned that the living conditions in Russia are better that in Latvia or Romania. I am not surprised that many Russian people really believe in that thinking that Latvia is a poor fascist country. Therefore Latvian leadership should use any opportunity in its “information war” with Russia in order to break stereotypes and promote Latvia’s positive image in Russia. So far only the Riga City Council and a couple of NGOs have been active in this regard.

Video: Tourists from Russia Meet New Year in Riga

Haiti: Model Earth 2012 or on the importance of education

2010-01-17T16:14:00.051+02:00

IFRC

According to the latest news the devastating earthquake in Haiti left more than 140 000 people dead, but the death toll is going to rise. Europeans, who are not so much affected by the effects of climate change, sigh and go to the closest shopping mall in order not to miss the incredible sales or queue in cinemas to buy a ticket for Avatar movie, which in fact contains a hidden message, what the people's greed could lead to – destruction of the Earth and other planets sometime in the future, if we are not going to change our lavish, wasteful way of life. This morning I picked up an article of the founder of the neorealist theory of international relations Kenneth N. Waltz "Explaining War", where he linked international conflicts with human nature/behavior (one of three aspects):

The focus of the important cause of war is found in the nature and behavior of man. War result from selfishness, from misdirected aggressive impulses,, from stupidity. (…) If these the primary causes of war, then the elimination of war must come through uplifting and enlightening men or securing their psychic-social readjustment. (…) Education becomes the remedy of war.

Realists point to man's egoistic, bellicose nature, overlooking such features as philanthropy, self-sacrifice etc. The aim of a man is to survive in anarchy, striving for power. If these premises are true then the humans are deemed to extinct along with the Earth.

If you still have not seen Avatar movie, I recommend you to see these video stories first, which correlate to the main idea of this movie:

One more recent movie comes to my mind – 2012. On my friend's question, why I still have not seen that movie, I answer that you should not go to the cinema to understand the devastating effects of the men made climate change. Here are some examples:

Thailand's cost disappears as seas rise

Surrounded by water, a Buddhist temple is one of the last remnants of a Thai village that has vanished beneath the sea -- a scene being repeated across Asia and the world

Haiti has been plagued by the numerous environmental, economic and political problems for years. Unlike the Dominican Republic, people of Haiti destroyed more than 90% of the land's forests, leading to numerous ecological (floods, droughts) and health problems. People did not think about sustainable development of their land, taking from it as much as they can and having a short-term thinking. Look at the photo story from Haiti "Hunger and Rage: and this picture in particular. The recent earthquake is just a culmination of what has happened over the last decades.

The situation in Haiti could be viewed as a model of the development of our planet if we continue to live like we used to live – without sustainable thinking and caring for the future generations. Although I know little about Haiti, its historical development and have never been to this country, nevertheless I presume that the main problem, which leads to the degradation of the land and people's lives, is a lack of education. "Education is the remedy of war" say realists, "education is the remedy of environmental disaster" should be stressed not only by environmentalist, but also by our leaders, local decision-makers.

The UNHCR has already urged the world leaders to take the climate refugee problem seriously (here are some articles: Climate Change could become the biggest driver of displacement: UNHCR Chief, In Search of Shelter: Mapping the Effects of Climate Change on Human Migration and Displacement ) If Europe wants to prevent the inflow of climate refugees, mainly from African countries, it should invest more into the education of local people, sharing not only knowledge, but also new technology.

Here are some good examples:

But you should not wait for the world leaders to make the first step and bring knowledge to the people from developing nations. If you a frequent flyer of SAS Airlines, then you have a chance to donate your Euro Bonuses to the Save the Children and make a difference. For more information, click here.

Computer technician? Accountant? No, Prime Minister of Latvia!

2010-01-13T10:00:00.010+02:00

Browsing the web, I have just encountered a blog entry written by FT journalist Gideon Rachman, where he shortly described his first impressions about the meeting of Latvian Prime Minister:

This morning I saw the Latvian prime minister, Valdis Dombrovskis - who, irritatingly, is eight years younger than me - he's 37. It was all charmingly informal. I turned up at the government offices and said "I have come to see the prime minister", several times very slowly to the security guard on the door. Eventually he understood, pointed at the stairs and waved three fingers at me - which I accurately interpreted as meaning "third floor". When I got up there, a woman popped out of an office and introduced herself as the PM's secretary and went to fetch me a cup of coffee. After a while, a man in short sleeves and glasses wandered into the office. I did vaguely wonder whether he was a computer technician, since he had a faintly geeky air. But when he said, "well we might as well get started", it struck me that that this must - in fact - be the prime minister himself.

That post might lead you to think that the journalist himself was completely unprepared as he even hardly recognized the PM, but we cannot deny the fact that our PM looks like a modest accountant or a computer technician. Note that I did not say "unfortunately". I tend to think that in the situation we are now, we do not need a charismatic man, a bright political figure, but rather a modest accountant. The old Russian song from the mid 90s comes to my mind:

And look at this picture taken from the Award Ceremony of the European man in Latvia organized by the European Movement Latvia on December 29, 2009.
Where do you think the PM is? He sits on the front row along with other participants of the ceremony. The photographs pay attention not to him, but to the journalist of Latvian Radio in Brussels, who received the Award, they even turned their back to him. Standing in the back corner of the hall (as I was late), I remembered my Georgian experience.
Once (it was in January 2008) my French colleague organized an exhibition of the photo works made by the children from the local children's' house of Rustavi. The exhibition was organized on the first floor of the Rustavi City Hall. That day the weather was very nice with the blue sky and shining sun. I was a bit late and missed the opening ceremony, running directly from the Tbilisi market with sacks full of hand-made socks and other stuff for my friends as I was supposed to leave in a couple of days. Enjoying the exhibition and the weather outside, my Lithuanian colleague and I went out for a talk, standing near the entrance of the Rustavi municipality. In the midst of conversation I started to show him the amazing handcrafts I managed to buy. Then suddenly the guard came to us, in a rude way asking us in Russian to go away from the municipality. We obeyed and moved a bit away from the main entrance, but then again he came to us, asking us to leave the place and mentioning that this is not a market place. He did not want to hear our explanations that we are visitors of the exhibition. On my question, why we should leave as this is a public place, the guard answered, pointing to the municipality building: "This is the State!" We left the place, but I could not calm down, referring all the time to my Latvian experience, where everybody can enter the Riga City Hall and even attend the sessions.
The thinking and reasoning of that guard is a legacy of the Soviet Union, when people perceived the State as something, which stands above them, which is unreachable, and the duty of an individual is to obey the State. The same attitude I found, standing near the Tbilisi City Hall, which used to a meeting place for me and my friends (then I changed it to the Opera House to avoid any problems). Even the entrance to the inauguration ceremony of the president of Georgia in January 2008 was by invitations only. I managed to sneak in with the blank invitation given to me by a stranger (see below). But that time I was so upset that only selected persons could attend the ceremony on Rustaveli str in front of the Parliament building. It seemed to me that the president himself divided people into two categories – those whom he trusts, his supporters and others.
Let's go back to Latvia, to that ceremony… I realised that there is still a ray of hope that despite all the hardships we can manage to become a prosperous nation with a deep rooted democratic tradition. We are on the halfway, and we should not give up. I believe that we will manage to deal with corruption, nepotism and cronyism and that is why I am staying home, in Latvia!

Crossing Georgian-Azerbaijani border...

2010-01-10T19:10:00.008+02:00

July 24, 2009. On the train Tbilisi-Baku

17:20

Lucky I, 25 minutes before the departure and I managed to get my Tbilisi-Baku ticket. An investor, which took over the Tbilisi central station, has finally started reconstruction works with a new passenger hall already opened. That made me very happy, feeling the progress done in more than a half a year since my last visit to this city. However, it was too early to make a conclusion about the service. There is one woman who sells tickets, and those should be filled in by hand. (see a photo below) Therefore in order to get a ticket you need to wait at least 10 minutes. This, of course, creates nervousness among those passengers, who would like to manage to get on train before it leaves, especially, sttanding in a long line.

18:15

The train goes so slowly that it takes one hour to get to Rustavi, which you can reach from Tbilisi by car in 20 minutes maximum. However, we should be thankful that the weather is not so hot, because we even cannot open the window. Therefore it is not so stuffy.

21:10

Finally we passed the border and all the check points. In total it took us 3 hours. Comparing Georgian and Azerbaijani border guards, I would say that the former are more welcoming. Realising that I am from the EU country, the Georgian border guard (although it is more correct to say - border policeman) even greeted me in English, thus showing his readiness to continue the conversation in English. His Azerbaijani colleague even did not greet us (or I did not hear), collecting and checking all the passports. As I expected he paid more attention to my passport, but did not say a word. In few minutes another border guard came to my coupe and closed the door for holding a private conversation. I had no doubts that the reason was my recent visit to rival Armenia. However, I had a feeling that the guy who started to interrogate me felt uncomfortable to ask all these questions, what was my purpose to visit Yerevan and why I am heading to Baku. Realising that I am just a tourist, visiting my friends in all the South Caucasus republics, he thanked me and went out. My passport was given back to me separately; it seems that they copied it as well as my Armenian visa. This case – crossing the Azerbaijani border with Armenian visa – fully contrasts with my experience crossing Armenian border with two Azerbaijani visas in my passport. To my surprise, they even did not pay attention, issuing me a visa for 21 day in 5 minutes. However, I should mention also that despite the fact that I was waiting an invitation for almost three weeks, I was given an Azerbaijani visa in the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Tbilisi without any problems. The consul even did not pay attention that I had just come back from Yerevan.

Armenia vs Azerbaijan: visa policy

2009-07-22T10:16:00.005+03:00

View on the Georgian-Armenian border from Georgia's side

Georgian-Armenian border, 13:05, 20 July, 2009

It is now more than 1,5 hours we are standing in a line on the Georgian-Armenian border, Sadakhlo check-point. The line is not moving, and we – passengers – even started to think that the border guards are having a lunch time or maybe even a day off. It is hot. The driver put on Russian pop music, and I even managed to recognize one Azeri ‘chanson’ music performed in Russian. Bearing in mind the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, it is rather weird to hear this song on the border. The last time I crossed this part of the border two years ago, when Georgian border check-point was just a one shack. Now it is a two-story building with a modern equipment and infrastructure.

Besides Armenians, who are going back home, I travel with one Slovenian and three Polish tourists, who first arrived to Georgia, travelled there and then decided to go to Armenia, because it is rather easy to obtain a visa on the border. After the August war last year there are not so many tourists coming to Georgia, mainly people from Eastern Europe and the US, the majority of whom are young people, students. It is interesting to note here that these young people after visiting Georgia chose Armenia not Azerbaijan. The reason of this choice is rather simple – in order to enter Azerbaijan, you should get a tourist visa or have an invitation from your friend, Azerbaijani citizen. After my visit to the consular section of the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Tbilisi, I was told that in order to get a visa, I should have an invitation. Asked, whether it is possible to obtain a tourist visa via travel agency, the man with whom I had spoken, alluded that in that case the procedure of obtaining visa will be more difficult and longer. Therefore I decided first to visit Armenia and then go to Azerbaijan, when I get an invitation from my friend.

It is not a secret that tourists get two different narratives about Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, when visiting Azerbaijan and Armenia. Therefore more foreign tourists visit your country, more people hear your ‘narrative’ and side with you. Among them might be young scholars, future diplomats and opinion makers. The trend I observer now is that more tourists visit Armenia, when they arrive to Georgia. And as I have mentioned previously, the reason is the visa policy. Young people do not want to pay 60 EUR per visa or wait for an invitation to enter Azerbaijan.

I have just asked a Slovenian guy, whether he has plans to visit Azerbaijan. He’s saying that it is too expensive for him. He has no friends there to send him an invitation, but the travel agency in Tbilisi asked for additional 75 EUR to make all the necessary arrangements for the visa. Adding 60 EUR for the visa, a tourist had to pay 135 EUR in total just to enter the country and wait for 5-10 days. Meanwhile, Armenian visa for 21 days during the tourist season costs only 10 USD or 7 EUR and you can get it easily on the border, even if you are a tourist-backpacker, who did not book any hotel beforehand.

***
Yerevan, 22 July, 2009

I have just got a letter from my friend with a copy of the invitation, which has been sent to the Azerbaijani embassy in Riga, not Tbilisi. In the letter case it would have taken them more days to make an invitation. I do hope that the consul will understand the complexity of the situation and issue me a visa, so I can travel to Azerbaijan.

PS: I really cannot understand why it is so difficult to enter Azerbaijan, don't they need the money I am going to spend there thus boosting regional business, don't they need more internantional support for their narrative about Nagorno-Karabakh? Should I make a conclusion that Azerbaijan is not a tourist-friendly country? So many questions in my head...

Voice of the young generation: They don't really care about us!

2009-07-03T20:48:00.003+03:00

I have just watched a video of Michael Jackson, making his last rehearsal before the death and performing one of his famous songs - "They do not care about us". It was just two minuted after I read in the news that in a time of a deep financial crisis in Latvia, when a country is on a verge of bunkrupcy, a newly elected Chairman of Jelgava region Ziedonis Cauna will receive a salary of 1950 LVL (2775 EUR) per month, even more than Latvian Prime Minister and just around 350 EUR less that the president of Latvia!! His deputies will receive more that members of the Cabinet of Ministers. Meanwhile, pensions have been cut for 10%-20% and 70% for the pensioners who work in order to survive! The salaries have been cut for all state employees - teachers (who will soon receive a bit more that a minimum wage), policemen (professionals are leaving, trying to find a well-paid job in other European countries, primarly in Scandinavian countries, the UK, Ireland, Germany), doctors (young professionals search for opportunities to find a proper work aborad) and other state employees.

But it seems the wages are on the rise for the heads of the local and regional municipalities... However, nobody will surpass a rector of the state-funded Riga Stradins University, Jānis Gardovskis, who earns more than 11 000 LVL (15 600 EUR) per month. In his defence, he's saying that he earns so much, because the university managed to attract money from other funds. Meanwhile, this February the university administration doubled the price for the student dormiteries, forcing them to pay 70 EUR instead of 35 EUR...

I feel that those on top really DO NOT CARE ABOUT US, the young generation of Latvia....

This case with the newly elected civil servants, whose one of the first decisions was to raise their salaries, is a signal that this self-enrichment using tax payers money might be a never-ending story....

Frustrated...

PS:

Some thoughts about Azerbaijan...

2009-03-02T13:20:00.011+02:00

Baku, July 208

July 25, 2008

My plane has recently landed in Riga airport from Baku, two weeks long journey is over and I am trying to collect my written notes and organize my impressions, thoughts about the time I spent in Azerbaijan, people I met, stories I heard. I beg your pardon in advance if you find some of my notes critical or not objective as you understand them. But these are the notes of one Latvian idealist.

The first thing which flashed into my mind when I got off the plane in Riga airport was about fresh air. “Wow, amazingly fresh air! I can breath!” – I told myself that time, thinking later that the air in the airport might be one of the most polluted in Riga, but it is even more polluted in Baku and Apsheron peninsula at large, where polluted air, dust, car emissions and hot weather during summer days create an environment difficult to endure for a person who did not get used to such conditions. Numerous reports on the world’s dirties cities found in the internet name Sumqayit – city close to Baku – as the one of the most polluted areas on the Earth, but some locals told me that it might happen that soon Baku will replace Sumqayit on the list, as most of the Soviet-era old chemical plants are closed or functioning at low capacity.

Lifting crane has already become a visible symbol of Baku. Construction works are everywhere, which symbolizes the economical boom country experience these days as oil and gas money fills the pockets of the government and better off citizens. Although it seems to me that a proper city development strategy plan has not yet been agreed on and discussed with the public. Usually public is just informed, not consulted. Only few people I met told me that they really like the city where do they live. Maybe this is just a minor fact to mention, but it reveals us a lot about the relations between authorities and society at large, but I will get back to this discussion later.

Let me describe my last day in Baku, when I decided to attend a workshop of my Finnish friend for the IDP children, living in a separate zone in one of the districts of Baku. It was terribly hot that day. The workshop started at 1 pm, but it seemed that children were waiting for it to start long before as the cheerful crowd of children age 7-12 greeted us in front of the building. We got the key and entered a tiny room with a small window, three tables, several chairs and a flipchart. In a few minutes one more volunteer from France and a local girl-interpreter showed up. The theme of the day was volunteerism and volunteer work. Children were asked to share their views on numerous topics related to volunteerism, also being engaged in some interactive games. And I was really amazed by the patience of children, who had to spend several hours in a tiny stuffy room. They were noisy as usually children are, but some of their thoughts gave me a lot of food for thinking.

Once they were asked to share their views on what they like and dislike in Azerbaijan. Music, national instruments, food, historical monuments, Baku old town and many other things were mentioned as the things children like most of all. Poor living conditions (housing), littering, pollution were mentioned as the most negative things about Azerbaijan. “How you can solve these problems?” my Finnish friend asked a boy. “We can write a joint appeal to the President, and he will definitely help us”, the boy answered. His view was shared by others. Asking, how we can all solve the problem of littering, most of the children replied that their parents litter, throw plastic bottles outside, thus showing an example for them.

