DOCSLIB.ORG

Russia Party Wins Parliamentary Victories, but Many Criticize Timeline It As Neither Free Nor Democratic

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Russia Party Wins Parliamentary Victories, but Many Criticize Timeline It As Neither Free Nor Democratic Russia party wins parliamentary victories, but many criticize Timeline it as neither free nor democratic. 1917 - The Russian revolution begins as Vladimir Lenin 2008 - Dmitry Medvedev is elected president and Putin leads the Bolsheviks in overthrowing the government. becomes Prime Minister. Russia invades Georgia after 1918 - Russia ends participation in WWI. Finland and Poland Georgia attacks separatists in South Ossetia. Parliament cede. The empire collapses, leading to civil war between the extends presidential terms from four to six years. Red Army (Bolsheviks) and White Army (anti-communists). 2009 - Medvedev ends “counterterrorism operation” in 1918-1921 - Red terror campaign occurs in which remote Chechnya. Opposition denounces local elections after camps with notoriously poor conditions are used to imprison United Russia party overwhelmingly wins every poll. North those deemed enemies of the state. Caucasus Muslim extremists are blamed for a series of 1922 - Civil war ends. Bolsheviks establish the Union of bomb blasts on Moscow’s train and metro systems. Russia Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.); a single-party state 2010 - Yuri Luzhkov, long time Mayor of Moscow, is fired by governed by the Communist Party with Moscow as its capital. President Medvedev. 1922-91 - Cold War between the US and the USSR occurs. 2011 - Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov claims 1936–1938 - Mass arrests and executions are coupled with responsibility for a suicide bombing at Moscow's airport that an increasing Gulag population as Stalin consolidates power. kills at least 35 people and injures 110 others. Putin gains 1985 - Mikhail Gorbachev takes power and initiates a policy confirmation as the 2012 ruling party's candidate for the of openness (glasnost) and restructuring (perestroika). presidential election. Thousands protest elections after the 1991 - Boris Yeltsin becomes president. Russia, Ukraine and ruling party maintains a majority in parliament. Belarus form the Commonwealth of Independent States, 2012 - In an attempt to control presidential election fraud, thus dissolving the USSR. Chechnya declares independence. the opposition forms the League of Voters. Galos, an 1992 - Russia takes over USSR’s UN Security Council seat. independent election monitoring group, is expelled. Major 1993 - Yeltsin lifts price controls. Parliament revolts, leading protests lead to the arrest of hundreds after Putin wins the to elections and a new constitution or State Duma, which election with over 63% of the vote. Pavel Drozdov is gives the president greater powers and Russians the right to arrested for public intoxication and dies in custody of acute free enterprise, private ownership and individual rights. pancreatitis. However, several months later surveillance 1994 - Russia invades Chechnya. video of his cell shows police beating him, tying his hands 1996 - Yeltsin gains second term and signs a peace treaty and feet together behind his back in what is known as the with Chechnya and an agreement of cooperation with NATO. “swallow” position and leaving him alone in his cell. 1998 - Russian ruble collapses. Russian police are accused of committing acts of torture, 1999 - Chechen militants invade Dagestan. Vladimir Putin including sexual abuse, beatings, electric shock treatment becomes the fifth prime minister in two years after Yeltsin and forced confessions of crimes. fires his predecessors. Putin’s popularity rises after he sends 2013 - Edward Snowden is granted asylum in Russia after troops into Chechnya to combat terrorism. leaking sensitive US intelligence information. Russian 2000 - Putin wins presidency after Yeltsin suddenly resigns. neo-Nazi group begins new campaign of terror against 2002 - Russia’s last independent TV station is shut down. lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth by using Chechen rebels take 800 hostage in a Moscow theater. 