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Recent Appearances... Rantburg

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Russia to expel three senior Georgian diplomats
2007-11-09
(Xinhua) -- Russia is to expel three senior Georgian diplomats in Moscow in retaliation for similar moves by Tbilisi, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said Thursday.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Global outrage over Ghanem assassination
2007-09-21
World leaders announced their outrage at the slaying of an anti-Syrian Lebanese lawmaker in Beirut, and pointedly tied the attack to meddling by the Assad regime in Damascus. Britain, France, Greece, Italy, Russia, and the United Nations Security Council also sharply denounced the car bombing that killed Mr Antoine Ghanem, while plunging deeply divided Lebanon into further chaos days ahead of crucial elections. The European Union also condemned the killing as a 'contemptible act', but urged the Lebanese government to go ahead with a hotly contested Sept 25 presidential contest.

At the White House, U.S. President George W Bush made the following statement:
"I strongly condemn today's horrific assassination of Lebanese Member of Parliament Antoine Ghanem. I extend my personal condolences to his family and the families of the innocent persons who were murdered alongside him in Beirut.

Since October 2004, there has been a tragic pattern of political assassinations and attempted assassinations designed to silence those Lebanese who courageously defend their vision of an independent and democratic Lebanon. Today's cowardly attack comes days before the Lebanese Parliament is scheduled to convene to elect a new president. The United States opposes any attempts to intimidate the Lebanese people as they seek to exercise their democratic right to select a president without foreign interference. We will continue to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Lebanese people, as they resist attempts by the Syrian and Iranian regimes and their allies to destabilize Lebanon and undermine its sovereignty.

I call on the international community to support the Government of Lebanon in its efforts to bring to justice the perpetrators of these violent attacks, and to stand with the citizens of Lebanon who continue to struggle to protect their freedom."
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband condemned what it saw as a 'ruthless attempt to destabilise Lebanon' before critical Sept 25 elections to pick a successor to Syria-backed President Emile Lahoud.

"A targeted attack"
President Nicolas Sarkozy of France which, with the United States, has led international efforts to curb Syrian influence in Lebanon, expressed personal 'sadness and anger' at what he described as a 'targeted attack'.

'All light must be shed on the circumstances of this heinous crime and its perpetrators must be brought to justice,' said Mr Sarkozy, who, like Washington, linked it to other high-profile assassinations of anti-Syrian Lebanese leaders.

Mr Ghanem, a member of the Phalange party of former president Amin Gemayel, was the eighth member of the ruling anti-Syrian majority to be assassinated since the 2005 murder of former billionaire prime minister Rafik Hariri. Mr Ghanem's death has reduced the anti-Syrian majority in Parliament to 68 members out of the now 127-member house, amid a near-complete deadlock between the Western-backed ruling majority and the pro-Damascus opposition.

The European Union also condemned the killing as a 'contemptible act', but urged the Lebanese government to go ahead with its presidential election. 'These attacks should by no means obstruct the process of electing the new president and the process of reform that lies ahead of Lebanon,' EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner in a statement.

In Rome, Italian Foreign Minister Massimo d'Alema denounced what he called a 'terrorist attack' and a 'barbaric act' aimed at 'destabilising Lebanese political life at a particularly delicate time'.

After speaking by telephone to Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, Mr d'Alema said in a statement that he hoped the attack would 'reinforce everyone's will to isolate extremists and encourage political players to find a national consensus through a peaceful and democratic dialogue'.

Syria also condemned the attack, which left five others dead and dozens wounded in a Christian neighborhood of Beirut, as a 'criminal act' aimed at undermining Lebanese-Syrian relations.

'The organizers and perpetrators must be found and punished,' said Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin, who also called on Lebanese leaders 'to use restraint and pursue dialogue'.

Greece called Lebanon a 'friend' and said it backed Beirut's democratic institutions and national sovereignty, while condemning the attack as a 'terrorist' act.
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Europe
For the first time since 1944, Russians sack Tallinn, Estonia
2007-04-27
Estonia spirited away the controversial statue of a Red Army Soviet soldier from the centre of the capital in the early hours on Friday after violent riots against its removal in which one man was killed.
Russian got stabby with another Russian, according to the local media
Russia reacted furiously to the move and its upper house of parliament voted to ask President Vladimir Putin to sever relations with the small Baltic state.

The removal was carried out by surprise in the early hours after the worst violence seen in years in Estonia, including vandalism and looting by mainly Russian-speaking protesters. "The aim of the government decision was to avoid further possible actions against the public order," Estonia's government said in a statement.
Probably the smartest thing that the Estonian government has done during this entire fiasco. You want to riot? The monument is GONE. Not yours.
Russia, which has had troubled ties with Estonia since it won independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, has protested against the plan to move the World War Two monument as an insult to those who fought fascism.