We took a small break for cookies and a glass of water. My friend and I went out to breathe some fresh air, discussing what has been said by the children. Somehow I could not understand why people living in such bad conditions all the time complain, hope for the president and do nothing to change their environment, making it even worse. I heard about it from old people, but was amazed to hear the same from children. Why not to take your own initiative, clear the courtyard and paint entrances of the houses with the help of children to make your environment friendly and more creative? Is it just because of the mentality to count just on the authorities or apathy to do smth and go with the flow? One can point that this is the job of the local authorities and people should demand more, especially if you live in oil rich country, but petro dollars or manats do not reach ordinary people. Moreover, most of the people still have this Soviet mentality of the authorities as not just civil servants who are elected to serve the people and their needs, but powerful people who are empowered to rule over them. But as regards ecological situation in the country, I think ecological problems will pursue Azerbaijan in the future and the situation even might get even worse, one argument for that – children are shown an example that littering is not a bad thing and not taught to cherish the nature and environment where do they live.

Azerbaijan can be an example for the region, introducing alternative sources of energy – wind and solar – and not basing their economy only on oil and gas as the basic source of energy. Baku is known as the city of wind, but sun is shining in most of the time, especially during spring, summer and fall. But you will never see a windmill or solar batteries on the roof of a house in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan has a huge potential to be a leader in this sphere, producing not only oil and gas vital for the European economy, but also clean energy and equipment to get this energy. Some people with whom I had a chance to talk see the future of Azerbaijan in the development of IT sphere, so the country can produce leading IT specialist and even can compete with India for the outsourcing of the Western business. How long it will take to Azerbaijan to transform and educate its society? I was told that it might be a strategy for 2025, while, for example, rivalry Armenia has already begun to position itself as a land of outsourcing – IT, accounting etc. Some colleagues of mine during our discussion on this topic pointed that the future of Azerbaijan might be the development and focusing more on nanotechnology. It might be so, but this means more investment in education and applied sciences. Investments are vitally needed also into the infrastructure, especially roads! I can just mention that it took us 5,5 hours to drive 160 km from Baku to northern city of Quba located in the Northern part of the country. The main road was in a terrible condition.

However, in order to make Azerbaijan a prosperous country reforms are crucially needed – less bureaucracy, one window policy for local business and foreign investors, establishment of the independent anti-corruption bureau etc. But it is impossible to do this without the will of the elite, which is now so enriched and consist only from better off people, who live in a completely different world full of luxury. And it is not surprisingly that children of this elite class of citizens who gained their fortune are vivid supporters of the policy of Heydar Aliyev and his son and successor Ilham Aliyev, some of them joining the pro-presidential movement “Ireli” (azer, “forward”). They might be just 22, having already a cool car, expensive clothes and prestigious job, because they have rich parents with so needed and crucial network of friends and relatives, who hold good position in the government or state controlled institutions. And these people are diplomats and high-ranking officials in the foreseeable future. I cannot argue that this is the common trend, but this is the impression I got after my two visits to the country.

“We do not need your democracy!”, “Do not teach us how to live!”, “If not Heydar Aliyev we might not be an independent country, this is all thanks to him!”, “We have already seen your style of democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan!” – these are the words taken from my discussion with young fortunate Azerbaijanis working for state institutions and studying in prestigious universities.

Absence of the rule of law, endemic corruption, cronyism, wealth gap, lack of transparency, widespread poverty – these are the things young Azerbaijanis living in the IDP neighbourhood of Baku wrote in their papers, describing what do they dislike in Azerbaijan. The section “what I like” was empty or full of question marks. This is the case I was told by my friend, who conducted several workshops for different age IDPs from Nagrno-Karabakh. These young men have no money and have no hope for the better future, because the style of governance is not created for and does not benefit them. Some of these young people join various democratic youth movements, but some are searching for the opportunity to go to Europe or the USA with the aim to stay there, citing that they can help their country more while living abroad.

Here I might be accused of having too critical approach, not mentioning positive sides of the work of the government, but I just reflect an impression of a Latvian idealist. I really cannot understand the meaning of the Day of National Salvation (June 15), when Heydar Aliyev came to power once again in 1993, celebrations of the 39th anniversary when Heydar Aliyev came to power in 1969 on July 14, oil rich country with hospitals in Baku and regions resembling mad houses from horror movies. Maybe the answer is that I have been socialized in a completely different way – to think critically, be active and responsible citizen, to have a debate within the society, to ask maximum and strive for it – and I have completely different values in my life.

Leaders of Muslim and mountainous Jews, whom I met during my trip, started and finished their speeches, praising the current leadership of the country, but why I see so many negative sides? I do not claim that Latvia is perfect in everything – democratic establishment of the country, governance style, economics, but I see this debate, openness of the governance system, check & balances. What I see in Azerbaijan is a cult of personality, where people have no freedom to choose, but just to respect and obey.

PS: On July 11, it took us 4 hours to get from Qobustan to Baki (around 40 km) or maybe even more as were were stuck in the worst traffic jam I have ever experienced. The reason: opening of the mosque down on the route, where president I. Aliyev took part. There were no announcement before that day that the road will be closed for a certain period of time. Moreover, there were just 2-3 cars of the traffic police, trying to manage the flow of cars, but unsuccessfully. As a result we had to get off and continue our roure by foot.

AZERBAIJAN – “SWIMMING IN THE EMPTY POOL?”

2009-03-01T16:51:00.007+02:00

Extract from an published paper on the Democratization trends in the South Caucasus through the prism of the presidential elections in 2008:

Chapter II: Azerbaijan - "Swimming in the Empty Pool?"

On December 16, 2008 the ruling “New Azerbaijan Party” (YAP), whose Chairman is the current president of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, sounded its proposal to scrap the limit on the presidential term, arguing that “the fact is that presidency of one person more than twice is a breach of law. This version cannot give chance to electors to state their position”. According to the Deputy Chairman of YAP, Executive Secretary of the Party Ali Ahmadov if the condition was not established for a person, who people wanted to elect, they would be obliged to vote for unwished person.

Supporters of this move like to make references to the U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt who served four consequent presidential terms. However, their opponents, like Ali Kerimli, accuse authorities in attempt to “legalize monarchy” and follow the example of George Washington as ” Presidential term limits were created to prevent politicians from clinging to power and to place system-based procedure above personality-driven politics. But it seems the impulse of many world leaders to view themselves as indispensable remains strong. Azerbaijan is just the latest in a long line of countries”. In a recent article, which sparked controversy in Azerbaijan, Armenian political analyst David Babayan describes the curent trends in Azerbaijan as the “smooth transition into the Azerbaijani khanate”, which used to be a form of rule in Azerbaijan till 19th century, when the region become a part of the Russian empire.

Indeed, former president of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev has been proclaimed as a n atio n al leader. The day he returned from Nakhchivan to Baku in 1993 to rule the country (June 15) is an official holiday called National Salvation Day, his birthday on May 10 is celebrated as Flower Festival, July 14 is celebrated as the day when Heydar Aliyev was elected as the First Secretary of the Central Committee of Azerbaijan Communist Party in 1969. Ilham Aliyev “inharited” presidency from his father Heydar Aliyev in elections on October 15 2003, which were marked as rigged both by international observers and opposition, causing massive protest rallies, which were dispersed by police with five protestors being killed. Parliamentarian elections on November 6, 2005 were also marked by fraud and violence.

Since then there has been no dialogue between government and opposition, despite the several attempts and mediation efforts from the side of international community, including OSCE, which has proposed several important amendments to the Election Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan like configuring of the Central Election Commission and lower-level commissions to ensure they enjoy public confidence, in particular the trust of those running for office as previously they were controlled by the ruling New Azerbaijan Party. On June 2, 2008 the Parliament of Azerbaijan has adopted new amendments to the Election Code without addressing this issue, which was “one area of concern” of the OSCE Venice Commission. Another “areas of concern” was reduction of the official election campaign (media and voter agitation period) by 50% from 60 days to 28 and removal of the legal obligation of State-funded AzTV to provide equal campaign conditions and prohibited it from conducting any form of campaign.

Television in Az e rbaijan remains the most important news disseminator and that is controlled, either by the owners who have allegiance to the establishment or by local authorities, but state-funded AzTV covering almost the entire country. According to the leader of the opposition Musavat Party Isa Gambar, “restrictions on access to TV mean that authorities, who are conducting their propaganda 24 hours a day during the whole year, are afraid that the opposition would have a few hours for contact with voters.”

All major opposition parties condemned the amendments and decided to boycott the presidential elections to be held on October 15, 2008, citing “continued persecution of the opposition, a lack of normal and free conditions for holding an election and restrictions on campaigning.” As a result of this decision, these elections resembled more like a “referendum” on trust to the incumbent president Ilham Aliyev as he faced no real competitors as some of them (like leader of Muasir Musavat Party Hafiz Hajiyev, who in his campaign criticised more the “entourage” of the president, but not himself) even had portraits of the incumbent president and their competitor Ilham Aliyev.

OSCE International Election Observation Mission in its preliminary statement assesses the elections “with their compliance with OSCE and Council of Europe commitments and standards for democratic elections”, however pointing in its preliminary conclusions that “elections marked considerable progress toward meeting OSCE and Council of Europe commitments and other international standards but did not meet all commitments.” However, there are several important facts on the election process to be mentioned (according to the IEOM Report, October 16, 2008):

On October 3, 2008 according to the stipulation of the Law on Freedom of Assembly Azerbaijan’s Cabinet of Ministers approved list of places prohibited for mass actions, which consists only from administrative buildings occupied by the central, regional and city executive powers. Moreover, the Law states that “The number of picketers shall not be more than 50 persons and they shall not be located closer than 10 meters to the entrance of a picketed object, shall not make obstacles for entry and exit into the picketed object and shall not use amplifiers above 10 watt;”
While the law states that the relevant executive bodies shall provide special venues for conducting rallies and shall issue a list of “proposed places” from which the organizers of such rallies “can choose”. The Baku City authorities interpreted it as an exclusive list and denied requests of the opposition group “Joint Front of Democratic Forces” to hold rallies in the centre of the city in places which were not included in the list drawn up by the authorities;
The election process was carried out in a peaceful manner, but was characterized by a lack of robust competition and of vibrant political discourse facilitated by media, and thus did not reflect all the principles of a meaningful and pluralistic democratic elections;
Election commissions were appointed under a politically contentious formula;
The incumbent president faced a field of candidates who commanded little apparent public support. Most of the public was not aware of any campaigning by other candidates nor seemed aware that any candidate aside from Ilham Aliyev was running;
Although the incumbent president declared his intention not to campaign personally, he extensively toured the country in his official capacity, inaugurating new factories, roads, schools, sport complexes, museums and an airport, visiting military installations but also awarding flats to veterans. These visits, which received wide media coverage, were associated with campaign activities by the media and the electorate. This blurring of the distinction between the regular activities of the incumbent and his campaign created unequal campaigning opportunities;
People had been obliged to attend rallies organised by the YAP. In some cases law-enforcement bodies and organizers prevented participants from leaving rallies at their convenience;
There was limited coverage of the campaign in the news programme and most of the broadcasters (state-funded and private) with national outreach devoted the bulk of their news coverage to the incumbent president;
As opposition called people to boycott the elections thus trying to achieve low voter turnout, which will mean lack of legitimacy for Ilham Aliyev, authorities organised special schemes of brining people to the polling stations (“pyramidal networks of persons responsible for the group of voters organised by local authorities and/or election commissions, and were in some cases linked to the YAP”).

According to the CEC results, Ilham Aliyev got 87, 34% of votes with 75, 64% voter turnout with all the candidates conceding their defeat. While ruling party (YAP) stated that this election was “a triumph of democracy”, Iranian election monitors did not notice any violations, GUAM Secretary General Valeri Chechelashvili stated that presidential elections were democratic, CIS Observation Mission was of the same opinion (“the elections were legitimate, open and transparent”), but head of the mission Mikhail Krotov stated that Azerbaijan can even teach democracy to other countries and offered to hold an international workshop in Baku for learning Azerbaijani election experience.

Statements of European observers were also mainly positive about the election process:

“Elections in Azerbaijan are like the elections in all European countries” (Solomon Passy, former OSCE Chairman, former Bulgarian Foreign Minister and candidate for the NATO Secretary general);
“Elections meeting international norms were held in Azerbaijan and European Parliament observers have not recorded any breach of law” (Kristina Ojuland, Vice Speaker of the Parliament of Estonia)

Only Andres Herkel, the head of the Council of Europe's parliamentary delegation, said openly that the election was "a very good swimming exercise, but unfortunately, it's an empty pool." Indeed, despite the technically smoothly conducted elections, the election process is not only about Election Day, but is the whole process, including election campaign and appropriate legislation to conduct free and fair elections, which was not the case in Azerbaijan.

[...]

PS (!):

The Briefing: Postmortem Of The Azerbaijani Election

RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service Director Kenan Aliyev discusses this week's presidential election in Azerbaijan, which he characterized as rigged and without any meaningful opposition.

PHOTOS: Courtesy of Marcin Lapczyncki

GEORGIA – “TRIUMPH OF DEMOCRACY?”

2009-03-01T15:29:00.008+02:00

Extract from an published paper on the Democratization trends in the South Caucasus through the prism of the presidential elections in 2008:

[...]

According to the assessment of Georgian political analyst David Aprasidze, “Georgia is an example of the new wave of transformation in Eurasia. Observers variously depicted it as a country “lurching towards democracy” in 2001, starting to “awaken with the Rose Revolution” in 2003, and ending with “sliding towards Authoritarianism” in 2007. (…) The ruling elite used the modernization slogan as a tool for consolidating its own power.” Indeed, since Rose Revolution which took place in 2003, Georgia has been called as a “new democracy”, “beacon of liberty” or “model new democracy” by many world commentators, politicians and leaders, most notably by the U.S. President George W. Bush on his visit to Tbilisi in May 2005 (“Georgia is today both sovereign and free and a beacon of liberty for this region and the world” ).

However, Freedom House 2005 report “Nations in Transit: democratization to Central Europe and Eurasia” noted that “strengthening the state was accompanied by certain setbacks in democratic freedoms and the balance of political power. The new government, eager to maintain the momentum of revolutionary change and achieve fast results, has not always respected existing laws and procedures in pursuing its policies. Constitutional changes in February 2004 weakened the Parliament and moved Georgia in the direction of superpresidentialism. Independent media became less critical and pluralistic, prosecutors became less likely to follow due process, and the courts rarely dared to disagree with the prosecution.” Although according to the Freedom House “Freedom in the World” reports Georgia has never been a free country, remaining partly free, its rating of political rights and civil liberties decreased from 3 in 2005 to 4 (out of 6) in 2008/2009. Georgia’s “democracy rating” declined due to the restrictions placed on political opposition following the November 2007 emergency declaration and circumscription of media and expression in the aftermath of the November protests.

However, for those analysts closely following the situation in the country, the events which unfolded in Georgia was hardly a surprise. Political opposition cried that „[Georgian] government reversed from the democratic development of the state, and we do not know, where we are going now”, but „Rose Revolution has transformed into Rose Terror with the sole aim – to establish a dictatorship in the country.”

Georgia’s leaders rebuffed every criticism of the government and its policies and depicted such opposition as national betrayals. Meanwhile, as Georgian MP Vladimir Papava writes, “the parliament has become so weakened that it is now called the “government’s notary.” In addition to the weakening of parliament, the judiciary has also lost its strength and independence. Today, it is run by the General Prosecutor’s Office, firmly rooting it within the executive branch.” And while corruption had been rooted out among policemen, university staff and ordinary civil servants, we can speak about neo-corruption or “elite” corruption, the term which was first used and described by Georgian ombudman Sozar Subari – “There is a group of people that enjoy the everything- permissible-status; they are privileged in all aspects. They can exploit the official structures, dismiss, arrest whom they desire, shut down the business, destroy, take away, prohibit, sequestrate, etc. Them and their close people is permitted everything, what is nobody allowed.” This became evident after former Defence Minister and once close presidential ally Irakli Okruashvili was charged with extortion, money laundering and misuse of power only after he accused president Saakashvili of ordering murders and formed an opposition party.

On November 7, 2007 authorities violently dispersed a protest rally, which was held in front of the Parliament located on the main street of Tbilisi. Meanwhile, police said that the demonstration was not broke up. “We have resumed traffic on the Tbilisi's main thoroughfare [Rustaveli Avenue], because we have been receiving numerous requests from citizens to unblock the road,” Giorgi Grigalashvili, chief of the Georgian patrol police, said. However, authorities not only “cleaned the street”, but also broke into the office of the independent TV station IMEDI (the most popular of the three privately-owned TV stations, with two thirds of the national audience and run by opposition figure Badri Patarkatsishvili), seizuring its property without any warrant to prove the legality of their actions. President Saakashvili immediatelly declared a state of emergency, accusing Russia of attempts to overthrow him and shutting down all the news programmes on independent TV stations (Imedi TV and TV Kavkasia went off the air), leaving the state controlled Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB) as the only station to broadcast the news. The next day president announce the exraordinary elections will take place on January 5, 2008, later resinging from his post accordingly with the constitution.

The International Election Observation Mission in its preliminary conclusions stated that these elections were "in essence consistent with most OSCE and Council of Europe commitments and standards for democratic elections". However, "significant challenges were revealed which need to be addressed urgently.

