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Many worry Kosovan independence to inspire separatists

Russia is not alone in its aversion to the idea of Kosovan independence.

According to an article published today on the BBC’s Web site, Romania, Slovakia, Cyprus, Greece and Spain have their complaints as well.

Many in those countries fear that recognition of a unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo will encourage separatist movements elsewhere.

Turks who control northern Cyprus, ethnic Hungarians looking for greater autonomy in Romania and Slovakia, and Basque separatists in Spain could all find encouragement in new developments.

Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci recently said that a Kosovan declaration of independence could come within days, despite strong opposition in Serbia.

Kosovo became an autonomous province in 1974 but was stripped of its authority by Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic in 1989.

Then in 1999, the United Nations took control after NATO airstrikes broke up the persecution of Kosovo’s majority ethnic Albanians by Serbian forces.

Comparing Kosovo to other breakaway regions with varying degrees of autonomy is nothing new. This article from the Financial Times in May 2006 discusses Kosovo’s similarities to Georgia’s autonomous regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Author Thomas De Waal, an editor with the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, writes that “(m)any outsiders make the mistake of seeing Abkhazia as a mere Russian puppet state.

“Russia certainly exploits its twilight status, but Sergei Bagapsh, the de facto president, was elected in defiance of Moscow’s wishes, and many Abkhaz are unhappy about creeping annexation by Moscow.”

He argues that giving independence to these breakaway states “is a very tricky process. But the alternative — keeping the conflicts frozen and whole territories as world orphans — is also unacceptable.”

It is expected that the United States and most countries in the European Union would recognize an independent Kosovo.

A separate article from the BBC states that the expectation of independence for Kosovo has been raised and that the world should focus on ensuring this occurs in a peaceful, orderly manner.

Report calls for renewed cease-fire, accurate reporting in Georgia, Abkhazia

The Tiraspol Times, a publication from the Russian-backed rogue state of Transdniestria in the Republic of Moldova, has been covering news about fellow breakaway republic Abkhazia in Georgia.

Its most recent article in the subject area gives a slanted view of United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s report on Abkhazia.

For a more balanced account, check out the Georgia Times.

The UN issued the report on the relations between Georgia and Abkhazia on Jan. 25. 

The report emphasizes that misinformation reported in the media in Georgia and Abkhazia has worsened tensions between the two.

According to the UN’s Web site, the report ”calls for confidence-building measures to be introduced on areas including security dialogue, the return of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees and economic rehabilitation, so that momentum can be established towards a comprehensive political settlement of the conflict.”

If you distrust the media, you can read the full report for yourself.

Patarkatsishvili accused of illegal ownership of Imedi TV during campaign

This is an update to my Jan. 17 post about presidential candidate and media mogul Badri Patarkatsishvili.

The court may have found yet another problem with Patarkatsishvili’s long-hounded broadcast company, Imedi TV — the fact that he might have illegally retained some ownership of it while campaigning for president.

After Patarkatsishvili announced his bid for the presidency in October, he claimed he would sell his shares of national broadcaster Imedi TV to its co-owner, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

But according to an article on EurasiaNet.org, documents submitted to the Georgian National Communications Commission in December indicate that News Corp has no ownership of Imedi TV. News Corp is listed as its management company.

Instead, the company belongs to I-media, a joint stock company owned by two companies, JMG Consulting and Universal, Ltd.

The hairy thing about that is that 15 percent of JMG Consulting is owned by the Badri Patarkatsishvili Fund charity, quite conceivably owned by Patarkatsishvili.

According to the article, “Under Georgian broadcasting law, neither administrative organs or political parties – and representatives of political organizations – can own a broadcasting license.”

The station, which has been under investigation, has had its license suspended, and the Tbilisi City Court has frozen Patarkatsishvili’s assets.

Imedi TV was originally shut down on charges that Patarkatsishvili was using it to “incite unrest.” You can read background on the issue in an article from the online magazine “Civil Georgia.”

Tymoshenko calls mobster arrest sign of the times

Russian police arrested Semyon Mogilevich, a 61-year old mob boss, on tax evasion charges last week.

Mogilevich is allegedly connected to RosUkrEnergo, a trading company half owned by Russian energy company Gazprom and half controlled by two Ukrainian businessmen.