It has also angered local Russian-speakers, a large minority of around 300,000 in the country of 1.3 million. Estonians view it as a reminder of 50 years of Soviet occupation.
Since it was a monument to the soldier-liberators that saved Tallinn from the Nazis, although they had left a week before in 1944, and the Soviets ripped the Estonian tricolor flag from the parliament building ...
"Yet again, we can qualify the actions of official Tallinn as sacrilegious and inhuman ...," Interfax news agency quoted Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin as saying.
Sacrilege, I say! Never mind those two (1940) (1944-1991) occupations!
"We are working to formulate a concrete reaction towards what has happened," he added. He said the move was harsh ahead of the May 9 anniversary of the end of World War Two, a popular public holiday in Russia.

By mid-morning the area around the statue was calm and traffic was flowing freely. Estonia said the statue was now somewhere under police control. People continued to clean up the streets and windows in many residential and office buildings nearby were smashed.

The vote by Russia's upper house of parliament on severing diplomatic ties with Estonia reflected Moscow's anger.
Don't let the door hit you in the bum ...
"We've seen enough of this mocking the dead and scoffing at the victory in World War Two," Russian news agencies quoted Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov as telling the chamber. The senators then backed the non-binding decision.

Mikhail Margelov, head of the foreign relations committee at the Federation Council, said the events in Tallinn showed that "the war against fascism did not end on May 9, 1945".
Shouldn't that war continue first, at home, in the Putin Federation?
"This fight goes on and it will continue as long as there are grave-diggers who are ready to throw out from the graves those who defeated fascism," he told Russian television.
Yes, the brave fighters for the bronze monument are now looting kiosks and jewelry stores ...
The violence came amid strong feelings about the 2-metre high bronze statue of a World War Two Red Army soldier, set in a large stone wall in a park, which was erected in 1947.

The government said one man died in the disturbances, which began after more than 1,000 people gathered to protest on Thursday, after being stabbed in the subsequent violence. The government said 44 of the protesters and 13 police were injured and 300 people were arrested. Looters smashed windows, fires were started and cars overturned.

Estonia has said the monument is a public order problem ...
YOU THINK?
... as it attracts Estonian and Russian nationalists. It has also said it is more respectful to the dead to be buried in a cemetery.
Especially since no one is really sure who or what is buried in the park. See this document: link
The authorities had fenced off the area around the monument and the statue itself and erected a long white tent as they prepared to dig for the remains of any soldiers.
I was in the Old Town during the riots last night. Roving gangs of Russians youths breaking every window and cracking every skull that they could find.

Unfortunately, it seems like it's just the beginning, as I type this, there is fighting going on in Freedom Square in Talinn, and cars are being destroyed. Russians are reportedly coming in from the east and the Russian Federation to join the scrum.
Alcohol sales have been banned through May 2 in Tallinn.

Here's a statement from Estonia's president, Toomas Ilves. Very Sarkozy-like, I think: link

But I just watched 20 Russian teenaged girls on ETV demonstrating in the streets. Chanting "Rossija, Rossija!" and holding a banner that read "USSR forever - screw Estonia". More buildings are being destroyed, and other Estonian monuments are being defaced.