Doubtlessly, these elections were the first genuinely competitive presidential elections in Georgia with seven candidates running for the presidential seat. However it is important to mention some "challenges" according to the IEOM report, 6 January 2009 :

The campaign was overshadowed by widespread allegations of intimidation and pressure, among others on public-sector employees;
The opposition, already dealing with a short and unexpectedly early campaign period, had poor funding and was left without a major nationwide broadcast platform, first because of the state of emergency and then because of TV Imedi’s suspension. The very high cost of paid political advertising on television limited the candidates’ possibilities to campaign in the media. Only Mr. Saakashvili was able to place paid spots on all four nationwide channels;
The campaign coverage in news programs lacked balance on most monitored TV stations, with Mr. Saakashvili generally receiving the most coverage;
GEL 22,986,081 (about USD 14.4 million) was spent on Mikheil Saakashvili’s re-election campaign;
The blurring of the line between state and political party, which is not in compliance with paragraph 5.4 of the 1990 OSCE Copenhagen Document, was an issue and created an unequal campaign environment;
While the new CEC composition formula resulted in welcome greater political inclusiveness, the commission’s members were often not observing the neutrality required of election administration, and many decisions were voted in a partisan manner. The opposition parties were underrepresented in managerial positions at the PEC level. The ruling United National Movement (UNM) held a de facto majority in PECs;
Outside many polling stations (mainly in Tbilisi), buses transporting UNM supporters to vote were noted;
The vote count was evaluated less positively, with a significant number of IEOM observers assessing it as bad or very bad.

According to the CEC results, published on January 13, 2008, Mikheil Saakashvili got 53, 41% with the turnout 56, 18%. However, opposition claimed that Saakshvili has received 37% of the votes and 600-700 summary protocols have been falsified, calling for the second round of elections. But despite of the “significant challenges to be addressed urgently”, international election observers in general hailed polls as democratic:

“After having observed the election in several regions, in polling stations and following the overall path of the election, we consider it to have been carried out in a free and fair manner” (group of Estonian parliamentarians)
“In general the election was democratic and fair and was held in line with international standards.” (Lithuanian observers)
“In Georgia yesterday democracy took a triumphant step.” (Alcee L. Hastings, the U.S. Congressman who coordinated the OSCE short-term observation mission)

Meanwhile, European leaders rushed to congratulate Mihkeil Saakashvili even before the official annoncement of the results by CEC on January 13: President of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko, President of France Nicola Sarkozy, President of Estonia Thomas Hendrik Ilves, President of Turkey Abdullah Gul, President of Poland Lech Kaczinsky and others.

These elections disclosed the polarisation of the society in Georgia, which mainly has a geographical character. Mikheil Saakashvili won elections mostly in the regions, but lost in the capital Tbilisi, where more than a half of the population lives. This polarization has undermined confidence in the presidential poll; as a result quite a big number of the population considers acting president as illegitimate. The most vivid example of that was on January 20, the day of the inauguration of the re-elected president Saakashvili. Everyone in the outside world had seen the picture, where a newly elected president goes through the cheerful crowd, a lot of people gathered to greet their re-elected president. But that was a well staged show, because only selected people, who had special invitations issued by the authorities, had a chance to get closer to the place of the inauguration, other people (tens of thousands) gathered in the hippodrome to show their protest.

[...]

Quote of the day - 25/02/2009

2009-02-25T13:17:00.002+02:00

Franco-Czech sparks

Mr Kouchner also caused controversy with a proposal to include Turkey and Russia in some Eastern Partnership initiatives, so that Russia does not have "the impression that it is completely surrounded," as with NATO.

Czech foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg responded to the idea with sarcasm. "We have nothing against a third country taking part in projects - not only Russia and Turkey, but maybe also Japan, the United States or China. Why not? We are open to co-operation with many countries," he told reporters.

Schwarzenberg rulzzz! :)))

EUObserver

Russia's Pipeline Politics in the Baltic Sea - 2

2009-02-22T17:46:00.005+02:00

Some thoughts/materials on the Nord Stream pipeline project:

Environmetnal concerns

Chemical and conventional ammunition in the Baltic Sea

Dumping zones and recommended risk areas for chemical warfare agents

At the end of World War II it was necessary to find a fast and economical way of disposal for the enormous quantities of no more required conventional and chemical ammunition from German and allied stocks. Usual methods of destruction like detonation, burning or even simple emptying soon emerged as very time-consuming and dangerous. Dumping at sea seemed to be the much more efficient and – concerning the general security – the less problematic solution attempt. Environmental aspects and the issue of protection of the sea were completely ignored at that time.

Details about type and amount of sea dumped conventional and chemical ammunition vary considerably. Trends indicate that the biggest part of conventional ammunition were dumped in the German coastal waters within the 12-nautical miles zone, while the both biggest dumping sites for chemical ammunition are located in the Skagerrak and the Bornholm Basin.

The amounts of dumped chemical ammunition and unfilled chemical warfare agents in the Baltic Sea amount to 42,000 to 65,000 tons based on first concrete assessments in which dumping actions of the former soviet republic – that archives are still inaccessible – are only partly taken into consideration. Based on unconfirmed press reports the soviet republic is supposed to have dumped more than 300,000 tons of chemical ammunition amongst other risky things into the Baltic Sea after 1947.

Environmental and geopolitical concerns mix in EP objections to Nord Stream project

The planned Nord Stream pipeline along the seabed of the Baltic Sea worries MEPs for both environmental and geopolitical reasons. In a report adopted by 542 votes in favour, 60 against and 38 abstentions, the EP calls on Commission and Council to be more actively involved in evaluating the potential environmental impact of this gas pipeline. The report responds to two petitions by Polish and Lithuanian environmental associations who fear that the planned pipeline could harm marine eco-systems.

Russia's Pipeline Politics in the Baltic Sea - 1

2009-02-22T16:16:00.003+02:00

Some thoughts/materials on the Nord Stream pipeline project:

Nord Stream is a gas pipeline to link Russia and the European Union via the
Baltic Sea. It will carry natural gas to supply both businesses and households.
The new pipeline will be an important factor of energy security in Europe.
This is the quote taken from the official web-site of the Nord Stream project. But is it really so that this pipeline project will ensure and contribute to the energy security of Europe?

Dr. Mikhail Korchemkin:

(Founder and managing director of East European Gas Analysis, a consulting company that specializes in cost-benefit and financial analysis of natural gas projects in the former Soviet Union)

Russia's gas export plans need to adjust to the new energy strategy of the EU

The European Commission has proposed a new energy package that can result in significantly lower growth of the EU gas imports. Any reduction of gas consumption in the EU will result in lower imports from Russia. South Stream and Nord Stream-2 were conceived as bypass projects without increasing export volumes of Russian gas. These projects are too risky under the new market conditions. If the EU fulfills just 25% of its goals, the first line of the Nord Stream project will not be needed. Nord Stream and South Stream projects require the construction of new feeding pipelines from Shtokman and Yamal. The transit cost of gas via Ukraine and Belarus is lower than the transmission cost of Nord Stream and South Stream (with feeding lines).

Excessive Pipeline Projects of Gazprom - 1

Every winter during the new round of gas conflict with Ukraine, some experts note that for secure supplies of Russian gas, the EU needs the Nord Stream and South Stream projects to be completed as soon as possible. A simple math can prove that this statement is incorrect:

In case of completion of the export projects of Gazprom, Ukraine will remain the most important gas transit partner of Russia. If all bypassing pipelines are fully loaded in case of another Russian-Ukrainian gas dispute in the future, Gazprom would still need to ship about 300 million cubic meters (mmcm) of gas daily to Europe via Ukraine. This is equal to the daily transit flow of early January 2009. Ukraine would siphon over 20 mmcm/day of transit gas in the first week of the conflict. Under the realistic scenario, the Ukrainian transit volume drops to 200 mmcm/day, but the siphoning increases slightly.

To provide secure supplies of gas to Europe, Gazprom would still need to use the underground gas storage facilities (UGSF) of Ukraine. Gazprom would have to have the Ukrainian UGSFs fully loaded - in case of a new conflict with Belarus or Poland, Gazprom would need to withdraw about 160 mmcm of gas daily.

The Nord Stream pipeline would allow Gazprom to turn off gas supplies to Belarus and Poland without affecting exports to other countries. Therefore, the worries of the Polish authorities about the negative effect of the Nord Stream project on the security of gas supply to Poland are well-grounded. There are no doubts that having a bypass pipeline in case of a political dispute, Russia would turn off gas flow to Poland. The Nord Stream and South Stream pipelines are designed as bypass pipelines without increasing Russian exports or improving the security of gas supply to Europe. On the contrary, these projects are designed to reduce the security of supply to Belarus and the EU member states of Germany, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece. Russia will be able to turn off the gas flow to any of these countries without decreasing other exports.

The excessive projects of Gazprom have to be paid by gas consumers of Russia, which would extend the period of the economic crisis in the country. During the previous crisis in 1998-1999, the nominal price of gas in rubles was frozen, while the real price has dropped by three-quarters. Additionally, the Russian government has devalued the nominal debt of Russian gas consumers to Gazprom by 40% (the real debt has dropped by over 80%). Gazprom has suffered losses for two years, but the low domestic price of gas has helped all other businesses to recover faster.

Construction of bypassing pipelines for political purposes is appropriate for a "Ministry for Foreign Energy relations", but not for a company that claims the priority of profit maximization

Nord Stream, South Stream hurt Czech energy security?

In January 2008 (the record month of January in the history of Russian gas exports), the daily transit flow of Russian gas through Czech Republic was 41 million cub m lower than in January 1999. Czech daily transit revenues were down $0.6 million. The Yamal-Europe pipeline has reduced the dependence of Russian gas exports on Ukraine, Slovakia and Czech Republic. Nevertheless, the experience of 2006-2009 shows the security of supply of gas to Eastern Europe has decreased. If the Nord Stream and South Stream pipelines are completed, the gas transit through Czech Republic can be reduced to zero. A complete cutoff of Russian gas exports to Czech Republic would have no effect on deliveries to other countries. The Nord Stream and South Stream pipelines increase political risks and reduce the security of gas supply to all countries of Eastern Europe.

Political Eurovision

2009-02-21T16:03:00.004+02:00

On February 19, 2009 Georgia has announced its entry at the Eurovision 2009 to be held in Moscow, a song performed by a group "Stephan & 3G" called "We Do Not Wanna Put IN".

The song uses a play on words against Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin:

We Don't Wanna Put In / The negative move, / It's killin' the groove," using a phrase that sounds like "We don't want Putin."

Ukraine Eurovision act Verka Serduchka in 2007 lost Russian music industry contracts after the song's chorus, "Russia Good Bye," was taken as an allusion to Ukraine's split from Russia in the 2004 Orange Revolution.

"Orange" song performed by GreenJolly "Razom nas bahato", Eurovision 2005

In 2006 Belarusian act Polina Smolova performed a song which praised the authoritarian country's ruler, Alexander Lukashenko, with the line "Say me no more that he's a finished liar, I feel so safe, 'cause I know he's good."

"It's a song contest and it's about uniting Europe, not dividing it. Uniting Europe in music - that was always the idea. Let's have fun together, basically," Jarmo Siim (Estonia), Communication and PR officer told EUobserver.

But are we witnessing the reverse of this trend?

EUObserver

Russia hones new image among EU elite

2009-02-11T22:56:00.002+02:00

Andrew Rettman
February 9, 2009
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS

The recent gas crisis showcased Russia's new "public diplomacy" in the use of public relations companies and the style of its EU ambassador. But the Kremlin-Gazprom brand has its competitors and remains tricky to sell.

The Kremlin hired Brussels-based PR firm GPlus back in 2006 to update media relations. Russia's gas monopoly, Gazprom, signed a separate deal for media handling and government advocacy in 2007. The annual contracts, due for renewal in spring and autumn, cover GPlus work in Brussels and Paris as well as subcontracts with consultancies Dimap in Berlin and Reti in Rome.

GPlus says its pro-Russia lobbying with EU institutions is worth less than €200,000 a year. Competitors estimate the contracts are worth €3 million to €5 million a year in total in fees alone, excluding expenses for hiring venues for press conferences or lunches with contacts.

GPlus specialises in hiring former EU officials and eminent journalists. Gregor Kreuzhuber, who leads the Gazprom account, was previously European Commission industry spokesman. Peter Witt, a senior advisor for both clients, is a retired German deputy ambassador to the EU. Angus Roxburgh covered the war in Chechnya for the BBC.

No one takes a pay cut to join the PR sector. A mid-ranking EU official such as Mr Kreuzhuber would take home at least €6,000 a month in his previous job and a man such as Mr Witt €7,000 a month.

GPlus has educated the Kremlin on using Western media. On the 2008 Georgia war, it pushed for press visits to South Ossetia so that TV in Europe had more to show than rampaging Russian tanks.

On the gas crisis, as early as October 2008, reporters Googleing "gas" and "Ukraine" were led to pro-Gazprom website gazpromukrainefacts.com. In January, Brussels journalists received almost daily emails with easy-to-paste quotes and dial-in details for phone conferences with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov. GPlus staff mingled at EU press events to spin breaking news.

The company's pro-Putin profile has not ruled out work for other clients, such as Microsoft, Toyota or Visa. GPlus has grown from two to 55 staff in three years, with a net gain of five people in 2008. "For a company like ours, it's perfectly normal to be associated with a client [Russia] that's in the spotlight," GPlus partner Hans Kribbe said.

Our man in Brussels

Russia's EU ambassador, Vladimir Chizhov, works in tandem on Brussels intelligence gathering and media handling. With regular GPlus meetings, the media-savvy diplomat knows for example that the Financial Times' Brussels bureau chief is the brother of the paper's London editor.

Unlike his predecessor Mikhail Fradkov, Mr Chizhov chats to press on the phone, cracks jokes in English, fields human rights questions at seminars and often pops up in black tie at social events, such as the Czech EU presidency ball. "Public diplomacy is an integral part of foreign policy and that's what I'm entrusted to do," the ambassador said.

The Russian EU mission has grown from under 20 to over 120 staff since Mr Chizhov took over in 2005. Just a handful play a public role. Colonel Vladimir Kuvshinov, the councillor for emergency planning, stands out for his energetic schedule in meeting security officials from EU states.

Moscow's EU message is amplified by PR firm Hill and Knowlton. The company's Brussels chief, Elaine Cruikshanks, promotes Gazprom offshoot Nord Stream as a "purely commercial" venture and a "strategic prospect" for EU energy diversity. In the past, Hill and Knowlton flew MEPs to Siberia on a private jet for Russian oil giant Rosneft.

But if Moscow outclassed Kiev on 2009 gas diplomacy, the tools of modern PR are also at work against it. Hill and Knowlton's sister company in the WPP media group, Burson-Marsteller, represents the lawyer of jailed anti-Kremlin oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovksy in what Ms Cruikshanks calls a "competing brand."

'Competing brands'

US consultancy APCO and Swedish firm Kreab broadly follow US State Department and Swedish Foreign Ministry policy. Kreab ended co-operation with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili in late 2007. But some senior staff hold strong ideological convictions and still freelance for the "enemies of Putin" club.

APCO represents the shareholders of Mr Khodorkovksy's old oil firm Yukos amid a €23 billion anti-Moscow lawsuit in the Hague. It is interested in taking on clients such as Azerbaijan or Turkmenistan - post-Soviet regimes it sees as keen "to come out of the darkness" into a new era of EU and US relations.

And if the European Commission appears too Kremlin-friendly to EU states such as Poland or Lithuania, behind the talk of "strategic partnership" some commission analysts look at Moscow with dispassionate eyes.

"The problem with selling Russia is that it's a flawed product," one EU official said. "It's a vast country with a falling population that neighbours China. It's armed forces are in a poor condition. With the price of oil forecast to stay low, we are worried about the stability of the rouble and Russia's ability to meet budgetary commitments in 2009."

What Obama Campaign Manager was doing in Baku?

2009-02-11T20:08:00.004+02:00

As RFE/RL has revealed David Plouffe, who served as campaign manager for Barack Obama in the 2008 U.S. presidential election visited Baku on February 8-9, where he met President Ilham Aliyev, parliament speaker Oktay Asadov and delivered a speech at Baku's Gerb (Western) University.

Mr. Plouffe holds no U.S. government positions but controls the remnants of Mr. Obama's 2008 campaign organization, which he built and oversaw. Currently he is employed by AKPD Media and Messaging, a political-consulting firm that works for Democratic candidates and causes. The firm's founder is David Axelrod, who was the chief strategist on Obama's presidential campaign.

Plouffe was invited by the Association for Civil Society Development (ACSD) in Azerbaijan, which RFE describes as a “mouthpiece of the president’s office.”

What is ACDS?

As Kevin Silverstein from Harper's Magazine writes:

As for the ACDSA, its website reveals that the group’s projects include cheerleader-type programs like “Baku is a Hero City” (which reeks of Soviet nostalgia) as well as more explicitly political ones, such as election monitoring and polling. In a poll conducted a few years ago, according to a 2005 New Republic story, the ACDSA found that “only 5.9 percent of those surveyed voted for opposition candidate Isa Gambar” when he ran against Aliyev. Yet, the story said, “official statistics gave Gambar 12 percent of the vote, and some foreign observers said that he garnered as much as 40 percent.” Another poll from the ACDSA found that many Azeris believed there was no corruption in Azerbaijan, even through Transparency International has consistently rated it as one of the most corrupt countries in the world.

Or take the group’s exit polls for 2004 municipal elections, which found that 99.85 percent of voters felt no pressure while voting. Yet, as the New Republic noted, “the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) sponsored its own poll, with vastly different results. USAID states on its Azerbaijan website that the “municipal elections in December 2004 did not even meet the standard of the Presidential election [which were considered to be fraudulent].” And an international observer who monitored the elections didn’t recall seeing anyone from the group polling stations and “thinks the numbers were made up.”