RosUkrEnergo, an entity with a mashed multisyllabic name straight out of the USSR, was created in 2006 to resolve an energy dispute culminating with Russia’s cutting off Ukraine’s natural gas supply.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said the arrest is a sign that in the near future ’shadowy intermediaries‘ will be cut out of Ukraine’s dealings with Gazprom.

Tymoshenko is expected to address the issue when she visits Moscow next month. She said involving intermediary companies in the trading process drives up costs.

Tymoshenko has also indicated that she would like to charge Russia more to transport its gas through Ukraine to Europe – a plan Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko rejects.

European countries purchase about a quarter of their gas supplies from Gazprom, and about a quarter of that is transported through Ukraine.

RosUkrEnergo is in negotiations with Ukraine’s state energy firm, Naftogaz, over Ukrainian debts of about $600 million to the trader for gas supplies in January and last year.

As explained in an article in today’s New York Times, RosUkrEnergo buys natural gas from Gazprom and sells it to Ukraine at a low price. To make up for the loss, RosUkrEnergo sells some of the gas at higher prices to Europe or blends the gas with lower-cost gas from Central Asia.

Ukraine has agreed to pay $179.50 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas this year. That’s 46 percent more than it paid in 2007, but Western Europe pays on average $350.

For more information about Gazprom, see “Kremlin, Inc.,” the blog of a recent Dartmouth graduate living in Ukraine.

Ukraine’s membership bid successful at WTO

The World Trade Organization announced on its Web site on Jan. 25 that Ukraine, after 14 years of negotiations, has finally put together an agreement that could allow it to become a member of the WTO in August.

The General Council of the WTO will consider the agreement at its Feb. 5 meeting. If Ukraine ratifies the deal by July 4, it will become a member 30 days later.

According to the Kyiv Post and the Moscow Times, the Feb. 5 vote is mostly a formality. By agreeing to vote in the first place, the WTO has already signaled its acceptance of Ukraine.

According to a recent Reuters article, the WTO also announced on the 25th that it hoped to speed up negotiations with Russia, which has been trying to join the 151-member trade organization for more than a decade as well.

In a 2005 article from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, reporter Jan Maksymiuk explained that Ukraine and Russia have been in a race to join the WTO for years. Whichever country was accepted first would be able to require the other, still just a prospective new member, to make changes to its trade rules and economic practices before it could join.

According to the Reuters article, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said Friday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that Ukraine would not try to prevent Russia from joining.

But, as noted by an expat named Nicholas on the Kiev Ukraine News Blog, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko told European Union officials in Brussels this week that Ukraine was seeking to cut Russian middlemen out of its natural gas supply contracts.

Ukraine and Russia have clashed in recent years over the price Russia charges for natural gas. In 2006, Russia cut off gas supplies to Ukraine the first few, cold days of January until the two countries struck a new five-year agreement.

A look at Abkhazia

In his blog, “This is Tbilisi Calling,” journalist and author Matthew Collin provided a link to a EurasiaNet audio slideshow portraying displaced ethnic Georgians who fled the breakaway region of Abkhazia during the civil war there.

Since I’ve been on the topic of breakaway regions, I’ll give a little history of Abkhazia.

The Abkhaz people are closely related to Russians in the North Caucasus. Abkhaz became a protectorate in the Russian empire in 1810 and was annexed in 1864. At that point Russians and Georgians began to move there while many ethnic Abkhaz fled.

Abkhazia gained some independence after the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, but Stalin, who liked to vacation there, incorporated it into Georgia as a tightly controlled ”autonomous republic” in 1931.

When Georgia left the Soviet Union, residents of Abkhazia favored independence and closer ties with Russia. Georgians sent troops in 1992 and fighting broke out in the region in 1993, forcing many ethnic Georgians out.

Abkhazia declared independence in 1994 and, like South Ossetia, survives solely on the support of Russia. Many citizens of both regions also hold Russian citizenship.

I found an interesting blog titled “Imagining the State” written by an English professor and a photographer who traveled through three breakaway republics, including Abkhazia, in 2000. It gives a very readable account of their travels and interactions with Abkhazians; I recommend at least skimming through.

Could Kosovo’s push for independence inspire South Ossetia?

Kosovo’s prime minister, Hashim Thaci, has said a declaration of independence for the region is days away. Kosovo is a southern province of Serbia.

The BBC ran an article today raising the question of whether recognition of Kosovo’s independence would bring the spotlight back to the breakaway republic of South Ossetia in Georgia.