120 social networking sites to entice and then torture victims. hostages die when Russian forces storm the building. Rebels 2014 - Russian government harasses and intimidates kill over 50 in a suicide attack on the headquarters of the journalists and organizations ahead of the Olympic games Moscow supported Chechen government. held in Sochi. Allegations made that hundreds of workers 2003 - International monitors and human rights groups involved in construction for the Olympics were not paid. question the legitimacy, timing, and outcome of a Chechen Some families forced to move due to Olympic construction referendum vote, that left the Chechen republic a part of the also not compensated. Fighting breaks out in Eastern Russian Federation. Separatist suicide bombers attack Ukraine in April 2014 sparked by pro-Russia separatists. government buildings, military installations, public events, Allegations surface that Russia is behind the separatist buses and trains; hundreds are killed, thousands are injured. movement and is supplying weapons, troops and technical Putin’s party wins elections, giving him almost total control assistance. Russian Parliament amends “Foreign Agent” over Duma. Billionaire oil boss and supporter of the liberal law allowing the government to register organizations as opposition, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is arrested over alleged foreign agents without their consent. tax violations and fraud, and sentenced to 8 years in prison. 2015 - Crimea region of Ukraine votes to join Russia and is 2004 - Putin wins second term and announces regional officially integrated in March, as Russian troops surround governors will be appointed rather than elected. Chechen the area. President Akhmad Kadyrov dies in a bomb blast. 330 are killed in North Ossetia’s school siege. 2005 - Russian forces raid neighborhoods and search for Chechen fighters. Hundreds are killed, including separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov. Warlord Shamil Basayev emerges as the new commander of rebel forces. 2006 - Putin authorizes authorities to monitor and close “threatening” NGO’s. Russian forces kill Basayev. Racial tensions rise after a market blast kills mostly Central Asians and two Russians are killed in a bar brawl. 2007 - Pro-democracy and anti-Putin protests lead to arrests. Putin's United Torture Methods Current Situation Languages: Russian (official), Tatar, Ukrainian, Chuvash, RUSSIAN POLICE regularly use torture to extract Bashir, Mordvin, Chechen confessions, including the threat of rape, sodomy with Population: 142,423,773 (July 2015 est.) bottles and other objects, electric shock and beatings. Religion: Christian Orthodox, Islam, Protestant, Jewish Detainees are regularly threatened with death. In many Ethnic groups: Russian 77.7%, Tatar 3.7%, Ukrainian 1.4%, instances they are stripped of their clothes and forced to Bashkir 1.1%, Chuvash 1%, Chechen 1%, other 10.2%, kneel down in front of deep holes in the ground and made unspecified 3.9% (over 190 ethnic groups exist) to believe they will be shot. In other instances they are forced into holes and left naked with no water or food for RAMPANT CORRUPTION is an acute problem in modern Russia days. Ears have been pierced with sharp nails, bones Russia, affecting all levels of the public and private sectors. broken, genitals squeezed, fingers and ears mutilated, The public procurement sector alone reportedly cost the hands and feet smashed, and temporary blindness has Russian government USD 32 billion in 2012 which is 20% occurred due to the use of chemical agents. Permanent of total government annual expenditures. In 2014, Russia deafness has been documented as detainees have been was listed as one of the most corrupt countries in the world beaten in the head until their ear drums have broken. by Transparency International. Corruption crimes involve Victims’ family members have been routinely extorted and fraud, embezzlement, illegal use of property, abuse of forced to pay in order to get their family member released. office, abuse of authority and bribery. The government has Sadistic elements are sometimes introduced as police attempted to curtail corruption by enacting laws and setting officers film the torture sessions and subsequently offer to up integrity systems; however, anti-corruption measures are sell the video to the victims who buy them out of fear of generally very weak or not properly enforced. Corruption at public humiliation. Some of the torture methods are so the law enforcement level is usually accompanied by total prevalent that media outlets refer to them using nicknames immunity, thus easily transitioning into extortion, physical and dedicate entire columns to the issue. abuse, torture and murder. THE ENVELOPE (konvert) combines elements of physical CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATIONS flourished following Putin’s return stress and sensory deprivation. The victims are blindfolded to the presidency in May 2012 when a series of laws were and handcuffed with their hands behind their backs. Their enacted, restricting rights to freedom of expression, legs are then folded backwards and tied up to their hands. association and assembly. One of the new laws which took While in this position victims are beaten profusely, burned effect in November 2012 requires organizations that accept with cigarettes, gang raped and sodomized with foreign funding and engage in “political activity” to register broomsticks, champagne bottles, metallic objects, rubber as “foreign agents”, a term that is widely understood to batons or the butt of machineguns. mean spy or traitor. This law was amended by Parliament to allow the government to register groups as foreign agents CALL
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Baltic Sea Region the Baltic Sea Region
    TTHEHE BBALALTTICIC SSEAEA RREGIONEGION Cultures,Cultures, Politics,Politics, SocietiesSocieties EditorEditor WitoldWitold MaciejewskiMaciejewski A Baltic University Publication Case Chapter 2 Constructing Karelia: Myths and Symbols in the Multiethnic Reality Ilja Solomeshch 1. Power of symbols Specialists in the field of semiotics note that in times of social and political crises, at Political symbolism is known to have three the stage of ideological and moral disintegra- major functions – nominative, informative tion, some forms of the most archaic kinds of and communicative. In this sense a symbol in political symbolism reactivate in what is called political life plays one of the key roles in struc- the archaic syndrome. This notion is used, for turing society, organising interrelations within example, to evaluate the situation in pre- and the community and between people and the post-revolutionary (1917) Russia, as well as various institutions of state. Karelia Karelia is a border area between Finland and Russia. Majority of its territory belongs to Russian Republic of Karelia, with a capital in Petrozavodsk. The Sovjet Union gained the marked area from Finland as the outcome of war 1944. Karelia can be compared with similar border areas in the Baltic Region, like Schleswig-Holstein, Oppeln (Opole) Silesia in Poland, Kaliningrad region in Russia. Probably the best known case of such an area in Europe is Alsace- -Lorraine. Map 13. Karelia. Ill.: Radosław Przebitkowski The Soviet semioticity When trying to understand historical and cultural developments in the Russian/Soviet/Post-Soviet spatial area, especially in terms of Centre-Peripheries and Break-Continuity paradigms, one can easily notice the semioticity of the Soviet system, starting with its ideology.
    [Show full text]
  • Russia: CHRONOLOGY DECEMBER 1993 to FEBRUARY 1995
    Issue Papers, Extended Responses and Country Fact Sheets file:///C:/Documents and Settings/brendelt/Desktop/temp rir/CHRONO... Français Home Contact Us Help Search canada.gc.ca Issue Papers, Extended Responses and Country Fact Sheets Home Issue Paper RUSSIA CHRONOLOGY DECEMBER 1993 TO FEBRUARY 1995 July 1995 Disclaimer This document was prepared by the Research Directorate of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada on the basis of publicly available information, analysis and comment. All sources are cited. This document is not, and does not purport to be, either exhaustive with regard to conditions in the country surveyed or conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. For further information on current developments, please contact the Research Directorate. Table of Contents GLOSSARY Political Organizations and Government Structures Political Leaders 1. INTRODUCTION 2. CHRONOLOGY 1993 1994 1995 3. APPENDICES TABLE 1: SEAT DISTRIBUTION IN THE STATE DUMA TABLE 2: REPUBLICS AND REGIONS OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION MAP 1: RUSSIA 1 of 58 9/17/2013 9:13 AM Issue Papers, Extended Responses and Country Fact Sheets file:///C:/Documents and Settings/brendelt/Desktop/temp rir/CHRONO... MAP 2: THE NORTH CAUCASUS NOTES ON SELECTED SOURCES REFERENCES GLOSSARY Political Organizations and Government Structures [This glossary is included for easy reference to organizations which either appear more than once in the text of the chronology or which are known to have been formed in the period covered by the chronology. The list is not exhaustive.] All-Russia Democratic Alternative Party. Established in February 1995 by Grigorii Yavlinsky.( OMRI 15 Feb.