Washinton lobbists

According to WSJ (February 10, 2009) Mr. Plouffe's appearance in Azerbaijan was arranged by a Washington-based lobbying firm called Bob Lawrence & Associates, according to records and interviews. The company lists Azerbaijan among its clients on its Web site. People with knowledge of the speech said the appearance was arranged by the Lawrence firm through Mr. Plouffe's agent, the Washington Speakers Bureau. A person answering the phone at the Lawrence firm said no one was available for comment. A spokesman for the Washington Speakers Bureau couldn't be reached.

The same group brought forty americans to praise elections in Azerbaijan in October 2008. Bob Lawrence himself is associated with Renessans Associates who brought Mitofsky group for exit-poll in 2005. And here is how Warren Mitofsky described his experience in Baku.

Local Media Barred From Plouffe Speech

RFE/RL. David Plouffe spoke to some 50 people at a university in Baku on February 9 in a meeting closed to the press. Journalists were told to leave the auditorium at Gerb (Western) University before Plouffe gave a speech on the 2008 U.S. presidential election and "the power of democracy."

But, after his speech, an RFE/RL reporter asked Plouffe whether he planned to raise human rights issues with President Aliyev."I'm here as a private citizen, so all I'm doing is talking about elections, and the Internet and democracy, and to talk about our [U.S.] election, and how great it was that so many people participated in it, and that's a lesson I think people can learn."

Run-up to Referendum

Plouffe's visit comes little more than a month before a referendum that seeks to remove the two-term limit on any individual serving in the office of president.Azerbaijani opposition figures say that if the referendum succeeds, Aliyev will become president for life, thus confirming the dynastic rule of the Aliyev family started by his father Heidar.They note the arrest on January 22 of Fakhreddin Abbasli, a senior official of the Musavat opposition party, which was planning a protest against the referendum. Other Azerbaijani activists say they have been intimidated and arrested when asking people to sign a petition against the referendum.Isa Qambar, the head of the opposition Musavat party, told RFE/RL that he doesn't know much about Plouffe's visit. "If he is here to meet the members of the government and to talk about the promotion of civil society, then it would be useful for him also to meet the representatives of the civil groups and political parties, too," Qambar said

What about the White House?

The U.S. Embassy in Baku confirmed Plouffe's trip. Embassy spokesman Terry Davidson told RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service that "Plouffe is coming as a private citizen. The embassy is not in charge of his schedule."

A former U.S. oil executive who worked in Azerbaijan writes The Cable:

"This visit will be represented inside Azerbaijan as a sign of President Obama's personal support for Ilham Aliyev. ...The runup to this referendum has seen the government shut down Radio Liberty, VOA and BBC and also harassing/arresting/beating anyone who tries to campaign against it."

Ben Smith:

From the gaggle with Robert Gibbs (Obama's press secretary) aboard Air Force One:

Q: Robert, what is -- what is Plouffe doing in Azerbaijan? Is he representing the president in any way, the administration?

MR. GIBBS: No.

Q: What is he -- what's the --

MR. GIBBS: Plouffe is a private citizen in Azerbaijan. I honestly don't -- I don't have his itinerary.

Q: He's not carrying any message or anything, then?

MR. GIBBS: No, he's a private citizen.

Q: Is it weird -- does it send a curious message that he's going to visit one of the world's most famous dictators --

MR. GIBBS: I think what Plouffe is there primarily to do is speak. You'd have to ask David. I don't know.

Q: (Inaudible) -- send e-mails for the DNC, on behalf of the DNC and on behalf of Organizing for America. What's the (inaudible)?

MR. GIBBS: Well, I mean, again, he's a private citizen. He's not there at the behest of, and not delivering a message on behalf of, the president of the United States. If the president had a message for Azerbaijan, he'd pick up the phone. It's a longer flight and a shorter call.

Story of 50 000 USD

WSJ (February 9, 2009) After his visit to Baku, Mr. Plouffe said that he intends to give away the fee he received from a paid private speech he made Monday in the oil-rich but authoritarian nation of Azerbaijan.

The speech was arranged by lobbyists working with a group that has ties to the Azerbaijan government, according to people familiar with the matter. But a close associate of David Plouffe said he only learned of their involvement after he had already embarked for the Caspian Sea nation.

Mr. Plouffe now intends to donate his speaking fee, which the associate said is in the range of $50,000, to groups that advocate democratization in the turbulent post-Soviet states of the region around the Caspian and Caucasus mountain range. Mr. Plouffe also plans to share the contents of the speech with opposition groups.

Post Haste: A Parable of Free Speech and State Power in Azerbaijan

2009-02-08T22:17:00.001+02:00

"You're as slow as a snail!" said Leyla to the village postman. And it was true that he was not as young as he used to be. It was also true that he liked to stop for tea now and then on his rounds. And it was further true that if, by chance, he met an old acquaintance, they might exchange a few words as he delivered the day's bills, letters and other pieces of mail. But he was not as slow as a snail!

And because the village postman read the new laws from time to time, he found something quite useful in them. Being called as slow as a snail not only hurt his feelings, it insulted all of the country's letter carriers. To think that they might hire someone as slow as a snail! And it causedmoral damage to the postal service's professional reputation. Letters were delivered by proud government officials, not by snails. If people did not have faith in the post office, who knew what might happen next? They might complain about taxes. They might insult the police. Anarchy mightbe just around the corner.

The postman knew the country's laws, and obviously Leyla did not. So he took her to court. More accurately, and better still from his point of view, the entire Ministry took her to court. The Ministry's lawyers said that, in making these statements, she "groundlessly" insulted the Ministryand that her comparison of the country's postal service to snails was "not confirmed by official sources" and had caused moral damage to the "professional reputation" of the postal service. Leylawas quickly brought to trial, and everyone awaited the verdict.

A fable from Aesop? A tale of Soviet absurdity? A satire by Heinrich Boell?

None of these, but very nearly the story of Leyla Yunus, a human rights activist in Azerbaijan, whose trial starts on January 23, 2009 in Baku. And instead of saying the village postman was as slow as a snail, she compared the country's police force to those in Mexico and Nigeria. For voicingthat opinion in an interview published on a web site, she has been brought to court by Azerbaijan's Ministry of Internal Affairs. The Ministry of Internal Affairs alleges that Yunus' comparison had exactly the same effects as the fictional comparison of the postman and the snail. She stands accused, with the weight of the state against her. If judgement is brought against her, everyone in Azerbaijan will have to be careful what they say about the postman.

Available at: http://georgien.boell-net.de/download_de/Leyla_Yunus.pdf

Seven Peaks of Azerbaijan or Zero-Energy Resort

2009-02-08T17:04:00.002+02:00

Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has released their master plan design for the island of Zira off the coast ofAzerbaijan. The island has an area of 1,000,000m square and will undergo a full revitalization to becomea zero-energy resort and entertainment city. The design is inspired by the seven peaks of Azerbaijan,which form the skyline view, which is visible from the capital of Baku. under this concept BIG hasdeveloped a sustainable urban development which uses the landscape of the country has a theme in itsrevitalization. Each mountain is a building in the development and conceived of as an entire eco-systemin itself. The island will use solar, wind and wave power to supply it with energy allowing it to operatecompletely off-grid with zero-energy efficiency. Unlike some of the extravagant development in themiddle east, this new development takes the particular climate of the area into account, hoping to pavethe way for future eco-conscious projects.

Turkish defense company sells equipment to Armenia?

2009-02-07T19:57:00.003+02:00

Hurriyet Daily News:

Nurol Machinery and Industry Inc., a Turkish firm in the defense business, is preparing to sell vehicle-mounted water cannons to Armenia and hopes its new armored personnel carrier will continue its popularity abroad.

"Armenia contacted us. Talks have been going on for some time now," said Nurol Machinery’s deputy general manager of marketing, Tanju Torun, during a demonstration for the firm's new six-wheeled armored personnel carrier, named "Ejder" (Dragon) yesterday.

Vehicle-mounted water cannons are typically used for crowd control. Torun did not give the exact number of water cannon vehicles destined for Armenia if the talks end positively. Eight people were killed last March when the Armenian police intervened against activists who were protesting the Feb. 19 elections and claiming that they were rigged by the opposition.

----

“The Armenian police did not request the State Purchases Agency for procurement of water cannons from a Turkish firm,” Vasak Tarposhyan, head of the Agency, told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter

Davit Shahnazaryan, representative of the Armenian National Congress, said that the Armenian government has imported water cannons from Turkey in which connection the member of the Armenian National Congress said it is evidence to progress of the Armenian and Turkish relations.

Zatlers vs Godmanis

2009-01-21T18:48:00.002+02:00

The structure of Russian gas imports via Ukraine

2009-01-21T18:44:00.002+02:00

World of prejudices

2009-01-19T20:37:00.007+02:00

My last two weekends I spent with my old good friends, chatting about life and recalling in our memories our school times. I have noticed one thing about relations between young Russians and Latvians here in Latvia, which might not be common, but this is how it is sometimed thought. One of my Russian friends (and I can say I have the same experience) recalled that while studing at the university, she faced situations, when an ethnical topic has been raised in a seminar discussion, her Latvian colleagues were complaining that Russians do not want to integrate into the society, (do not want to learn Latvian language, are not loyal to the state etc) but immediatelly adding the phrase: "Annechka, this is not about you. You are really cool Russian!". One week later I heard from my another Russian friend: "At our fitness club we have an administrator Ieva. Although she is half Latvian and half Belarussian, she is really cool and interesting person. And, you know, her boyfriend is a "pure" Latvian guy. And imagine, he is just great as well as his relatives who attend our club."

So, does it mean that we are trying to convince ourselves that one ethnical group is bad a priori, but there are some exceptions? It seems that we live in a world of prejudices, which are imposed on us by politicians with nationalistic agenda from both sides.

Russian 1 Channel on Latvia and Lithuania

2009-01-19T20:27:00.003+02:00

Here is video report about the situation in Latvia and Lithuania in the light of the recent riots in Riga and Vilnius shown yesterday on the Russian state-controlled TV - 1 Channel... Yeah, the economic situation is very grim, but I bet that situation in some parts of Russia is even worse, but you will not see this on the state TV. Instead you will be told who bad it is now to live in Latvia and the U.S.

Azerbaijan - Turkmenistan of the Caucasus?

2009-01-18T21:40:00.018+02:00

Today I have come across rather interesting material and just cannot not to share....

AZERBAIJAN: REFERENDUM OR OPTICAL ILLUSION?

BAKU. January 17, 2009: The newspaper Bizim Yol made a journalist investigation and found out an interesting fact reflecting the attitude of the Azeri government to the upcoming constitutional referendum. It appears that the Ministry of Education did not wait for the referendum and had already started incorporating the proposed constitutional amendments into the textbooks published by the Ministry.

The Newspaper Bizim Yol has revealed that in an interview with an official from the mInistry of Education. Thus, the proposed amendments to the Constitution have already been included to the text books before the referendum. The head of the "Texbooks and Publication" department of the Ministry of Education Faik Shahbazli confirmed this fact in his interview to the Bizim Yol Newspaper. According to his words, the new textbook titled "Constitution" presented by the "Education" Publishing House has been submitted to the Ministry: "We have submitted it to the relevant department of the Academic Methodic Council," said the Azeri government official. If the Azeri government does not move fast in order to bring a clarity into this situation, it appears that the Azeri government is not even patient enough to wait for the results of the constitutional referendum, and is ready to declare victory before the voting takes place. Quite an understanding position, if to consider how the Azeri government runs elections in Azerbaijan. Referendum on constitutional changes is scheduled to take place on March 18, 2009.

Azerireport

HUSEYNGULU BAGIROV PRESENTS ANTARCTICA PICTURES OF ILHAM AND HEYDAR ALIYEVS

Ministry of Ecology confirmed the information that their Minister is in expedition in Antarctica. The press-release of the Ministry contains very interesting information about the details of trip. It treads that members of the expedition of the Federation of Extreme Kinds of Sport led by Bagirov conduct scientific research works, made more than 300 measurements and collected approximately two kilo of geological materials. On January 11 expeditions climbed on Vincent pick the height of which is 5,140 meters. A bronze board with the picture of Heydar Aliyev and his phrase “I am proud to be Azerbaijani”, and on the reverse side there is picture of Ilham Aliyev with his words “Ahead with Ilham.” According to the same source, the participants of the expedition went then towards Southern Pole, it is not reported what will be installed there. There are only two representatives of Azerbaijan in the expedition- the Minister, and his employee Tarlan Ramazanov.

LINK

And I like here a comment of one Azeri blogger

Besides meeting some high-ranking penguins, taking about future oil pipeline to Antactica (Baku-Tbilisi-Penguinabad), conducting more than 300 measurements and collecting 2 kilos of earth and rock for geological tests, .. :D

Meanwhile RFE/RL journalist Gorkhmaz Asgarov has published an article with the heading

AZERBAIJAN - TURKMENISTAN OF THE CAUCASUS

Musavat and the Azerbaijan Popular Front Party, together with a few smaller allies, have joined forces to campaign in defense of the current constitution, but the matter has been eclipsed in the country by a seemingly irrelevant tragedy, the conflict in Gaza.

The state-dominated media in Azerbaijan have focused society's attention on the anti-U.S. and anti-Israel rallies in the Baku suburb of Nardaran and on a campaign organized by the Association of Azerbaijani Doctors to collect blood donations for the people of Palestine. The opposition has argued that the government is intentionally diverting attention from a discussion of the future of the country. And it seems to be working.

Only a handful of media outlets in Azerbaijan today are willing to stray from the government's line: the newspapers "Azadliq" and "Yeni Musavat," which are associated with opposition political parties; the independent Turan news agency; and the independent daily "Zerkalo." This is all that remains of a once influential and pluralistic camp of opposition and nonstate media.

If the present pattern continues, even these remnants and the remaining political parties may disappear by the 2010 legislative elections, and if that happens, it will be hard to distinguish Azerbaijan from neighboring Turkmenistan. This may seem like dire speculation, but such a turn of events seems increasingly probable these days.

ON BAKU...

This is the picture I took in December 2007 and this house most probably is destroyed as many more other historical buildings. Building crane has already become the symbol of modern Baku, but I found just one persons among local residents, who truly love this City of Winds.

Here are some photos (now we can say even historical) of the places, monuments and buildings which have been destroyed/reconstracted...

Modernisation and development of the city is crucially needed, but sometimes I have a feeling that "fathers" of this city have an idea to destroy although historical, but usually to their opinion useless buildings and make out of Baku a new Dubai.. According to the plan, Flame Towers should be built until 2012... The construction has already begun.

Baku has manu faces, and here is one of them, captured by one American journalist going to Ganca by "express" train....

And here is another - beautiful sunrise over the city. :)

I like to sit on the Boulevard in Baku close to the port in a time when it is half empty, contemplating the Caspian Sea. This is one of my favourite views along with the view on the Atlantic Ocean from the boulders in Ogunquit, ME, U.S., view on the Baltic Sea/Riga Bay from Kolkas Cape, Latvia and view on the Black Sea from the little bay in the Green Cape not far from Batumi, Georgia, where is a little cute café playing mild music…

War & Peace

2008-04-10T14:06:00.000+03:00

Riga, Liberty monument

How deep is our love?

2008-04-07T14:47:00.000+03:00

My headscarf....

2008-04-07T13:24:00.007+03:00

Once I told my friend that I wanna go to Iran. That was said in the conference hall, where a lot of people have gathered to meeting leading decision-makers of the world.. I got a reply that I should be prepared to be fully covered. "I am ready to do this! You cannot belive me, but I'd like to cover myself and go to Iran!." My friend was puzzeled, bu the man, sitting in front of us even turned his back to look at the girl, who is ready to put on a headscraf.

Strange... It is so strange that in general Europeans think that it is smth bad if girls cover their heads that this is imposed by their oriental culture and this is their goal to free these women, 'cause they are soo ignorant that cannot fully understand that they are oppressed...

But wait a minute, just look at the portraits of European women in their national dresses... Headscraf is a indispensible part of the costume, especially in Eastern European cultures.

These are portraits of Romanian painters, mainly of Nicolae Grigorescu...

Headscraf is also a part of an Orthodox culture, very important part!

My Udmurtian, Mordovian and Russian ancestors used to cover their heads, and maybe my initial desire is just a call of my ancestors....

Creative potato peeling in Tallinn! :))

2008-03-24T16:16:00.007+02:00

Creative people never experience boredom, even while peeling potatoes for the dinner. :))

While friend of mine was busy with peeling of potatoes, I had fun making creative photos and words from the peel.

:))

Thoughts about our grandparents....

2008-02-23T15:14:00.007+02:00

One day, having a really interesting talk with my mom, we have concluded that life of the generation of my grandparents and my mom's parents in the former Soviet Republics is really a sad story. They were born in 1920s and 1930s, living all the hardships of the post-war time here in the Baltics, ''collectivisation'' and repressions against their relatives in other Soviet Republics, including Russia itself, then they tried to survive all the hardships of war time... The Baltics have been occupied (ok, if we use documents of the international law which were in force that time, we can say that that was a violent annexation of a state) and some people were fighting for the independecne of their homeland till the late 1957, and then again people forced to believe for the bright future to come, when communism is established in the Soviet Union.... And again people had been working and working, some in the labour camps.... Late 1970s - 80s - people have started to observe empty shelves in shops. For example, my mom, while being pregnant, had to stand in a line early in the morning in order to get for herself and others one kg of cottage cheese... "Dry law".... our neighbours in one Udmurtian town came to our flat to change their food coupons for vodka coupons... Collapse of the Soviet Union, collaps of the whole system, factories and other big and small enterprises build on the Soviet model. People were out of jobs, but pensions were too small to survive....