This will not end well. :-(
Link


Iraq
Comments on the death penalty for Saddam Hussein
2006-12-30
When I saw this was the Detroit News, I expected local comments, which could've been more interesting... But I thought what the hey, toss some red meat out there for your erudite scrutiny. Then I realized it was the AP... Interesting selective blend, no?
(AP) Some comments on the execution of Saddam Hussein:
------
"Saddam Hussein's execution comes at the end of a difficult year for the Iraqi people and for our troops. Bringing Saddam Hussein to justice will not end the violence in Iraq, but it is an important milestone on Iraq's course to becoming a democracy that can govern, sustain and defend itself, and be an ally in the war on terror."
- President Bush.
------
"Saddam was treated with respect when he was alive and after his death. Saddam's execution was 100 percent Iraqi and the American side did not interfere."
- National Security adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie.
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"An execution is always tragic news, reason for sadness, even in the case of a person who is guilty of grave crimes."
-The Rev. Federico Lombardi, spokesman for the Holy See.
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Saddam's execution punishes "a crime with another crime. ... The death penalty is not a natural death. And no one can give death, not even the state."
- Cardinal Renato Martino, Pope Benedict XVI's top prelate for justice issues.
------
"The test of a government's commitment to human rights is measured by the way it treats its worst offenders. History will judge these actions harshly."
- Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch's International Justice Program.
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"Saddam is paying the price for murdering tens of thousands of Iraqis. This is an unprecedented feeling of happiness. ... Nothing matches it, no festival or marriage or birth."
- Abu Sinan, a resident of Sadr City, Baghdad's impoverished Shiite slum.
------
"The country is being plunged into violence and is essentially on the edge of large-scale civil conflict. The execution of Saddam Hussein may lead to the further aggravation of the military-political atmosphere and an increase in ethnic and religious tension."
- Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin.
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"This is an unfair verdict and if Saddam is executed or not ... he will remain a symbol and no one can delete it, neither the Iraqi government nor the Americans."
- Muhssin Ali Mohammed of Tikrit, Saddam's hometown.
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"He got his last prayer. He got his last meal. I'm assuming he was probably able to talk to his family. And that's something my husband didn't get and something thousands of other soldiers didn't get."
- Stephanie Dostie, whose husband, Sgt. 1st Class Shawn Christopher Dostie, was killed by an explosive device a year ago.
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"Given the crime blamed on Saddam, it is unfair if George Bush is not also put on an international tribunal. Saddam was executed for killings 148 people, Shiite Muslims, while Bush is responsible for the killing of about 600,000 Iraqis since the March 2003 invasion."
- Fauzan Al Anshori of the militant group of Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia.
------
"Saddam Hussein was a brutal tyrant and murderous dictator. Now it is time for the people of Iraq to work to reconcile their differences and to heal the wounds of the past. Only that process will end the violence that has prevented Iraq from moving forward."
- Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass.
------
Saddam has "now been held to account for at least some of the appalling crimes he committed against the Iraqi people."
- British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett.
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"It will not increase our moral authority in the world. ... Saddam's heinous crimes against humanity can never be diminished, but he was our ally while he was doing it. ... Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth will make us blind and disfigured. ... Saddam as a war trophy only deepens the catastrophe to which we are indelibly linked."
- the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
------
"It is not a great day for democracy and democrats. Barbarity has to be fought by other means than barbarity. There were other ways to punish the abominable acts of Saddam Hussein."
- Louis Michel, European Union commissioner for development and humanitarian aid.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Russia: Iran's questioning of Holocaust unacceptable
2006-12-14
(Interfax) - Iran's statements questioning the Holocaust are unacceptable, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said. "You know that in the past we described as unacceptable the statements of the Iranian leadership that disputed the right of Israel to existence and questioned the scale of the elimination of Jews in Europe during World War II," he said, responding to media questions related to the Holocaust conference in Iran. His answer was posted on the ministry website on Wednesday.
Betcha they end up "accepting" it.
Link


Europe
Russia and Estonia in Soviet spat
2006-12-03
From the BBC:
Russia has protested about plans by Estonia to criminalise displays of Soviet symbols. A Russian foreign ministry spokesman said it was "blasphemous" to equate the hammer and sickle with Nazi emblems.
'Blasphemous': what an odd word to use about communist symbols.
The Estonian government has put a bill before parliament calling for fines or jail terms of up to three years for those who display such symbols. Estonia was occupied by the Nazis in World War II and then ruled by Moscow for five decades. Russia denies the Soviet years amounted to an "occupation" of Estonia.
Nope, nope, never happened
No, no, certainly not.
It wudn't an occupation. It wuz... ummm... something else.
War veterans in the large Russian minority in Estonia often wave red Soviet flags when marking Soviet-era anniversaries.
Tallinn, in particular, is starting to see a number of skinheads wearing KKK and Nazi symbols, and a rise in racist violence
The Baltic republic regained its independence became independent in 1991 and is a member of both NATO and the EU.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said on Thursday that "recently the Estonian side has been obstinately taking provocative steps aimed at seriously aggravating our relations".

"The Estonian authorities are continuing their blasphemous ...
'Blasphemy, I tell you! Of the worst kind!'
... attempts to rewrite the history, bracketing Nazi crimes with the feat of the Soviet people, who made a decisive contribution to the liberation of Europe from fascism," Itar-Tass news agency quoted him as saying.
Yea, that's how Estonians remember it, too
Link


Europe
EU Says It's Too Early to Punish Iran
2006-09-02
Despite mounting U.S. pressure for sanctions against Iran, the European Union said Friday it is too early to punish Tehran for its failure to halt uranium enrichment by the U.N. Security Council's deadline.

The call for renewed diplomacy came as Iran's president vowed never to give up a nuclear program that he said is being misrepresented by the West. "Exploitation of peaceful nuclear energy is our obvious right. We will never give up our legal right," state TV quoted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as telling a rally in Maku, Iran. "The West's claim that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons is a sheer lie."