    [Show full text]
  • Izhorians: a Disappearing Ethnic Group Indigenous to the Leningrad Region
    Acta Baltico-Slavica, 43 Warszawa 2019 DOI: 10.11649/abs.2019.010 Elena Fell Tomsk Polytechnic University Tomsk [email protected] https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7606-7696 Izhorians: A disappearing ethnic group indigenous to the Leningrad region This review article presents a concise overview of selected research findings rela- ted to various issues concerning the study of Izhorians, including works by A. I. Kir′ianen, A. V. Labudin and A. A. Samodurov (Кирьянен et al., 2017); A. I. Kir′ianen, (Кирьянен, 2016); N. Kuznetsova, E. Markus and M. Muslimov (Kuznetsova, Markus, & Muslimov, 2015); M. Muslimov (Муслимов, 2005); A. P. Chush′′ialova (Чушъялова, 2010); F. I. Rozhanskiĭ and E. B. Markus (Рожанский & Маркус, 2013); and V. I. Mirenkov (Миренков, 2000). The evolution of the term Izhorians The earliest confirmed record of Izhorians (also known as Ingrians), a Finno-Ugrian ethnic group native to the Leningrad region,1 appears in thirteenth-century Russian 1 Whilst the city of Leningrad became the city of Saint Petersburg in 1991, reverting to its pre-So- viet name, the Leningrad region (also known as the Leningrad oblast) retained its Soviet name after the collapse of the USSR. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 PL License (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/pl/), which permits redistribution, commercial and non- -commercial, provided that the article is properly cited. © The Author(s) 2019. Publisher: Institute of Slavic Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences [Wydawca: Instytut Slawistyki Polskiej Akademii Nauk] Elena Fell Izhorians: A disappearing ethnic group indigenous to the Leningrad region chronicles, where, according to Chistiakov (Чистяков, 2006), “Izhora” people were mentioned as early as 1228.
    [Show full text]
  • Human Rights Impact Assessment of the Covid-19 Response in Russia
    HUMAN RIGHTS IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF THE COVID-19 RESPONSE IN RUSSIA August 2020 Cover photo: © Анна Иларионова/Pixabay IPHR - International Partnership for Human Rights (Belgium) W IPHRonline.org @IPHR E [email protected] @IPHRonline Public Verdict Foundation W http://en.publicverdict.org/ @fondov Table of Contents I. Executive summary 4 II. Methodology 5 III. Brief country information 6 IV. Incidence of COVID-19 in Russia 7 V. The Russian Authorities’ Response to Covid-19 and its Impact on Human Rights 8 VI. Summary of Key Findings 42 VII. Recommendations 45 I. Executive summary What are the impacts on human rights of the restrictive measures imposed by the Government of Russia in response to the COVID-19 pandemic? How have the Russian authorities complied with international human rights standards while implementing measures to combat the spread of Covid-19? These questions lie at the heart of this study by International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR) and Public Verdict Foundation. This study examines these measures through a human rights lens of international, regional human rights treaties of core and soft law (non-binding) standards. Through our monitoring, we have identified the following key points on how the COVID-19 pandemic was handled in Russia from mid-March until mid-July 2020: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian authorities implemented strict quarantine measures at an early stage, restricting the movements and freedoms of the citizens of the country. The first case of COVID-19 in Russia was officially registered on 2 March 2020, in the vicinity of Moscow.1 The virus began spreading across the country a few weeks later but Moscow has remained the epicentre of the outbreak in Russia.