17 years have passed since we regained our independence. Do you think the situation has changed? You are really an idealist flying somewhere in the sky, if you think so. Life in Latvia is getting more and more expensive, prices are getting higher on everything - gas, electricy, water and other tariffs are getting higher year by year.... My grandmother gets maybe a bit more than 200 USD or 130-140 EUR per month, if not her close relatives like us, she barely could survive.... But according to the Latvian official statistics a so-called "survival minimum" in Latvia this January was 148 LVL (300 USD/ 210 EUR), and this is a minimum of minimum to survive in Riga!! So, old people are deprived also from this minimum...

This April the price for the electricity will rise by 37%, reading this news in the internet news portal, people left a lot of angry comments, this is just one of them - "why should we work in Latvia for 20 years and then get 135 LVL pension (around 195 EUR), if we can work for seven years in Ireland and get a minimum pension of 1000 EUR? I do not see the incentive to work and pay taxes in Latvia!" Yeah, that's a problem! We do not see any motivation to stay and work for our country, because the social policy really sucks - 34% of my salary I pay to the state, and actually I get nothing from them! Ok, we have new roads, more or less renovated schools, but the vast majority of these projects were financed by the European Commision.... Maybe I am worng and too harsh in my judgement, but when you see what's happening now in the Riga City Counsil, you will get really mad...

This morning I went to the office through a so-called "green & flee market", where people sold food products from their farms and some stuff from their homes. Some old people were standing there, selling their belongings - a lot of books, maps, pins, paintings, postcards etc... I have stopped near one old woman, she immediately offered me her books and postcards from old times... She told me that today she had to earn at least 5 LVL (10 USD) to cover her table rent. I took some really cute and amazing old postcards for 10 USD, she put them in the ''Lattelecom" envelope (in these envelopes people get bills for their phone conversations) and I went away...

Unhappy, unlucky and miserable generation we have in the post-soviet space ...

All their life they are trying to survive.....

Do you think old people live better in any other post-Soviet country?

No!

Rebellion art on the streets of Riga :))

2008-02-20T22:46:00.003+02:00

Today I was really in a hurry - a lot of meetings, a lot of things to do :))

But I've noticed one thing... Riga gradually becomes a city of creative art and that's good! :))

And this just of street art, kind of rebellion art on the streets of Riga. :))

Some not mine good thoughts on creativity and economy... :))

Creativity is getting occupied by economic powers and commercialization, but meanwhile creativity is becoming the new central value in our society. Creativity is at our side. We are becoming a more creative and playful society, and we are really closer than one would think.

FREE SPACE

Playing is an important element of a vital culture, and if playing is less present in a culture, this culture will go down, states historian Johan Huizinga. Playing is having spirit, it frees us from being just a mechanism in the wheels of progress. The concept of play is often put in contrast to processes of mechanization and instrumentalization in modern societies. Herbert Marcuse recognized that in industrialized societies there is a minimalization of life and culture, with no space for personal development and autonomy. A revalualization of the aesthetics and playfulness would create a free space for a more human development of our societies.

RECLAIM THE STREETS

Situationist Guy Debord described a ‘society of the spectacle’, where humans are reduced to spectators in their society and passive consumers of their life, and stated that this spectacularization is visible everywhere, from the news media, propaganda, advertising to the actual consumption of entertainment. The only way out, if there is one, is détournement, disturbing and overthrowing the existing order in a radical act of playing with the world you live in. These ideas of playfulness influenced a multifaceted spectrum of avant-garde artists, intellectuals and creative activists from the sixties onward, and their playful actions and tactics have been a source of inspiration for other artists and activists across the planet.

CREATIVE INDUSTRIES

According to Marcuse and Debord, playfulness could be the solution to the rising instrumentalization and spectacularization of our society. Paradoxically, the idea of playing has become instrumentalized itself as a means to reach certain goals, being adapted in the professional fields of education and in game theories. Today, creativity and playfulness are used as an effective means to create markets and gain economic power in all aspects of the public sphere. Examples include commercials, the entertainment industry, mass-events, festivals, arts, media and all cultural spaces. Street art, adbusting and playful slogans are used to brand new products. The so-called ‘creative industries’ are becoming increasingly central to business.

CREATIVE CLASS

This development is illuminated by Richard Florida’s idea of a rising ‘creative class’. This creative class is a group of people who are a driving force for economic development in post-industrial areas. They are people whose job it is to create meaningful new forms. With the rise of this creative class, creativity is becoming a central value in today’s global society. Irrespective of whether Richard Florida is right or wrong, creativity is a booming business. The result is that economic power is gaining more and more influence in the areas of art and culture, instrumentalizing creativity for its own purposes.

ECONOMIC POWER OF CREATIVITY

More and more city governments and corporations recognize the economic power of creativity and try to use it as a means to gain more economic power. In city areas where artists reside, a rich cultural life will develop, and this will attract more affluent people to work, live and consume there resulting in higher rents and often in corporate, clean city areas. This process has been recognized by sociologists as ‘gentrification’. Our culture and all its forms of expression are merely occupied by economic interests. Most cultural events and art exhibitions are sponsored, more and more art and artists are used as a marketing tool.

THINK ABOUT CARS

One could say, the ‘spectacle’ occupies the human sphere as a whole. Our personal pleasures and feelings are instrumentalized for the sake of consumption. This process of occupation of the cultural, artistic, creative and personal spheres is intense and omnipresent. If you think about cars it is not possible to be not somehow influenced by what commercials have been showing you for years. You cannot walk through the streets without the presence of commercial images, and meanwhile almost all parts of human life have become instrumentalized as tools to increase economic influence on the human mind.

DINOSAURS

But let’s be honest. The positive effect of these developments is that you can find more and more contemporary art and cultural events in the public sphere. The cultural, creative and human spheres are gaining ground inside the economic and political spheres. As creativity is the new economic fuel, economic interests are changing their focus. The economic world is getting under greater influence of human values, ethical and aesthetical ideas and spiritual thinking. Playing managers are just one of the preludes of what is happening in our societies. Quite a few people in power are starting to recognize the changes, and understand that if they do not join the game of this creative revolution, they will be the dinosaurs. If creativity becomes central to our economy, this will change society itself.

As creativity is not a source of order, control, and instrumentalization, but a source of inspiration, chaos, expression and playfulness connected to the human soul, our society awaits big changes. The society of the spectacle produces its own détournement, and preludes a human play yard, with space for free expression and personal growth. This creative shift is settling accounts with the instrumentalization of creativity and culture, it de-instrumentalizes society and takes over economy itself. There will be more space for human development, for personal values and diversity, for social engagement and environmental awareness. This mental change is a promising chance for a truly sustainable living on our planet. We are awaiting a playful society where creativity is in power. It is somehow happening now, and it is just up to us to realize it.

http://www.creativeacts.org/files/Masta_2_Web.pdf

ARGUE!!! :))

2008-02-12T08:48:00.000+02:00

My AMAZIN' Rustavi home!! :))

2008-02-12T08:26:00.003+02:00

I really miss my cute Rustavi flat with self-made AMAZIN and CREATIVE decorations...

My flat was a place where I could express my creativeness...

Usually people who entered my homeplace spent some time reading my notes, stickers, looking at maps of the South Caucases countries, regions, cities.

:))

Entrance was only in socks (!!) For that reason I had at least two extra pairs for my new guests.

:))

My lavatory pan was a place to think, my tea-pot was a really cute tomatoe...

This my "'free-thinking political wall'' with some posters sticked to different walls.

:))

Women= problems??

2008-02-11T14:58:00.000+02:00

My friend has sent me this calculation....
I think it is too masculine approach.
Do not agree at all!!!
We, women, make life of men more beautikful! Isn't it so? :))
However, men make our life more secure and stable. It's a kind of a synergy. :))
Let me quote Lord Robeetson "Cooperation instead of competition, synergy rather than hierarchy!'' He spoke here about international security politics and NATO, but this phrase can also apply to the relationship between man and woman, especially the last one! :))

Democracy agenda as a part of the influence game

2008-01-18T18:56:00.004+02:00

Georgia Offers Lessons With its Elections

By Reps. Alcee Hastings and Lloyd Doggett

Special to Roll Call

January 15, 2008

We recently had the opportunity to lead as well as participate in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s election observation mission in the Republic of Georgia. While we ultimately determined the elections were a “triumphant step toward democracy,” it also reminded us of the challenges we still face here at home with our very own elections.........

I have just only one comment here - for the current administration of the U.S. government "democracy agneda" is just a part of the "influence game"...

But it is very interesting that the U.S. government and G. W. Bush congratulated Mikheil Saakashvili only after the official announcement of the election results by the CEC, not like his collleagues from Baltic states, Poland, France, Ukraine, Armenia etc...

Georgian political figures

2008-01-18T12:20:00.004+02:00

Last days I heard a lot of figures, number, percentages...

Here they are....

Results of the election:

1. Total number of voters: 3 527 964
2. Voter Turnout: 1 982 318
3. Ballots repealed 33 129

Amount of Votes per candidate:

1. Levan Gachechiladze - 509 234 votes, 25.69%
2. Arkadi Patarkatsishvili - 140 826 votes, 7.10%
3. David Gamkrelidze - 79 747 votes, 4.02%
4. Shalva Natelashvili - 128 589 votes, 6.49%
5. Mikheil Saakashvili - 1 060 042 votes, 53.47%
6. Giorgi Maisashvili - 15 249 votes, 0.77%
7. Irina Sarishvili-Chanturia - 3 242 votes, 0.16%

We can conclude that during the past four years a "protest electorate" has been formed. 44,23% of the voters, who participated in the elections, voted against the incumbent presidential candidate Mikheil Saakashvili, 44,23% ( and it seems even more, if not these "irregularities") are disappointed and disillusioned with the authorities.

Mikheil Saakashvili got just 53,4% of all the vores... It is nearly 70 000 votes over the 50% mark he needed to avoid a runoff

Plebiscites:

For North-Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) integration: 77%

The number of NATO supporters decreased if we compare with the result of a socilogical survey conducted in fall 2006. That time the figure was 83%...

For holding Parliamentary Elections in the Spring of 2008: 79,7%

The opposition representatives on of the Central Election Commission (CEC), 6 out of 13, refused to sign off the final results of the elections.

15 000 000 GEL - Amount raised from business to support new social fund

By the way, have you heard the latest rumour?

(I should mention here that rumours sometimes are very important source of information in Georgia, whether to believe or not, it is up to you, but they reflect the overall mood of the local population)

Surprisingly, but it was even published in the English-daily The Messenger (January 14, 2008)....

REASONS FOR NEW YEAR PRICE RISE DISPUTED

The price of basic products has risen since the New Year, with many facturers blaming transportation problems due to bad weather. Some analysts, on the other hand, say prices have been driven up artificially, by monopolies hoping to make economic gain in the wake of the election after pumping money into incumbent M. Saakashvili's presidential campaign. Are they trying to get back their political investments that they made in the pre-election period?

Inflation in Georgia is really a problem, which actually has not been tackled yet...

With inflation at over 11%, economists worry that the Georgian economy is overheating. But according to the economists there are various reasons for this doubble-digit inflation rate: rise of the prices in international markets (e.g. oil, sugar, wheat), rapid raise in broad money, inadequate implementation of budgetary expenditures, absence of the control over monopolies.

GEL 22,986,081 (about USD 14.4 million) was spent on Mikheil Saakashvili’s re-election campaign, according to the campaign's official financial records submitted to the Central Election Commission (CEC)

101 individuals and 162 companies contributed. According to the law, a presidential candidate can raise no more than GEL 30,000 (about USD 18,000) from an individual and GEL 100,000 (about USD 62,500) from a company.

First impression of the guests coming to Georgia....

Guests coming to Georgia can see the billboard with a giant figure of Saakashvili and the crowd of happy pygmy-looking electors. The effect of the angle makes you understand at once who the host in this home is. Going along the road from the airport to the city, i.e. the street after George Bush the junior, one may see only campaign placards for Saakashvili. It seems they are stuck to each lamp-post. “Where are the rest candidates?” I ask the taxi driver. He keeps silence for long. I start to think he forgot Russian or maybe local intellectuals now translate their thoughts into English first and then into Russian.…Suddenly my driver pulls up near a fence stuck with small A4 format posters showing the candidate for presidency Gamkrelidze (number 3 in the ballot paper). “There you are!” the driver says proudly and we keep on moving. I laugh and so does he. We say no more of politics.

I can understand everything, but to spend 14,1 MILLLION USD for the presedential campaign in Georgia???? Does it mean that the winner will be a person, who has more money and financial suppoters than those who has no millions of USD??? It used to be a real problem in Latvia several years ago before the Parliament had adopted a law on spending cap for the pre-election campaing for the political parties. Although, we still have such kind of problems, but at least we are moving to the right direction...

LATVIAN EXPERIENCE

In 2006, for the first time Saeima elections were held in Latvia by observing limitations to a pre-election expenditures amount stipulated by the Law on Financing Political Organisations (Parties) in 2004. A political organisation or an association of political organisations, which has submitted a list of its parliament member candidates to Saeima elections in five electoral districts, may spend for its pre-election expenditures an amount not exceeding LVL 0.20 (1 USD = 0,479 LVL) per elector in the previous Saeima elections. If a political organisation (political party) or an association of political organisations submits a list of its candidates in individual electoral districts only, it may use for pre-election expenditures an amount not exceeding LVL 0.20 per elector in each relevant electoral district in the previous Saeima elections. In the elections of 2006, the maximum permissible expenditures for pre-election campaigning when promoting candidates in the five electoral districts were equal to LVL 279,631.20 (around 558 000 USD).

The most important introduction to the Law in 2006 was the obligation of political parties to pay funds to the state budget in an amount corresponding to the exceeded pre-election expenditures amount.

The Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (KNAB) is mandated to control whether activities of political parties are in compliance with law. The objective of restrictions stipulated in the Law on Financing Political Organisations (Parties) is to ensure equal conditions at the greatest degree possible for in realization of pre-election campaigning and in influencing the will of electors. The observance of law in the system of parliamentary democracy ensures legal reliance that all parties involved have equal possibilities and no preferential treatment is provided only for few while it is not available for others.

By evaluating funds actually spent by political parties which took part in Saeima elections, the Bureau has established that five political parties or their associations have exceeded the amount of pre-election expenditures provided for in law:

People's Party - 529, 980 LVL

Latvia's First Party - 401, 610 LVL

Harmony Centre - 4,464 LVL

Green and Farmer's Union - 3,351 LVL

New Era - 2,087 LVL

It was a HUGE scandal, when our PM Aigars Kalvitis, who actually was and is the head of the party of the ruling colation People's Party wanted to dismiss the head of KNAB Aleksejs Loskutovs on the basis that there were some minor irregularities in the bookkeeping (not corruption and embezzelment, but some technical problems in the management of finances for the special operations). Everybody knew that this was just an official reason to dismiss rather popular in the society and successful investigator. Moreover, only Saeima (Latvian Parliament) can nominate and dismiss the head of KNAB. Even General Prosecutor Janis Maizitis named the action of the PM as illegal, not to mention mass protests in the downtown of Riga - smth unsual for Latvia. As a result the government was dissolved, Kalvitis stepped down and we have the new Cabinet of Ministers, new PM.. The problem is that we have the same parties in the coalition, just the faces are different (although some of them, includindg our new PM Ivars Godmanis, had occupied previously the same positions). But anyway system, however not perfect and woth some drawbacks, proved to be successful and I do hope that local elections scheduled for the next year will be free of money influence on voters.

Georgia has been insisting so far on the need to use the best practice and experience of the Baltic states, including Latvia, why not to set up the same Anti-Corruption Bureau, completely independet from the executive power? Why not to adopt the law on the financial limitations for the parties and presidential candidates during the pre-election campaigns?

I have noticed that Georgia sometimes repeats the same mistakes, which we made, but I am going to lay down my thoughts on this in my next post...

Russian helicopters vs. Georgian tanks or it is better to trade

2008-01-18T07:21:00.002+02:00

A special military operation was carried out by a group of State Security service special group at the north border of Georgia in the beginning of January.

On January, 6 a group of Russian Special Forces landed on the peak of Elbrus by a special helicopter. Elbrus is the highest mountain in Europe (5642m. from the Sea Level); thus not only landing, but flying at this height for a helicopter is an onerous task. It's noteworthy that among the group of Special Forces who landed on Elbrus was Patrushev, the director of Russian State Security Service. He declared that the operation had no analogue in the world.

Landing of the helicopter was part of the training Russia had been carrying out at the north border of Georgia since the last month. To be more precise, State Security Service has launched the training which envisages mastering the airborne operations in the mountainous region of the Caucasus. According to the training program, aircrafts and helicopters carrying special task force groups, simultaneously took up from different airfields. The operation was fulfilled under the conditions close to real military operations and was accordingly disguised.

During this training the Special Forces landed at different points of North Caucasus, demonstrating that they can mobilize Special Task Force groups all over Russia and land them at the point of destination, this time close to the border of Georgia.

For the director of State Security Service Patrushev, landing on Elbrus was a promotion show.

Last year he landed his helicopter on the South Pole (the helicopter took off from the Russian warship drifting in the Atlantic). It cost millions of Russian tax payer's rubles.