Georgia declared its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Around the same time, the breakaway region of South Ossetia declared its independence from Georgia in a referendum ignored by every country but Russia.

When Mikheil Saakashvili was elected president, he declared his intentions to bring the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia back under Georgian control.

South Ossetia is led by Eduard Kokoiti, who won unrecognised presidential elections there in December 2001 and November 2006.

Yet some villages still populated by ethnic Georgians remained under Tbilisi’s jurisdiction after the 1990-1992 conflict. These are ruled by Dmitry Sanakoyev, an ethnic Ossetian elected president in an alternative 2006 vote.

Recently the Georgian government has enticed Ossetian families to move to these “temporary administrative entities” presided over by Sanakoyev by offering them homes, jobs and anonymity.

As Russia, South Ossetia’s only ally, opposes granting Kosovo independence, Ossetians have been reluctant to compare the two regions too closely.

Rice supports Ukraine’s bid to join NATO

Condoleeza Rice told Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko today that the United States supports a recent request that NATO accept Ukraine into its Membership Action Plan (MAP).

Rice and Yushchenko spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Yushchenko, Parliamentary Speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko all signed a letter Jan. 2 requesting Ukraine be considered for eventual NATO membership.

NATO will meet April 2-4 at a summit in Bucharest. At that time, the three countries currently in MAP status — Albania, Croatia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia — are expected to become full members.

Russia opposes NATO’s expansion toward its borders.

Disappointment in Kyrgyzstan years after the Tulip Revolution

EurasiaNet.org has posted a collection of audio slideshows based on interviews with Kyrgyz citizens about the state of Kyrgyzstan since the Tulip Revolution of 2005. The interviews covered a variety of topics and in general expressed disappointment with the results of the revolution.

Andrei Tsvetkov Executive Director, NTS Television	Tsvetkov discusses the misfortune of being robbed while trying to put together a broadcast the day of the Tulip Revolution. He is waiting for the government to fulfill its promise of privatizing state media outlets.	“The government promised full freedom for all media, but this process isn’t moving forward.”
Tynaim Karatayeva Migrant to Russia	Karatayeva discusses returning to Kyrgyzstan after working abroad in Russia. By some estimates 1/7 of the population has gone abroad to find work and better pay. She says the revolution gave her hope, but that she has seen no significant change since it happened.	“Kyrgyzstan is a wonderful country. If they paid us well, no one would leave.”
Ermek Niyazov Founder/CEO, Ermex Group Co.	Niyazov says he has lost the passion for politics the revolution once inspired in him. He complains that there is too much talk and too little action in the government. He is waiting for the government to reimburse him and the owners of more than 1,000 stores looted during the revolution.	“The government doesn’t have the right to celebrate the revolution until compensation is paid.”
Rinat Maksutov Police Captain	Maksutov says that the police were neither prepared nor equipped to cope with the unrest of the Tulip Revolution. He says that corruption on the police force stems from low salaries. According to Maksutov, bringing the Kyrgyz police force up to European standards will take time.	“Society’s relationship with the police will change, trust will increase, and, gradually, there will be a different approach.”
Adakhamjon Khakimov, Imam, Imam Ismail Bukhoriy Mosque	Between 1991 and 2005, the number of mosques in Kyrgyzstan grew from 39 to about 2,500. Khakimov discusses what he considers to be the tainting of religion by those who use it for political purposes.	“In Kyrgyzstan, domestic political extremism is stronger than religious extremism. This is the main source of instability.”
Narbekov Orozbai Farmer	Orozbai discusses the difficulties of farming in Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyz farmers have difficulty obtaining loans and have little access to farm equipment made after the fall of the Soviet Union.	“The government can’t do anything in such a short time. We have to wait, have patience.”
Galina Vershagina Schoolteacher	Kyrgyzstan is facing a shortage of teachers, as teaching is one of the most underpaid professions in the country. Vershagina says teachers’ salaries need to be raised by at least 50 percent.	“Teachers are leaving who could do a lot of good for this state. If they were quiet about this formerly, now they’re starting to talk about it.”
Khamrokhon Kamilova Laboratory Assistant	Kamilova, an ethnic Uzbek, says that the only change brought on by the revolution has been an increase in corruption. She says that she does not need her native language to become official in Kyrgyzstan, but that she wishes minorities were better represented in government.	“Since the new government has declared Kyrgyzstan to be a freer and more democratic country, why don’t they set a quota for national minorities in the state administration?”