    [Show full text]
  • Laura Stark Peasants, Pilgrims, and Sacred Promises Ritual and the Supernatural in Orthodox Karelian Folk Religion
    laura stark Peasants, Pilgrims, and Sacred Promises Ritual and the Supernatural in Orthodox Karelian Folk Religion Studia Fennica Folkloristica The Finnish Literature Society (SKS) was founded in 1831 and has, from the very beginning, engaged in publishing operations. It nowadays publishes literature in the fields of ethnology and folkloristics, linguistics, literary research and cultural history. The first volume of the Studia Fennica series appeared in 1933. Since 1992, the series has been divided into three thematic subseries: Ethnologica, Folkloristica and Linguistica. Two additional subseries were formed in 2002, Historica and Litteraria. The subseries Anthropologica was formed in 2007. In addition to its publishing activities, the Finnish Literature Society maintains research activities and infrastructures, an archive containing folklore and literary collections, a research library and promotes Finnish literature abroad. Studia fennica editorial board Anna-Leena Siikala Rauno Endén Teppo Korhonen Pentti Leino Auli Viikari Kristiina Näyhö Editorial Office SKS P.O. Box 259 FI-00171 Helsinki www.finlit.fi Laura Stark Peasants, Pilgrims, and Sacred Promises Ritual and the Supernatural in Orthodox Karelian Folk Religion Finnish Literature Society • Helsinki 3 Studia Fennica Folkloristica 11 The publication has undergone a peer review. The open access publication of this volume has received part funding via Helsinki University Library. © 2002 Laura Stark and SKS License CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International. A digital edition of a printed book first published in 2002 by the Finnish Literature Society. Cover Design: Timo Numminen EPUB: eLibris Media Oy ISBN 978-951-746-366-9 (Print) ISBN 978-951-746-578-6 (PDF) ISBN 978-952-222-766-9 (EPUB) ISSN 0085-6835 (Studia Fennica) ISSN 1235-1946 (Studia Fennica Folkloristica) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21435/sff.11 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International License.
    [Show full text]
  • The Long Arm of Vladimir Putin: How the Kremlin Uses Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties to Target Its Opposition Abroad
    The Long Arm of Vladimir Putin: How the Kremlin Uses Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties to Target its Opposition Abroad Russia Studies Centre Policy Paper No. 5 (2015) Dr Andrew Foxall The Henry Jackson Society June 2015 THE LONG ARM OF VLADIMIR PUTIN Summary Over the past 15 years, there has been – and continues to be – significant interchange between Western and Russian law-enforcement agencies, even in cases where Russia’s requests for legal assistance have been politicaLLy motivated. Though it is the Kremlin’s warfare that garners the West’s attention, its ‘lawfare’ poses just as significant a threat because it undermines the rule of law. One of the chief weapons in Russia’s ‘lawfare’ is the so-called ‘Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty’ (MLAT), a bilateral agreement that defines how countries co-operate on legal matters. TypicaLLy, the Kremlin will fabricate a criminaL case against an individual, and then request, through the MLAT system, the co-operation of Western countries in its attempts to persecute said person. Though Putin’s regime has been mounting, since 2012, an escalating campaign against opposition figures, the Kremlin’s use of ‘lawfare’ is nothing new. Long before then, Russia requested – and received – legal assistance from Western countries on a number of occasions, in its efforts to extradite opposition figures back to Russia. Western countries have complied with Russia’s requests for legal assistance in some of the most brazen and high-profile politicaLLy motivated cases in recent history, incLuding: individuals linked with Mikhail Khodorkovsky and the Yukos affair; Bill Browder and others connecteD to Hermitage Capital Management; and AnDrey Borodin and Bank of Moscow.
    [Show full text]
  • 5. Shared Sovereignty Russian Style: Relations Between Moscow and the Regions
    05petrov 06-04-2000 22:09 Pagina 111 Nikolay Petrov 5. Shared Sovereignty Russian Style: Relations between Moscow and the Regions ‘Centre – region’ relations are the key to an understanding of exactly what is hap- pening in Russian politics now, what its internal machinery is, how stable the current configuration of forces is, and how fundamental and irreversible are the changes that have occurred since Soviet times: in short, what is to be expected in the immediate future and in the long term. In general these relations are described by various commentators in various ways: from triumphant federalism to variations on purely feudal relations, from the rigid diktat of Moscow to the freebooter activities of the regional barons. Without a sufficiently detailed and comprehensive account of what is happening, the reader may form an unbal- anced and therefore entirely erroneous opinion. Current Russian political reality is so dynamic and varied that arguments can be found to support the most widely differing, sometimes diametrically opposed, concepts: disintegration of the country, or conversely rapid unification and centralisation; a cult of personality, where the prosperity or poverty of enor- mous regions depends upon their leaders, geographical determinism, where each social grouping has what nature has given it, and cultural determinism, where the people have the government that they deserve. The aim of this paper is to give a general idea of the basic principles, as estab- lished in the past and as now taking shape, of internal organisation of the Russ- ian political machine as regards relations between the two principal levels: the Centre and the regions.