The peak of Elbrus is the point from which Georgia is visible without the aid of any optical device; so we can assume that the director of Russian State Security Service had the pleasure of freely observing Georgia...

Meanwhile....

There are more than 160 T-72 tanks (of different modification) in the arsenal of Georgian Army. Part of them is more than 20 years old. In the 1970th-1980th T- 72 were considered to be modern machines, but today they are obsolete. However, it is not its engine or armor that is outdated, but its radio-electronic and optical-electronic equipment. There are two possible solutions: either we dismantle these tanks and buy new ones, which is connected with substantial expenses, or we have them radically modernized. We should take into consideration that in 2003, there were only 39 T- 72s at Georgia's disposal (8 of them belonged to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the rest - to the army), while almost 130 different modifications of T-72s were bought in Ukraine and Chech republic during the last four years. To dismantle tanks which were purchased only 2-3 years ago, no matter how outdated they are, is incredible. So the decision to modify them seems quite logical.

The modernization will touch five main components, which guarantee the second life of these 20 year old tanks and may come close to modern American 'Abrahams,' German 'Leopards' and Israeli 'Merkevs'.

Hmmm.....

If we presume that Russia is a potential aggressor/enemy of Georgia, why do we need so many tanks? Great Caucasian mountains divide Georgia from Russia (mainly), and one should invest more into the equipment of the Air Forces. These old fashioned tanks equiped with modern technologies and electronics are good to fight maybe just with Armenia, Azerbaijan and the secessionist government of Abkhazia, but not with Russia...

Hmmmm....

Still remember Russian threats to impose economic embargo on Latvia, but it never happened. Reason? It is easy to explain - business in Latvia mainly run by local Russian speakrers and the biggest investors are from Norway, Sweden, Russia and now Estonia. For example, "Latvijas Balsams" is owned now by S.P.I. Worldwide Trade Limited, which is a subsidiary of Russian owned S.P.I. Group, leading vodka producer in Russia. It is modern nowadays among Russian businessmen to have a summer cottage in Jurmala, where they spend just few days during the International song competition "New Wave" organised every June. Our economies are intertwined... Are there any serious investments of Russia in Georgia? Do not know, really, it is really interesting to know..... It was Georgia who heavily depended on Russia, not vice versa... Maybe it is important not just attract investors from Turkey, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, US, European and Arab countries, but also from Russia? Anyway Russia will not run away and stay forever as your neghbour. It is better to trade than insult each other...

"Everyone called me to congratulate...."

2008-01-09T14:20:00.003+02:00

I still remember an outrage of Ukraninan public and condemnation of some European nations when president of Russia Valdimir Putin after 2004 famous presidential elections congratulated Viktor Yanukovish with his victory before the announcement of the official results by the CEC....

Four years passed....

Nothing has changed, only now leaders of "free and partly free and non-free countries" (according to the Freedom House Report 2007) try to congratulate a presidential candidate Mikheil Saakashvili with his victory at the recently conducted presidential elections. However, official results should be announced by CEC only on January 13...

So, Mikheil Saakashvili has been congratulated by...

PM and President of Ukraine Yuliya Timoshenko and Viktor Yushchenko

strategic partners like president of Turkey Abdullah Gul and president of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev

President of France Nikola Sarkozy

President of Poland Lech Kaczynski

President of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves

Mikheil Saakashvili was also congratulated by the leader of Russia's Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who had sent him a telegram congratulating him on "a brilliant victory" in Georgia's presidential election but that Saakashvili's victory meant triumph for "an authoritarian regime." :))

Interesting that in a recent article published by International Herald Tribune (IHT) on January 8, Mikheil Saakashvili was named as a President of Georgia... "President Saakashvili says Georgia is on way to democracy" is the name of the article... Is he??

I am not surprised by these facts... Just read carefully the statement of the Assistant of Secretary of State Daniel Fried on December 28, 2007...

Georgia’s Presidential elections are upon us, so I want to offer a few observations on their importance for Georgia’s place in the world. In doing so, I would emphasize that Georgia’s strategic weight derives not principally from its geography, important though that is, but from the example Georgia can set as a thriving democracy, inspiring freedom throughout the region and beyond.

The International Community is doing all that it can to ensure that the January 5th election is free and fair. For Georgia’s own sake, and to demonstrate to the Euro- Atlantic family that Georgian democracy is on track after the recent setbacks, the January 5 election must be free and fair.

Georgia is very important in the Freedom and Democracy Agenda by the current Administration of the White House in Washington.. And it is extremely important to keep Georgia on the democratic track. Failure of Georgia would jeopardise the whole project... But it is very important in this case not to be blind... Otherwise "democracy agenda will prove to be just a part of the influence game"...

"Challenges" or let's read IEOM report more carefully

2008-01-09T07:30:00.003+02:00

International Election Observation Mission (IEOM) states in its final report that ...

"While the 5 January 2008 extraordinary presidential election in Georgia was in essence consistentwith most OSCE and Council of Europe commitments and standards for democratic elections, significant challenges were revealed which need to be addressed urgently."

But what are these significant challenegs?

Speaking with my friends (also Georgians living abroad), they usually mention that "International Observers issued a report, naming these elections were conducted in a democratic way". Former and it seems future president of Georgia Mikeil Saakashvili said that “It was a brilliant election. I think everybody has witnessed the freest, the most competitive and the most successful election in the history of Georgia. (...) I have seen many observers, many assessments and many [election observation] missions, but such a high assessment has never been given to an election in Georgia before.”

But let's look closer to the report of the IEOM and realise what were the "significant challenges"

Legal Framework and Election System

Significant amendments to the United Election Code (UEC) were adopted on 22 November 2007, and further amendmentswere passed on 12 December, after the election had been called. Although these amendmentsgenerally introduced improvements to the law, enacting modifications so close to an election is not
in line with the Code of Good Practice in Electoral Matters of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe. While pertinent inconsistencies, gaps, and ambiguities leave room for varying interpretation, the UEC is generally adequate for the conduct of democratic elections, if implemented in good faith.

Election Administration

While the new CEC composition formula resulted in a welcome greaterpolitical inclusiveness, the commission’s members were often not observing the neutrality requiredof election administration, and many decisions were voted in a partisan manner

The opposition parties were underrepresented in managerial positions at the PEC level. The rulingUnited National Movement (UNM) held a de facto majority in PECs. According to the CEC, DEC-appointed PEC members were elected as chairpersons in most PECs, while only two chairpersonswere opposition appointees.

Voter registration

Despite major verification efforts undertaken, perceived and real inaccuracies in the voter lists remained a major concern for many stakeholders. Political parties and NGOs provided OSCE/ODIHR observers with some examples of multiple and incomplete records, omissions ofeligible voters, spelling and typographical errors, and cases of deceased persons remaining on thelist. The CEC acknowledged that mistakes might have remained, citing lack of time due to theunexpected announcement of the election. At least six complaints submitted to the CEC byopposition parties, with over 40,000 voters’ records claimed as being inaccurate. All thesecomplaints were submitted after the legal deadline for voter list verification. The CEC stated that cases listed in the complaints were checked and necessary changes were made when inaccuracieswere confirmed.

Candidate Registration

(it is importnat to mention !!)

This was the first genuinely competitive presidential election in Georgia. Candidate registration was overall inclusive and transparent. (!)

Campaign Environment

The blurring of the line between state and political party, which is not in compliance with paragraph5.4 of the 1990 OSCE Copenhagen Document, was an issue and created an unequal campaignenvironment. The distribution of vouchers for such things as utilities and medical supplies to vulnerable groups was criticized as an alleged misuse of budgetary funds in support of Mr.Saakashvili. UNM officials said the voucher distribution was planned before the election wascalled. However, there is evidence that the distribution was used for campaign purposes, blurring the separation between state activities and the UNM candidate’s election campaign. The vouchers prominently displayed that they were a subsidy from the President. Healthcare vouchers, as well as employment scheme leaflets, featured visually outstanding number “5”s – the number on the ballotunder which the UNM has run in elections since 2004. Distributors of vouchers sometimes asked recipients whether they would vote for Mr. Saakashvili, and asked them to sign documents confirming their support. Vouchers were in some cases distributed from UNM offices

Moreover, in reply to allegations that Mr. Saakashvili misused state resources, the UNM responded that the party had paid for such services. The contentiousness of this issue was fuelled by the lack of provision for candidates to supply reports on campaign financing before the election. The inauguration of a new pipeline by Mr. Saakashvili in Akhalkalaki, as well as the official opening of Tbilisi-Senaki-Leselidze highway lighting system, were given the appearance of presidential events, not in accord with Mr. Saakashvili’s status as a candidate who does not currently hold public office.

The campaign was overshadowed by widespread allegations of intimidation and pressure, amongothers on public-sector employees. These included a number of confirmed cases of pressure on opposition supporters by the police and local officials to desist from campaigning, threats ofarbitrary arrest or job dismissal and cases of landlords who were pressurized not to let premises foruse as opposition campaign offices. Isolated instances of violence against opposition activists,including kidnapping, were reported and verified. Such practices are inconsistent with paragraph 7.7 of the OSCE Copenhagen Document, which requires that campaigning be conducted in a fairand free atmosphere without administrative action, violence or intimidation.

The Media

While the media in general enjoy freedom of expression, they are under strong influence from theirowners and political patrons. Consequently, all five main TV stations were under a measure of influence from candidates and political parties. The campaign coverage in news programs lacked balance on most monitored TV stations, with Mr. Saakashvili generally receiving the most coverage. On the other hand, the newspapers monitored by the OSCE/ODIHR EOM provided adiverse range of opinions, with Mr. Saakashvili generally being the most often criticized candidate.

(let me say here that in Georgia people more watch TV than read newspapers, especially in regions, 'cause TV Channels are free of charge, but for newspapers you should pay, and taking into account impoverishment of the population in general, newspapers significantly lack behin the TV Channels and radio. You can say that it is possible to read news in the Internet, but the percentage of the population having access to the World Web is too small)

In the four weeks preceding the election, public TV devoted 27 per cent of its political and election prime-time news coverage to activities of Mr. Saakashvili, of which 98 per cent was positive or neutral. The next most covered candidate, Mr. Patarkatsishvili, received some 18 per cent, mainly inconnection with his alleged involvement in a coup plot. Some 33 per cent of this coverage was negative. Mr. Gamkrelidze and Mr. Gachechiladze, received 17 and 15 per cent of the coveragerespectively, which was mostly positive or neutral. The news coverage became more balanced inthe last two weeks prior to election day, with a notable decrease in the amount of prime-time newscoverage devoted to Mr. Saakashvili (27 per cent against 41 per cent in the first two weeks of thecampaign). The tone of his coverage, however, remained unchanged.

Two nationwide private TV channels, Rustavi 2 and Mze, showed clear support for Mr. Saakashviliand provided him with substantial prime-time news coverage. For example, Rustavi 2, Mze andpublic TV broadcast live a 28-minute prime-time news item about a meeting of Mr. Saakashviliwith teachers in Tbilisi. Other candidates did not receive such substantial coverage of theircampaign events. In addition, no other candidate had a chance to directly address the citizens with atelevised New Year greeting, which was broadcast by all three channels.

Another national broadcaster, Imedi TV, offered its viewers a different picture of the campaign.While Mr. Saakashvili received 31 per cent of the channel’s news coverage, 19 per cent wasnegative in tone. The next most covered candidate, Mr. Patarkatsishvili, received 26 per cent of thecoverage, 29 per cent of which was negative in tone. Tbilisi-based local TV Kavkazia was criticalof Mr. Saakashvili and provided a platform for his main rivals.

On 26 December, six leading journalists announced their decision to leave Imedi TV in connectionwith the accusations against Imedi’s co-owner Arkadi Patarkatsishvili. Imedi TV’s managementconsequently temporarily suspended broadcasts in order to “distance themselves from dirty political games”, alleging pressure from both Mr. Patarkatsishvili and the authorities.

The CEC conducted, for the first time, its own media monitoring, through a commercial company,and released three media monitoring reports. The methodology chosen, as well as the interpretationof the results of quantitative and qualitative analysis, have resulted in a positive assessment of the campaign coverage and did not identify any substantial imbalances in the news.

The very high cost of paid political advertising on television limited the candidates’ possibilities to campaign in the media. Three of them charged approximately ten times more for politicaladvertising than for commercials. Two weeks before the election, public TV decreased its prices to make them more accessible for candidates, however they still remained twice as high as commercialrates. Only Mr. Saakashvili was able to place paid spots on all four nationwide channels.

Complaints and Appeals

Despite numerous allegations of election-related violations, a relatively small number of official complaints were submitted to election commissions and courts. Few complaints were submitted toDECs and regional courts, with the concentration of cases in Tbilisi. Opposition parties and NGOs explained this with a lack of trust in the impartiality of the election administration and courts inadjudication of election-related complaints. There are also credible reports that the public feared submitting complaints and witness statements on politically motivated offences.

All campaign-related complaints, except one (alleging vote buying by Mr.Patarkatsishvili), were filed against the ruling party candidate or government officials. Both the CEC and courts tended to stretch the law beyond reasonable interpretation and without regard to itsspirit, in favour of the ruling party candidate and public officials.

In its adjudication of complaints, the CEC failed to follow important procedures provided by domestic laws and international standards. Notably, CEC regulations do not adequately addresshow complaints are to be dealt with. CEC members seemingly lacked adjudication skills and oftenbased decisions on political interests and not on sound interpretation of the law.

Reports were submitted to various law enforcement and governmental bodies, with allegations ofintimidation, kidnappings and attacks on opposition supporters and close family members, someimplicating law enforcement officials. The police did not appear to sufficiently investigate suchcomplaints, and the Interior Ministry reported that many cases have already been closed for lack ofevidence. The OSCE/ODIHR EOM is not aware of any criminal prosecutions being initiated insuch cases.

Election Day

Election day was generally peaceful. Overall, voting was assessed positively by a large majority of IEOM observers. However, organizational and procedural shortcomings were observed, especially with regard to inconsistent application of inking procedures, intended as a safeguard against multiple voting. This is especially significant given the reintroduction of election-day voter registration and the scale by which it was used.

The circumstances in and around polling stations were frequently problematic. Some 12 per cent of polling station premises were overcrowded, and outside 19 per cent of polling stations large numbers of voters were waiting to vote. Tension outside polling stations was noted in 2 per cent of reports, and inside the premises in 3 per cent. Outside many polling stations, buses transporting UNM supporters to vote were noted. Campaign material was noted inside 3 per cent of pollingstations visited. In addition, observers found CEC-produced stickers with the text “Where will you be on 5 January?”, with the “5” in a red circle visually resembling that used on Mr. Saakashvili’scampaign materials.

The vote count was evaluated less positively, with a significant number of IEOM observers assessing it as bad or very bad. In most polling stations observed, the counting process was very slow. A considerable number of PECs did not perform basic reconciliation procedures before opening the ballot boxes, such as establishing the number of voters who voted and entering it into the protocol. In nearly half of counts observed, voters’ choices were not read aloud during the count, and at times, PEC members and observers were not allowed to examine the ballots, inviolation of the law. Determination of ballot validity was not always reasonable and consistent. Unauthorized persons frequently participated in the vote count.

Many PECs had problems completing the results protocol, and revised figures which had been entered into the protocol earlier. Occasionally, protocols had been pre-signed and completed inpencil rather than ink. The result protocols were often not posted for public scrutiny. While theCEC is posting precinct result protocols on its website for the first time, only a small number ofprotocols had been posted by mid-morning of the day following the election.

-------

As we see IEOM is more than not satisfied with vote counting, but this is an essential part of the election procedure! How these election can be entirely free and democratic if we have "A LOT OF SO-CALLED CHALLENGES"???

International Community did not say that these election were free and fair, in general they were in line with OSCE and CoE committments about democratic elections. But let me ask then, if such kind of elections were held in Latvia or in the UK, would you be satisfied and claim that everything was done in a democratic way?

Food for thoughts....

Dream a dream with Love :))

2008-01-07T19:50:00.000+02:00

Advanced Lithuanians :))

2007-11-23T15:24:00.000+02:00

I have just noticedthat the web-page of the Parliament of Lithuania is available also in English (sure), French and... Chinese (!!) Information about Latvian parliament can get only in English (besides Latvian). Only Estonian Riigikogu translated into Russian. So, it seems that our Lithuanian partners are more than advanced and feel the growing popularity of Chinese in the world. However, this is not just this popularity, but economy. Latvia and Lithuania position themselves like "Silk Road" states

"The Baltic cities and states that first capitalize on their intermediary role between East and West in this reemerging Silk Road will secure advantages quickly, and perhaps permanently" (Silk Road Project)

Information nowadays is very important, especially when you get it easy and in your language. I see Lithuanians are more quick-witted than we are....

Traffic in Yerevan :))

2007-11-22T14:19:00.000+02:00

No comments

Georgian press - November 19

2007-11-19T19:53:00.002+02:00

A Very Dangerous Tendency

'The public attitude towards the law enforcers has dramatically changed since November 7. Soldiers, security guards and police workers avoid wearing uniforms if they have a chance to,' the Kviris Palitra writes in one of today's article. The article tells a story of the elite battalion servicemen, who were banished from a restaurant a couple of days ago, because 'there was no place for them beside Georgians'. 'Some policemen I know told me they had never taken scolding so calmly as now - they could not say just anything in their defense. To be short, the image of a policeman, which was built during long years, was crushed on just one day – November 7,' the publication reads.