“ "For the EU, diplomacy remains the No. 1 way forward." ”
Iran ignored the Security Council's Thursday deadline to suspend uranium enrichment, opening the way for consideration of economic or other sanctions against the Islamic republic, which the U.S. and others suspect is trying to develop atomic weapons.

President Bush said Thursday that "there must be consequences" for Iran's defiance, saying "the world now faces a grave threat from the radical regime in Iran."

But EU leaders cautioned against pushing a confrontation. "This is not the time or place" for sanctions, Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said after a meeting of the bloc's foreign ministers. "For the EU, diplomacy remains the No. 1 way forward."

The EU as a whole has been a moderate voice on the Iran issue. However, Britain and France support tough action, while Germany is also believed to back that stance. And the bloc stressed Iran will not be given unlimited time to resolve Western suspicions about its nuclear aims and demands for strengthened international supervision of its atomic program.

The EU's wussie foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said he would meet with Ali Larijani, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, in the coming days, likely in Europe. "That does not mean that Iran has indefinite time," Solana told reporters. "We hope that at the next meeting, or couple of meetings, we have enough knowledge (about Iran's position) to see if formal negotiations can start."
How much knowledge do you need to understand 'piss off'?
John Bolton, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the Security Council would wait to consider possible actions until after Solana met with Larijani.

In Moscow, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin expressed regret that Iran ignored the U.N. deadline. But Russian news agencies said Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov felt strong sanctions would be counterproductive in trying to get Iran to cooperate. Russia and China, which as permanent members of the Security Council can veto its actions, have generally opposed punishing Iran. Trade sanctions could cut off badly needed oil exports to China, and Russia is helping Iran build a nuclear reactor.

The other three permanent members - the United States, Britain and France - have taken a tougher line. British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said she expected officials from the five permanent council members and Germany to meet soon to discuss the situation. Those six nations have offered a package of economic incentives seeking to entice Iran into giving up uranium enrichment. "Our goal remains a negotiated solution on the basis of far-reaching proposals" in the package, Beckett said in a statement.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Souste-Blazy said the offer of economic incentives remained on the table. "I repeat our readiness to have a lucid, responsible and transparent dialogue. We are holding out our hand."

The International Atomic Energy Agency, a U.N. watchdog agency, formally told the Security Council on Friday that three years of IAEA probing had been unable to confirm "the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program" because of lack of cooperation from Tehran.

“Comments by a conservative Iranian cleric hinted Tehran may be counting on divisions to avert sanctions.”
Iran denies it is trying to acquire atomic weapons in violation of its commitments under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. It says its nuclear program is peaceful, with the sole aim of producing electricity with nuclear reactors.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German foreign minister, said it was crucial that the "Security Council and its member states do not allow themselves to be divided by this conflict" with Iran. But comments by a conservative Iranian cleric hinted Tehran may be counting on divisions to avert sanctions. "The U.S. supports sanctions, but we hope others will use their wisdom," Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said during his Friday prayer sermon. He described Russia and China as "independent" and said that "Europe should be independent and not follow the U.S."

U.S. and European diplomats have said they are focusing on low-level punishment at first to win backing from Russia and China. Sanctions could include travel bans on Iranian officials or a ban on the sale of dual-use technology to Iran. Russia and China are expected to resist heavier measures, like trade sanctions.
The Neverending Story
Link


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Ukraine Defends Seizure Of Yalta Lighthouse
2006-01-14
13 January 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Ukraine's Foreign Ministry today defended the seizure of a Russian-manned lighthouse at the Yalta commercial port, saying all Crimea's hydrographic navigation facilities were the property of the central government...

...Russia says the lighthouse seizure is a "provocation" that violates bilateral agreements on the stationing of its Black Sea fleet in Crimea.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said the incident could affect Russian-Ukrainian relations.

An aide to the commander-in-chief of the Crimean-based Russian Black Sea Fleet, Captain Igor Dygalo, told the Itar-Tass news agency the logic of the Ukrainian argument is flawed.

Dygalo said that under a bilateral agreement, the Yalta lighthouse is part of the Russian Black Sea Fleet's hydrographic navigation systems....

I thought the Ukranian government just collapsed. So who's making this decision?
Link


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Terrorist attacks declining in Chechnya
2005-11-21
A total of 28 terrorist attacks have been committed in Chechnya so far this year, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said.

"A total of 28 terrorist attacks have been committed so far this year, while last year the number of attacks was 130," he told the Germany's Deutschland Radio in an interview, published on the Russian Foreign Ministry's website.

The number of servicemen being killed in Chechnya is also decreasing, Kamynin said.
Link



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