    [Show full text]
  • The Russian Vertikal: the Tandem, Power and the Elections
    Russia and Eurasia Programme Paper REP 2011/01 The Russian Vertikal: the Tandem, Power and the Elections Andrew Monaghan Nato Defence College June 2011 The views expressed in this document are the sole responsibility of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of Chatham House, its staff, associates or Council. Chatham House is independent and owes no allegiance to any government or to any political body. It does not take institutional positions on policy issues. This document is issued on the understanding that if any extract is used, the author(s)/ speaker(s) and Chatham House should be credited, preferably with the date of the publication. REP Programme Paper. The Russian Vertikal: the Tandem, Power and the Elections Introduction From among many important potential questions about developments in Russian politics and in Russia more broadly, one has emerged to dominate public policy and media discussion: who will be Russian president in 2012? This is the central point from which a series of other questions and debates cascade – the extent of differences between President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and how long their ‘Tandem’ can last, whether the presidential election campaign has already begun and whether they will run against each other being only the most prominent. Such questions are typically debated against a wider conceptual canvas – the prospects for change in Russia. Some believe that 2012 offers a potential turning point for Russia and its relations with the international community: leading to either the return of a more ‘reactionary’ Putin to the Kremlin, and the maintenance of ‘stability’, or another term for the more ‘modernizing’ and ‘liberal’ Medvedev.
    [Show full text]
  • The City of Moscow in Russia's Foreign and Security Policy: Role
    Eidgenössische “Regionalization of Russian Foreign and Security Policy” Technische Hochschule Zürich Project organized by The Russian Study Group at the Center for Security Studies and Conflict Research Andreas Wenger, Jeronim Perovic,´ Andrei Makarychev, Oleg Alexandrov WORKING PAPER NO.7 APRIL 2001 The City of Moscow in Russia’s Foreign and Security Policy: Role, Aims and Motivations DESIGN : SUSANA PERROTTET RIOS Moscow enjoys an exceptional position among the Russian regions. Due to its huge By Oleg B. Alexandrov economic and financial potential, the city of Moscow largely shapes the country’s economic and political processes. This study provides an overall insight into the complex international network that the city of Moscow is tied into. It also assesses the role, aims and motivations of the main regional actors that are involved. These include the political authorities, the media tycoons and the major financial-industrial groups. Special attention is paid to the problem of institutional and non-institutional interaction between the Moscow city authorities and the federal center in the foreign and security policy sector, with an emphasis on the impact of Putin’s federal reforms. Contact: Center for Security Studies and Conflict Research ETH Zentrum / SEI CH-8092 Zürich Switzerland Andreas Wenger, head of project [email protected] Jeronim Perovic´ , project coordinator [email protected] Oleg Alexandrov [email protected]; [email protected] Andrei Makarychev [email protected]; [email protected] Order of copies: Center for Security Studies and Conflict Research ETH Zentrum / SEI CH-8092 Zürich Switzerland [email protected] Papers available in full-text format at: http://www.fsk.ethz.ch/ Layout by Marco Zanoli The City of Moscow in Russia’s Foreign and Security Policy: Role, Aims and Motivations By Oleg B.