Question That Must Be Answered

'The authority insulted Georgian shrines on November 7, the Kviris Kronika reports. 'They threw the gas capsules in the churches where intoxicated and injured people were trying to hide from the violence in Rustaveli. The Sioni Church young priests vainly tried to stop the special soldiers, who did not mercy them too and responded them with gas and rubber bullets. Later when the developments shifted to Rike, Metechi and Sameba Cathedrals were also targeted.' 'We have been notified that several spiritual leaders, Senior Priest of the Peter-Paul's Church Father Archil and Church Hierarch Iobi, were supposed to be killed,' the edition writes in 'Authority Terrorizes Priests'.

http://www.interpressnews.ge/index.php?lang_id=ENG&sec_id=50150&info_id=193469

Seizure of IMEDI, seizure of HOPE

2007-11-19T18:27:00.002+02:00

Police walk by as they guard the television station Imedi in Tbilisi. Police walk by as they guard the television station Imedi in Tbilisi November 7, 2007 (REUTERS)

Interview with Lewis Robertson, the head of News Media Caucasus, Imedi’s parent company, November 14, 2007

....We got a tip late Wednesday afternoon that this might happen. We had been warned this was possible and they might be coming to Imedi. Then about 10:40 I was in the office. I heard a lot of dogs barking which is very unusual. I looked out of the window from my office on the third floor and saw hundreds of riot police running towards the television station. I immediately went downstairs to the lobby. By the time I got there people had been forced on the floor. They took out a gun and put it to the head of Bidzina Baratashvili [General Director of Imedi Channel].
They told him that they would shoot him right there. One of our reporters who was nine months pregnant was forced to the floor with a gun pointed at her. They were pushing and shoving and there was a lot of fear. We were there for an hour or so and they ordered us to leave. We went outside. It was very cold night, raining. Everybody was told to go home. I was back in the station with General Director and our commercial director. We were inside and everybody outside was leaving. Another group of riot police came and started shooting teargas and rubber bullets. ....

...One of our directors was hit with a club and had to go to hospital. Ten or so of our employees had to go to hospital because of the teargas. While we were inside the building we were asked to go inside with riot police. We went in one of the control rooms and took those pictures which are now out on the internet. Everything had been destroyed. This was about ten minutes to eleven. I guess 2 or 3 o clock in the morning we left and have not been back to the building since then. The building is cordoned. I was with a reporter from the Wall Street Journal there but nobody let him go into the building. Only the people who had left their cars were allowed to enter. When they got to their cars, they saw all the windows had been smashed and the radios and CD players player had been torn out. It is clear that the people who ere guarding the place did so....

January 5 elections are not going to be a free and fair elections from the stand of point of media coverage. There is no question about that. You have the first channel which is there every time the president goes somewhere. Rustavi will cover it as well. We would also cover the other candidates. ...

November 17, 2007

The Georgian National Communications Commission (GNCC) has suspended Imedi TV’s broadcast license for three months, citing the station's violation of the law on broadcasting. Meanwhile, Rustavi 2 TV aired on November 16 a documentary, which had all the appearances of officially sanctioned, anti-Imedi propaganda....

No comments.... :/

Georgian traffic and social problems

2007-11-19T17:12:00.003+02:00

Today I was really annoyed not only by the public transportation system of Tbilisi, but also by the absence of respect to pedastrians from the part of Tbilisi City Council... Those who have been to Tbilisi can fully understand me. The traffic in the capital of Georgia is horrible, and this is the sole thing I am afraid of. In order to cross the street I usually use an underground, but this week it was impossible to cross Rustaveli street and Freedom square, entrence to all the undergrounds was blocked. The way out is just to run in order to avoid to get under the car... And I still cannot understand why we have only mini-buses going to Rustavi (and maybe other destinations), if there are so many people going to this place, especially in evenings... Georgian companies, which run this business, could make more profit, if we have buses in evenings (for more than just 18 people).... So, be careful in Georgia!

Overladen with my bags, I was approching a metro station, observing so many people, bagging for help on the sidelines of the sidewalks... It seems that resolution of the social problems will be the main priority before the upcoming presidential elections for the government... Mass rallies were driven mainly by poverty an absence of the Rule of Law for ordinary citizens...

On November 16, Georgian presient introduced a new Prime Minister, former Chairperson of the Supervisory Boar of the Bank of Georgia Lado Gurgebidze, saying that... “we need more momentum to our reforms. We have instructed the new prime minister to provide, stage-by-stage, a two-fold increase in pensions, a significant increase in teachers’ salaries, an increase in social assistance, more employment programs, and to deliver the results of our reforms to our citizens." And a new PM has replied that "the main task for me, if I am approved by Parliament, is to engage in communication and dialogue and if possible to reach consensus with the people, especially with socially vulnerable people."

I fully agree with a journalist from the GT that "Gurgenidze, who has been on good terms with authorities as a successful businessperson, especially with Saakakashvili, will be a fresh face detached from the current government's problems."(...) "According to Georgian experts, Nogaideli's government came under fire from many Georgians for failing to sufficiently address poverty and tackle soaring inflation. Nogaideli is also unpopular for education reforms that resulted in mass teacher lay-offs and for a series of privatizations that his critics say were non-transparent and clashed with democratic principles. . The new appointment must be approved by the parliament, but as the ruling party has the majority of votes at the legislature, approval is most probable. "

Crazy days - 16.11.

2007-11-18T21:17:00.003+02:00

poster in the subway

Georgia celebrates International day of tolerance, and even Georgian authorities decided to lift the state of emergency... President has told that "we are not a cowardly government. We are a government for which the top priority is the rule of law and of course our country and peace, security and the protection of every citizen. So we are determined to maintain law and order in the future as well. We will secure the normal functioning of the state and a transparent and democratic political process accessible to all." But these are very beautiful words, which do not reflect the reality....

Crazy days

2007-11-18T21:09:00.003+02:00

The last three days were very crazy....
I feel really tired, running out of energy...
As I was working from dawn to dusk and that is why I was unable to post smth...
Originally I was planning to be now on the way to Rustavi, but as usually I was late (forgot that today is Sunday). So, I am staying in the office.. :))

November 15

The whole day I felt crappy...

I was driving to Tbilisi in a mini-bus, and two things really disappointed me - young men, packed into the Soviet truck, who were going to attend 18 days military preparation (in Georgia there is a law on Compulsary Army Reserve Service which obliges all young men from 18 till 40 to undergo a military training for 18 days every two years), which is a sign of the militarization of the country (however, friend of mine who was so nationalistic and militaristic in his views drastically changed his mind after holding in his arms real weapons, which push you to kill someone); after that I saw a crashed mini-bus. That was a mini bus, going probably from Tbilisi to Rustavi.... I could be there...

My first news I read made me really upset...

"Tbilisi City Court has suspended Imedi TV?s broadcast license citing that the television stations? news coverage of the November 7 unrests in Tbilisi was inciting to overthrow of the government. The court's ruling has also frozen the TV stations assets"

My initial reaction: Georgian democracy is under threat!!

If we have only GPB (state controled telivision), Rustavi 2 TV and closed IMEDI TV, the upcoming elections will not be free and fair! Meanwhile, Mathew Bryza kept pushing for restoration of all media broadcasts, including of Imedi and Kavkasia. Speaking at a news conference in Tbilisi on November 14 – the second one in two subsequent days – Bryza said: “First of all we need to have a decision out there to get Imedi back on air and that’s what we are working very hard right now. It seems that Georgian authorities turned a deaf ear...Maybe the procedure of elections will be fair, but pre-election will not be free and fair, if Georgian authorities will limit freedom of speech and suspend licenses for the Independent mass media, especially TV. We all know that the main source of information for Georgian population is TV, not Internet or press (only small percentage of the population can afford to buy printed press, and even less have access to the Internet). The Court had acted upon the request of the General Prosecutor’s Office, which ordered that Imedi's “owner be prevented from using and managing” the station's broadcast license, but it is known that the government and personally president and hid team stand behind the Prosecutor General. If in Latvia Prosecutor General can say NO to the President or Prime Minister, in Georgia it is out of reality.

That day Georgian Parliament also endorsed with its first hearing draft amendments to the election code. I really hail all the amendments proposed. The only exception is an abolishment of a turnout of voters – “another proposed amendment to the election code involves the abolition of a 33.33% quorum in second-round presidential elections. There is no quorum required for the first round.” : /

My philosophy on NATO - NATO as a cooperative security organisation

2007-11-15T11:33:00.000+02:00

This paper had been written in April 2007 in cooperation with Maris Cepuritis (theory of NATO like a medieval city/fortress) and Liga Berzina

What does NATO mean to you? Military organisation, defense Alliance, collective defense organisation or collective security organisation? This was the topic of discussions on the usual meeting of the Latvian team of the Community of Democratic Choice Youth Forum. Two views/allegories deserve our attention, which basically reflect the opinion of all of us.

First allegory is about NATO as a security umbrella that keeps all NATO members safe from direct military threats. This is possible because every aggressor knows that by attacking one of member states, it automatically is in a state of war with all member countries, which together form a great military force. The second point of view is by comparing NATO to medieval fortress and medieval city. NATO should be not as medieval fortress with high and thick walls, which is built on the edge of unattainable cliff and is reachable only by small and dangerous pathway. In our mind NATO should be more like medieval city which is a cultural and economical centre and also a seat of learning for surrounding territories, and in the times of peace is accessible for people of different backgrounds and different cultures to trade, share their culture, knowledge and basically to socialize. But during the times of crisis (war) this city still can protect itself by closing all the gates and putting their garrison on the walls and in the towers. Of course, fortress also can protect people of surrounding territories from foreign invaders, but fortress is advantageous only in times of military crisis, but city shares its benefits all the time. This distinction between medieval fortress and city better shows us that NATO should not only build walls and be a fortress; it must be more flexible and embrace much more diverse and broader cooperation, thus, developing cooperative security principle.

In the light of aforementioned, we propose to use more the concept of cooperative security in our discourse, when speaking about NATO. It has been generally used to describe a more peaceful, but rather idealistic, approach to security through increased international harmony and cooperation, and includes four concentric and mutually reinforcing “rings of security”: individual security, collective security, collective defense and promotion of stability. Individual security stands at the centre of any real international security system built around liberal democratic ideals. It is the essential basic value upon which a Cooperative Security rests. Collective Security looks inward to attempt to ensure security within a group of sovereign states. But a Collective Defense organisation looks outward to defend its members from external aggression, to defend the Self (group of states with collective identity, sharing common values) from the Other. The fourth and outer ring of Cooperative Security is the active promotion of stability outside the boundaries of the states forming this Cooperative Security system.[1] On the one hand, NATO already is a practical example of cooperative security – community of values, promoting stability in its extended neighbourhood. But on the other hand, it still has division lines. So, it is crucially important to promote this stability, not excluding, but including Others, especially significant Others. We do not need the emergence of a new dividing line in our discourse and our actions.

Nowadays we face a world where the very nature of threats to the security of states has changed - non-state actors like international terrorist groups have come forward and states do not pose an immediate threat to the survival of other states. Moreover, in the beginning of 21st century the concept of security has become more complex and must be understood beyond military terms, including also economic, social and environmental dimension. The world has “shrank” to global village, “flat” and interdependent area, making the need for cooperation and not confrontation a matter of development and survival, a chance to secure safe and stable environment for the future generations.

Since now NATO has been and has been seen as a collective defense organisation, which implies the Alliance of states, which poses collective identity, directed against Other(s). We believe this perception makes a physical and psychological division line between the common Self and Other(s), thus decreasing its contribution for development of safe and secure environment and in fact making it more insecure.

Wording, language and discourse have been underestimated not only in the analysis of the foreign policy of actors of the international relations, but also by these actors themselves. They have not paid sufficient attention to importance of social constructs. We believe that language is one of the instruments for construction of the social reality. “Language is not seen as describing a pre-existing social reality, but as a medium through which reality is created and the material world is given a meaning.”[2] It is crucially important not only how we act, but also how and what we are speaking about. Thus, building of identity (image) of a state (or another actor of the international relations) is a discursive practice. Although state identity (let’s take a state as a basic unit of the international system, although some scholars can disagree) derives from many resources, it reflects what others say about it and how they respond to it. This is known as the principle of Alexander Wendt “reflected appraisals” or “mirroring”, because it hypothesizes that Self (a state or group of states with collective identity, sharing common values) come to see themselves as a reflection of how they think Others see or “appraise” them, in the “mirror” of Other’s representations of the Self. If Self treats the Other though it were an enemy, then by the principle of reflected appraisals the Other is likely to internalize that belief in his own identity vis-à-vis the Self.[3]
“The Russian media exploded in anger at the news of U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ testimony before Congress on February 7. Presenting the defense budget for Fiscal Year 2008, Gates argued that Russia and China are “pursuing sophisticated military modernization programs” that could pose a threat to the United States. Russian commentators grabbed that comment and ran with it, declaring a re-launch of the Cold War at a time when feelings in Moscow are already running high about NATO’s plans to deploy missile defenses in Poland and the Czech Republic.”[4]
If we use the concept of “reflected appraisals” or “mirroring” in the instance, we see that not only actions, but also discourse, wording of the Secretary of Defense of the United States (member of NATO) facilitates the creation of the image/identity of Russia as the enemy state, which makes our “common neighbourhood” more insecure, and force Russia to behave and act in this way. Moreover, by heavily relying on the old scheme of inclusion/exclusion, a new dividing line emerges between us and them. By reflecting on NATO and calling it as the Alliance and collective defense organisation, we again draw the new diving line, including some and excluding others.

“Common vision for common neighbourhood” – we would like to hear in the rhetoric of our officials. Cooperation for security – we would like to see in the actions of our governments. Enlargement of this community of values, cooperative security organisation is a logical consequence, embracing new states, “news democracies”, which share common values and ideals. However, this democratic rhetoric has to be seen in the actions of the governments. There should not be a gap between words and deeds, no more double standards. Accession to NATO requires from the states not only the reformation of the military sphere, but also ensuring the rule of law and respect of the human rights, which are the basic tenets of democracy. Thus, NATO plays an important role in the sustaining of democratic reforms and democratic development of these “new democracies” as they aspire to join this cooperative security system. However, these “new democracies” should not create their own diving lines.

“For Georgia the whole of this year has been a year of good fighting evil, truth fighting falsehood and freedom fighting tyranny. They have tried a lot to make it a year of Georgia's destruction but you have made it a year of Georgia's construction. They wanted 2006 to be a year of Georgia's blockade and isolation, but you have made it a year in which Georgia has more allies and friends than ever before in its entire history,”[5] stressed the president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili in his New Year speech. And this is only one example of the prevailing discourse among Georgian officials, which makes the distinction between the Self (Georgia) and the Other (Russia) and establish a boundary between them, constructing the external realm as different, inferior, threatening. But these discursive practices do not only contribute to the secure “common neighbourhood”, but even do not contribute to the peace and security of the community of values – NATO. According to the National Security Concept of Georgia, “Georgia views NATO as an organisation of collective defense that is the central mechanism for providing security and stability in the Euro-Atlantic area.”[6] Thus, it views NATO as an organisation, which looks outward to defend its members from external aggression. And the aggressor is obvious – the Russian Federation. According to the theory of “reflected appraisals”, more the Self is engaging in the antagonistic rhetoric, more antagonistic is becoming the Other. Does it make our ‘common neighbourhood’ more secure? The answer is no. Instead of spending their times on creation of new boundaries, “new democracies” should engage in cooperation for security. As a result their efforts to join NATO will not be perceived as a headache for the members of this community of values, instead their integration will be perceived as an asset for ensuring stable, secure and peaceful environment. Rationalists can point, that in order to define yourself, you should say who you are not, that the definition of difference is a requirement built into the logic of identity. But is this creation of boundaries between states the best way to ensure security and stability?

Going back to our second allegory – medieval fortress/city – we would like to stress that in our mind NATO should lower its walls and towers in the same time broadening its territory and focusing on other aspects of life so it would become a more friendly place for sharing different views, knowledge, culture and wealth and become a centre for promoting cooperation, stability, knowledge, and universal values – so NATO could truly become a cooperative security organization.

[1] Richard Cohen, „Cooperative Security: From Individual Security to International Stability” in Cohen R., Mihalka M., Cooperative Security: New Horizons for International Order. The Marshall Center Papers, No. 3, 2001. http://www.marshallcenter.org/site-graphic/lang-en/page-pubs-mcpapers-1/static/xdocs/coll/static/mcpapers/mc-paper_3-en.pdf
[2]Peter Wennersten, “The Politics of Inclusion. The Case of the Baltic States.” Cooperation and Conflict, vol. 34, no.3 (1999): 274
[3] Alexander Wendt, Social Theory of International Politics (Cambridge, NY, Melbourne, etc.: Cambridge University Press, 1999): 327
[4] Rose Gottemoeller, Bob Gates and the New Russia Threat. Carnegie Moscow Centre, 15.02.2007.
http://www.carnegie.ru/en/pubs/media/75569.htm
[5] The New Year message of the President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili. 01.01.2007. http://www.president.gov.ge/?l=E&m=0&sm=1&st=30&id=2114
[6] National Security Concept of Georgia. http://www.mfa.gov.ge/?sec_id=24&lang_id=ENG

Some compiled notes about 'peace operations' and NATO involvement for NISA

2007-11-15T10:49:00.000+02:00

Stability, happiness, prosperity and peace – these are the things people are striving for all over the globe, but the main component among them is peace, without which nothing is possible, be it prosperous and happy family life or personal development, because the alternative of peace is war. And the whole definition of peace could be ‘absence of war’. Broadly, three conditions of world politics can be identified: war, non-war and peace. However, peace is simultaneously the fundamental assumption upon which international law is based. Although time of the great wars has gone, it could be naïve to say that we have reached the Kantanian ‘perpetual peace’. New challenges appeared; among them are intra-state conflicts and global spread of terrorism.

‘Peace operations’ is a broad concept, which refers to peace peacekeeping, peace building/making and peace enforcement. Actually this is a concept, which combines all the peace support measures during inter- and intra-state conflicts. The first concept of peacekeeping had been introduced in 1950s by Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Lester Pearson and the UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold in response to the need to supervise troop withdrawals from Suez in 1956, later this concept had been defined as a third party role played by an actor in a violent conflict situation. Put it roughly – conflict management rather than conflict resolution. Later requires peace building/making activities or even peace enforcement, but traditional peacekeeping is inherently status quo oriented, therefore it cannot address or contribute to any lasting political solutions to the problems of the post-Cold War era. Massacre in Srebrenica, Rwanda and Somalia is a bitter proof to this fact. That is why ‘keeping the peace’ does indeed imply a more active role for the peacekeepers and we need more ‘peace operations, not peace keeping missions.

Peace operations may be coordinated under the auspices of the United Nations, African Union, Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (nowadays we can add to this list Collective Security Treaty Organisation, GUAM and maybe others). NATO has come a long way in the field of peace operations since the early 1990s and managed to conduct several ‘peace operations’ such as Stabilisation Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1996-2004), Operation Allied Harmony in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (2001-2003), Kosovo Force in the province of Serbia Kosovo (since 1999) and participate in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan (since 2001).

Peace operation in the Kosovo province proved to be a real peace keeping mission, when NATO-led Kosovo Force was in charge to prevent future massacres and fighting based on the ethnical ground. Peace in this region is very crucial for the maintenance of peace in the whole Balkans. However, at the present political solution is needed, based on the compromise and consensus of the two sides involved – Serbian government and authorities of the Kosovo province. In Afghanistan we see completely different situation and to call this NATO-led ISAF a peace operation in its traditional sense is very difficult. It was the United States which used the fifth Article of the North Atlantic Treaty –
“The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognised by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area”

-- to intervene Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks in 2001, basing their arguments that Taliban regime gives a shelter to Al-Qaeda terrorists, who actually stood behind that bloody terrorist attack on the twin-towers in New Your city . After the ousting of Taliban regime, ISAF, a –UN mandated international force had been established with the aim “to assist the newly established Afghan Transitional Authority and to create a secure environment in and around Kabul and support the reconstruction of Afghanistan.” Since August 2003 ISAF is supported and led by NATO, which was the first peace support initiative undertaken by NATO out of the Euro-Atlantic area and remains crucially important to the Alliance nowadays as the fighting with the Taliban insurgents appeared to be more intense and on the wide scale. The main problem in Afghanistan is to win hearts and minds of the local population, which sometimes not only assist the insurgency, but also fill the ranks. As it is stated, “development without security is unachievable and security without development is meaningless.” That is why it is crucially important to provide to the local Afghanis not only security, but also development be it infrastructure or economy, and this is not only NATO task, which however is actively engaged into the development and reconstruction works, but also the task of all the international community, development and relief agencies.

I have a deep conviction that each person working or trying to promote NATO and its values should have his own perception of this international organization. In my opinion, NATO should look and behave like a cooperative security organization. It has been generally used to describe a more peaceful, but rather idealistic, approach to security through increased international harmony and cooperation, and includes four concentric and mutually reinforcing “rings of security”: individual security, collective security, collective defense and promotion of stability. Individual security stands at the centre of any real international security system built around liberal democratic ideals. It is the essential basic value upon which a Cooperative Security rests. Collective Security looks inward to attempt to ensure security within a group of sovereign states. But a Collective Defense organization looks outward to defend its members from external aggression, to defend the Self (group of states with collective identity, sharing common values) from the Other. The fourth and outer ring of Cooperative Security is the active promotion of stability outside the boundaries of the states forming this Cooperative Security system.[1] However, NATO should not become a global police, trying to be involved in a resolution of any conflict. The primary aim of NATO is to secure the peace of its member states, trying to promote stability into its neighbourhood without using military force, which is to be the last resort to use.

[1] Richard Cohen, „Cooperative Security: From Individual Security to International Stability” in Cohen R., Mihalka M., Cooperative Security: New Horizons for International Order. The Marshall Center Papers, No. 3, 2001. http://www.marshallcenter.org/site-graphic/lang-en/page-pubs-mcpapers-1/static/xdocs/coll/static/mcpapers/mc-paper_3-en.pdf

Notes about patriotism

2007-11-14T15:38:00.002+02:00

Some persons have accused me of being too critical towards Georgia these days, arguing that they are real patriots and are not going to criticise recent political developments. But what is patriotism? Look at my picture, it is taken in my parents' apartment. Although I am very critical about the actions taken by Georgian government, I still have Georgian flag in "my corner". I do like this land, but maybe I dislike this government... Real patriotism means that you are not blind as regards actions of your government, having (a bit) critical approach. You are criticising, because you want all the best for your country. First, you are trying to be silent in your critics, pointing out to the mistakes. If you are not heard and the overall situation is getting worse, you loudly voice your view. Maybe the same has happened with me... I do like a remark of Mr. Aleksey Loskutov, the head of Latvian Anti-corruption bureau: Patriotism means that when you pay a fine, because you have parked your car in a wrong place, you are happy to know that the system works....

My Imeretian hachapuri :)))

2007-11-14T15:06:00.000+02:00

Tired and hungry after half of the day spent in the city of the Academy of Science, where we were decorating the conference room for upcoming conference of the Latvian society AVE SOL about Latvian Roberts Kupcis, a person, who made researches almost of the all mineral waters of Georgia, my colleague Andris and me went to the Soviet style cafe near "Vodi Logidze". Although I was dreaming about lobio, I have agreed to join him and order this round hachapuri. :)))

Freezed...

2007-11-14T07:44:00.002+02:00

Yesterday in the evening I did not succeed to catch a mini-bus. As a result I had to stay in the office of our Latvian Honor Consul. At least here we have a small gas heater. But nevertheless I have been freezed, even now sipping hot tea in oder to warm myself and my cold fingers. I should tell my guys to bye me a gas or electric heater, 'cause it is really unbearable to stay in my apartment, especially at night.

I have started to read some news and upload photos of how I spent my Day of Lachplesis... Nice morning, with the blue sky. It would be beter for me not to read the news...

Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili addressing teachers:

"Last year, President Putin directly told me at the [CIS] summit in Minsk that Russia would create a new Cyprus in Abkhazia.

And I want to explain what the Cyprus case means, as Russians understand it. There was a huge riot in Athens, Greece in 1973. There were demonstrations against the then Greek government. In parallel to these events, turmoil was sparked in Cyprus. The Greek government was totally occupied by the internal affairs of Greece and they failed to react [to developments in Cyprus], and, as a result, Cyprus was split in two. This conflict remains unresolved. This is the Cyprus case and the Cyprus model for Georgia."

It seems that the President compare Greek riots to overthrow the government 1973 with the recent attempt made by opposition groups with the Russians behind the scene. But it is worth to mention that in 1967 the Greek military seized power in coup d-etat and established the Greek military junta of 1967-74. And that protests starting in 1968 and reaching its peak in 1973 was anti-junta protests. Does it mean that Mikheil Saakashvili compare itself with the leader of the military junta?

Speaking at a news conference in Tbilisi after series of talks with the Georgian leadership and the opposition, Mathew Bryza, the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs....

“Some of our fellow allies [in NATO] are wondering whether or not the events that are unfolding right now [in Georgia] mean that Georgia someway disqualifies itself for Membership Action Plan,” Mathew Bryza said. “We do not share that view… As the state of emergency is lifted and as the country prepares for the elections and if those elections are as free and fair as we expect them to be, why should there be any questions.”

He then kept on pushing the Georgian leadership to lift the state of emergency and to restore broadcast of all the television stations.

“These steps are important to restore everyone’s faith in democratic processes,” he said. “If Georgia’s democratic system recovers and moves forward again then it appears that Georgia will be on the path again to fulfilling all the criteria of NATO membership.”

In an apparent attempt to allay skeptic’s concerns about Georgia’s democratic processes, Bryza pointed out that these sort of tensions observed recently in Georgia are “by-products” of drastic, but necessary reforms.

No comments....

Day 2, Rustavi-Tbilisi

2007-11-13T18:23:00.003+02:00

Half of the day I spent in Rustavi, trying to arrange with my chief the schedule for the next weeks. Usually he was rather critical regarding the authorities in Georgia, but not today. He was teying to defend them, claiming that the rally of oppositoon was organised by Russians, that Russians stand behind this political turmoil... Strange.. Then came Lasha, whom I like very much, very intersting person to talk and to spend time. We were chating for half an hour, also about recent political crisis. In his opinion, it is really foolish to blame only Russians. Moreover, Georgian police and special force units were very cruel and brutal in his action, trying to dispel the rally. Lasha was the second person who told me that they (Georgian policemen) took or were forced to take some drugs, because they beat even young girls, old people, shooting with rubber bullets children...

As we all know, presidential election wilkl be hold on January 5, 2008. But why Georgian president has decided to hold presidential, not parliamentary elections? One of the demands of the opposition was to hold parliamentary elections in April next year... But it is very easy to explain. As the president has told, this will be more a referendum:

Let’s hold these elections without additional postponement. I, as the leader of this country, need an unequivocal mandate from you in order to tackle all the foreign threats, to tackle all types of pressure on Georgia, to tackle attempts at annexing Georgian territory, to tackle plans directed towards destabilizing Georgia.
So I propose that you judge and give me your trust and your support for the country’s further strengthening and to show the entire world that the Georgian people can maintain unity despite attempts at destabilizing us.

Executive power controls judicial system. Prosecutor General will not dare to critise the executive power, also president or contradict them. Moreover, it was a good strategical step from one side to raise salaries of policemen, army, people, working for all law-enforcement bodies. As I was told today usually Georgian soldies, serving in the army, gets 1000 GEL. Enough to survive in Georgia... I agree also that to increase salaries was very essential to fight with corruption and illegal activities of the law-enforcement bodies, but we still have teachers, getting around 90 (a bit more than 50 USD), and pensioners - around 38 GEL. Agree that the main reason to go out and protest was poverty, unemployment, but also absence of the Rule of Law in the country. Each of them has his own story to tell....

Back to Rustavi... First day

2007-11-12T18:19:00.002+02:00

That was my first time, when I really did not want to go back to Georgia, I was nearly crying in the airport, saying good-bye to my parents, my friends.. After all those events, beating of innocent people, shutting the most critical TV station of IMEDI. Maybe this is a coincedence that in Georgian 'imedi' means hope. Georgian authorities closed not just a TV station, they killed the hope of thousdands of people, who believed in all those democratic values voiced by government and personally by president and that this government is really comitted to these values, not just simply voicing, thus making a so-called democratic facade....

Two years ago Georgian president claimed that “if somebody dared to put pressure on media I would be his worst enemy. It is an attack on my own prerogatives, ideals and authority.” But last week the international community could observe horrible scenes of beating not only ordinary people, but also journalists. Friends of mine from Latvian society in Georgia told me that their friend who used to work as a journalist for IMEDI TV station, was beaten and threatened. Special law-enforcement unites, who stormed IMEDI before the announcement of the state of emergency and informational blokade, even confiscated mobile phones of journalists. This young girl now is sitting at home, having a deep depression....

My plane had to depart at 22:35 by Latvian time, but due to the delay we took off the ground only at 23:05. I was sitting, waiting and thinking.... that I do not wanna learn Georgian language anymore, that I do not see the purpose of stayning in Georgia for longer time, teaching local youngsers about European Union.. I do not wanna see this nation not only in Europe, in my Europe, but also as a member of NATO, which is not just a military strucutre, but also a political club, value driven organisation. If you wanna join our club, you should behave like us, embrace all that democratic values not just on paper, but also guideing yourself in your actions. And I do not wanna accept a country, which is trying to convince others that it has territorial (and not only) problems with Russia. I do not wanna let my friends fight for Georgia against Russia (Article 5, North Atlantic Treaty), if Georgia uses force against its own citizens..

Some friends of my tell me that such kind of scenes you could observe in any European nations - France, Italy, but they do not take into their minds the difference of the situation. Let's compare similar events in Latvia and Georgia!

I was driving from the airport back to Rustavi. I felt myself like a dog beaten by men, and who now distrusts each man, trying to approach or feed her. I distrust Georgians, I became more sober, my initial romantism and idealism regarding Georgian disappeared, it's gone. Georgia lost its very active friend, I think I am not the only one,...

I got up around noon, it was very cold in my room (there is no a central heating system in Georgia, but I do not have a gas or electric heater), observing from my bed, how my curtains were swinging because of the wind coming from the cracks of the window. I came out, went to Tbilisi, talking with my friends about recent political crisis. Some of them, who works for the government or is active in one NGO promoting NATO integration and organising election observation campaing, were trying to convince me that we should blame opposition, not the government, that the main force standing behind the riots - Russians. They agreed that there were some mistakes, how the authorities delt with the demonstartors, but the overall view, opinion of them was in defence of the current government, but all others (mainly opposition leaders) are "degeneraty" (disabled persons). I was aksed whom do I believe?... No one, I get and analyse the information I have and then make conclusions. Maybe for them actions of the government were correct and right, but not for me, European Latvian girl, who knows what does to live in a democratic state, committed to the Rule of Law.

Next I spoke with my friend from Latvian society, who told me horrible stories, how on November 7 people came to their house, begging for help. How they were screaming, because the police followed them and used force even in the house were our Latvian Honor consulate is located. I heard stories of the use of force in the Sameba church, even there police used force and tear gas, dissolving it with water, so it could be more poisonous. Staff of our consulated felt themselves like caught into a gas chamber, because even here (our building is located near the Parliament) they could smell the gas....

I am going back home now. It si too late, I have to catch a mini-bus, which going to Rustavi....

Mass protests in Georgia November 2-7, 2007

2007-11-09T09:41:00.006+02:00

www.humanrights.ge

24saati

I do not believe that they are all spies of Russia or work for KGB, SVR (External Intelligence Service). Each of them has his own story to tell...

Good-bye, my Land!

2007-07-18T19:48:00.002+03:00

I am leaving for Georgia....
20 minutes before my departure to Tbilisi...
Smth interesing lies ahead, smth challenging...
But I will miss my family, my friends, my land...

"Goodbye my lover, goodbye my friend.... Good bye my land"

Message of 'global warming'

2007-07-13T22:36:00.000+03:00

It seems that 'global warming' has truly become the 'buzzword' of today."Evan Almighty" is one more message to the wider public that 'we should think more about the Earth, not about our profit".

If a decade ago we were afraid of the rage of the machines, now we can add to the list of our phobias fears of the Deluge made by 'global warming', made by human kind.

Post-soviet oligarchy

2007-07-11T20:58:00.002+03:00

July 7, 2007

Summer sunny day, Fishermen fest, numerous wedding parties, people on holidays....

Referendum....

Two questions:

1. Are you for the repealing of the law “Amendments to the National Security Law” of March 1, 2007?
2. Are you for the repealing of the law “Amendments to the State Security Authorities Law” of March 1, 2007?

This was the day of wedding of my very close friend. I was preparing myself for the wedding ceremony and a referendum had gone out of my mind. I had remembered about the referendum only 30 minuted before I had to leave for my friend's house to attend the pre-wedding ceremony. But it would not be me, if I did not cast my vote. Moreover, the polling station in my alma mater was just 3 minutes to go from my house. I took my passport, waiting for my mum ready to go. This was her first visit to the polling station in her entire life, because only in May she became "blue", got the "blue" passport of the Republic of Latvia. Her first reaction was not to go - "I do not know what to do and how to vote, thus, it is better to stay at home. Moreover, my vote does not matter and will not change smth." Bitter reality of Latvian democracy. We have 392 816 Latvian people who are non-citizens and has never ever attened the polling station and do not know how to vote. They do not know what does democracy mean - rule by the people and for the people. Although, they have all the chances to become an active citizen of Latvian society. This is just a matter of willingness. Despite the propaganda spread by some Russian media that the naturalisation exam is very difficult and humilating, my mum even with very poor knowledge of Latvian managed to pass it successfully, but on her behalf I can say that the atmosphere during the exam was very positive. But this is another issue to write about.

When we came in, we were the only ones in the polling station, not to mention people from the Election Commision. This was the clear sign to me that the referendum will be a faiure, a failure of Latvian democracy.

Next day I found that only 337 897 citizens of Latvia out of 1 850 616 went to the polling stations to cast their votes and vote for the repealing of the laws (more than 90%). But (!) the referendum would have taken place if at least half of the voters that participated in the last Saeima elections (453 730 voters) participated in it.

Latvian society has shown once again that democratic traditions in Latvia are weak, and instead of participatory democracy the overwhelming majority of Latvian people prefer elitist style of democracy...

Латвийцы помогают россиянам!

2007-07-11T20:42:00.000+03:00

Латвийские жители активно поддерживают бедных родственников из России
В течение девяти месяцев прошлого года жители Латвии послали россиянам денежные переводы на сумму 200 млн. USD. Латвийские переводы на 100 миллионов меньше переводов киприотов, зато на 100 миллионов больше, чем смогли перечислить американцы.