    [Show full text]
  • A N N E X E S
    13255/07 Georgia v. Russia (I) A N N E X E S Annex 1 Summary of documents submitted by the applicant Government I. In their application of 27 March 2007 A. Summary of documents in English and Russian C. Summary of statements of Georgian citizens B. + D. Summary of media coverage of events II. In their observations in reply of 5 May 2008 Summary of documents in Georgian / Russian Annex 2 Summary of documents submitted by the respondent Government I. In their observations of 26 December 2007 . Summary of documents in Russian II. In their additional observations of 23 September 2008 . Summary of documents in Russian Annex 3 Report of 22 January 2007 by the monitoring committee of the Parliamentary Assembly 1 13255/07 Georgia v. Russia (I) Annex 1 I. A. Summary of the documents in English and Russian submitted by the applicant Government in their application of 27 March 2008 number Document type date 1 Summary/Translation The applicant Government submitted the Agreement between Georgia and Russia on the Terms and Rules of the temporary functioning and withdrawal of Russian Military Bases and other military facilities belonging to the Group of Russian Military Forces in Transcaucasia deployed on the Territory of Georgia. The Agreement was drawn up in Russian and Georgian and signed by both parties in Sochi, Russian Federation, on 31 March 2006. number Document type date 2 A. Council of Europe press release 6 October 2006; B. Council of the European Union press release 16-17 October 2006; C. Speech by Ms Benita Ferrero-Waldner, member 25 October 2006 of the European Commission with responsibility for and 6 March 2007 External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy D.
    [Show full text]
  • The Role of the Republic of Karelia in Russia's Foreign and Security Policy
    Eidgenössische “Regionalization of Russian Foreign and Security Policy” Technische Hochschule Zürich Project organized by The Russian Study Group at the Center for Security Studies and Conflict Research Andreas Wenger, Jeronim Perovic,´ Andrei Makarychev, Oleg Alexandrov WORKING PAPER NO.5 MARCH 2001 The Role of the Republic of Karelia in Russia’s Foreign and Security Policy DESIGN : SUSANA PERROTTET RIOS This paper gives an overview of Karelia’s international security situation. The study By Oleg B. Alexandrov offers an analysis of the region’s various forms of international interactions and describes the internal situation in the republic, its economic conditions and its potential for integration into the European or the global economy. It also discusses the role of the main political actors and their attitude towards international relations. The author studies the general problem of center-periphery relations and federal issues, and weighs their effects on Karelia’s foreign relations. The paper argues that the international contacts of the regions in Russia’s Northwest, including those of the Republic of Karelia, have opened up opportunities for new forms of cooperation between Russia and the EU. These contacts have en- couraged a climate of trust in the border zone, alleviating the negative effects caused by NATO’s eastward enlargement. Moreover, the region benefits economi- cally from its geographical situation, but is also moving towards European standards through sociopolitical modernization. The public institutions of the Republic
    [Show full text]
  • Contemporary Russian-Serbian Relations
    1 Contemporary Russian-Serbian Relations: Interviews with Youth from Political Parties in Belgrade and Vojvodina By Chloe Kay Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Colorado Boulder Defended March 31, 2014 Primary Advisor Rimgaila Salys, Dept. of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures Committee Members Tatiana Mikhailova, Dept. of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures Laura Osterman, Dept. of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures Laurel Rodd, Dept. of Asian Languages and Civilizations 2 Table of Contents Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………………………..3 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………….4 Methodology……………………………………………………………………………………………..5 Historical Relations between Serbia and Russia………………………………………….7 Relations in the Middle Ages to 2008……………………………………………..7 Political Relations 2008-today………………………………………………………..11 Cultural Ties……………………………………………………………………………………13 Energy and Economics……………………………………………………………………14 Serbia in between East and West……………………………………………………15 The Opinions of Two Experts………………………………………………………………………17 Data Collection and Results………………………….….………………………………………….23 The history of Russian and Serbian Relations………………………….……….23 Russia as an International Actor in the World and the in Balkans…..25 Russia and Serbia: 200 million………………………………………………………...28 South Stream Pipeline: A gift or a scam?.………………………………………..30 Serbia: Caught in the Middle?………………………………………………………….31 Vladimir Putin and the Kosovo Question………………………………………….34 Conclusions…………………………………………………………………………………………………35
    [Show full text]