IWPR's Caucasus Reporting Service, No. 90: excerpts
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IWPR's Caucasus Reporting Service, No. 90: excerpts
WELCOME TO IWPR'S CAUCASUS REPORTING SERVICE, No. 90, July 17, 2001
RUSSIAN "IMPERIALISM" THREATENS Moscow's neighbours are angered by its
moves to integrate breakaway republics into the Russian Federation. By
Mikhail Vignansky in Tbilisi
ARMENIA ENERGY CRISIS Armenia's energy sector survived the tough
post-Soviet years but is now running out of steam. By Susanna
Petrosyan in Yerevan
ISLAM'S TARNISHED IMAGE The revival of moderate Islam in North Ossetia
has been set back by fear and propaganda. By Valeri Dzutsev in
Vladikavkaz
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RUSSIAN "IMPERIALISM" THREATENS
Moscow's neighbours are angered by its moves to integrate breakaway
republics into the Russian Federation
By Mikhail Vignansky in Tbilisi
"It's political provocation," said the Georgian foreign ministry of
Russia's latest move to woo the region's breakaway republics into its
sphere of influence.
A law passed almost unanimously by the Russian State Duma on June 28
allows unrecognised states to join the federation as republics, should
the countries they wish to secede from agree.
This would apply directly to the Georgian breakaway regions of
Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh, and
Trandniestr, which is seeking independence from Moldova. All have
openly stated their pro-Russian stance.
What unites these self-proclaimed entities is their desire to become
Russian protectorates. But their motives are very different. For
instance, Transdniestr, whose majority Russian population did not want
to be part of Moldova after the former Soviet republic became
independent, sees its future with Russia. But the leadership of
Nagorno-Karabakh seems to think that Moscow will prove effective in
staving off Azeri claims on the enclave.
With all Duma deputies, bar one abstainee, voting in favour, the
proposed legislation will now be considered by the Federation Council
- and seems set to be passed there, with little modification.
Azerbaijan, Georgia and Moldova have seen the move as a brazen
affront. All are engaged in complex negotiations with their respective
breakaway regions, in which Russia is playing a leading role. And
there are suggestions that Moscow is exploiting the fact that these
talks are currently deadlocked.
"What Russian deputies did reveals their neo-imperialistic ambitions,"
said Irakli Gogava, chairman of the Georgian parliamentarian
subcommittee on CIS issues. He added that the possible admission of
Abkhazia and South Ossetia to the Russian Federation would be a gross
violation of international norms. Azerbaijan is also alarmed by the
new law. "It opens the doors to separatism on CIS territory," said
Vafa Guluzade, the former Azerbaijani presidential advisor on foreign
policy and renowned political expert.
Russian experts say the proposed legislation is typical of the
Kremlin's desire to consolidate its powers in the region, taking
advantage of the fact that the breakaway republics see admission to
the Russian Federation as the best way of achieving secession.
The Moscow daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta believes Russia has all the
economic, political and military means to lever CIS states into
relinquishing their hold on areas opting to leave. As such, the paper
goes on to say that this new law could well fuel separatist movements
in other parts of CIS such as Crimea, Ukraine and Kazakstan - and, in
doing so, threaten the organisation's very future.
In attempting to bring the breakaway republics into its orbit, Moscow
sees an opportunity to at least partially gain back some of the
influence it lost after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In
particular, drawing in Abkhazia and South Ossetia could allow Russia
to maintain a military presence in the southern Caucasus, if, as seems
likely, Georgia insists that all Russian army bases are removed from
the country. In the case of Nagorno Karabakh, Moscow could acquire an
effective trump card against Azerbaijan and Armenia.
It was a remarkable coincidence that around the time when the Duma
passed it controversial bill, the Nagorno-Karabakh capital Stepanakert
hosted a second meeting of the foreign ministers of the four breakaway
republics, providing them with a opportunity to jointly mull over
Moscow's overture.
Apart from their obvious pro-Russian sympathies, the breakaway
republics are likely to warm to the Moscow offer because of their
growing disillusionment with talks to resolve their respective
conflicts. At their meeting last year, the ministers expressed the
view that Western mediation of some kind was necessary.
But they now appear to be changing their mind - and have become quite
critical of international involvement, particularly that of the OSCE.
"The OSCE is trying to impose some European model without considering
the regional and historical background of the conflicts," said
Transdniestrian foreign minister Valeri Litskaya. "All conflict
regions want to have Russia as a guarantor for security, and object to
the deployment of international peacekeeping forces."
Speculating about possible developments, the Russian newspaper
Kommersant said Abkhazia and Transdniestr have already approached the
Duma about their possible admission to the Russian Federation.
The Ossetian president Ludwig Chibirov, meanwhile, declared that
Tbilisi had not so far complied with its obligation to provide
economic assistance to South Ossetia, thus forcing the entity to
consider other options in the region. "South Ossetia has enjoyed
de-facto independence for the past decade," said Chibirov. Although
open to new OSCE initiatives, he said he would also consider taking
Russia up on her offer.
Mikhail Vignansky is the editor of the Prime News information agency
in Tbilisi
................
ISLAM'S TARNISHED IMAGE
The revival of moderate Islam in North Ossetia has been set back by
fear and propaganda
By Valeri Dzutsev in Vladikavkaz
"You Muslims are hypocrites - the Koran permits you to behead hostages
but prohibits drinking," shouted a young man at a recent Islamic
meeting in Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia - an obvious reference to the
notorious television shot of a Russian hostage being executed by a
Chechen rebel.
The criticism was hurled at a young Muslim activist, Taimuraz Rubaev,
who was extolling the Koranic prohibition on alcohol. Rubaev replied,
"Islam has nothing to do with the Chechen war - that's all about money
laundering."
Nevertheless, many people in the region, including some Muslims, have
been swayed by the torrent of anti-Chechen propaganda pumped out by
Russian television and started to believe that terrorism and senseless
brutality are attributes of Islam. "I won't call myself a Muslim
anymore after what I've seen on TV," is a typical comment.
The fact that Chechnya was one of the biggest sources of instability
in the region and that Chechens identified so firmly with Islam in
their struggle against the Russians meant that it acquired bad
associations among people in the Caucasus.
In this atmosphere of suspicion and distrust, Muslims are upset that
what they see as the accomplishments of Islam in the Caucasus are
being hidden from public view. They quote statistics showing that
crime last year in predominantly Muslim Azerbaijan was twice as low as
in Christian Georgia and Armenia. They also stress Islamic promotion
of family values, peaceful co-existence with other religions, and its
opposition to drugs.
At the beginning of the 1990s, Islam began to flourish again after
years of Soviet suppression, during which all the mosques in North
Ossetia were closed. In the immediate post-communist period, old
mosques were repaired and new ones built. The revival was funded by a
number of prominent Ossetians, like parliamentary chairman Taimuraz
Mamsurov, a well-known philanthropist, and the Muslim head of the
Russian Savings Bank.
Muslim youth were allowed to study Islam abroad in Near East countries
and teachers of Islam came here to preach.
But there were soon setbacks. After the 1992 conflict with Ingushetia,
which also has a Muslim minority, tolerance of Islam dropped
dramatically. One of the main reasons was that some Muslims in North
Ossetia refused to fight against their co-religionists in the
neighbouring republic.
The Muslim minority is now widely mistrusted inside North Ossetia. "We
cannot count on fellow Ossetians who worship Allah, " said Second
World War veteran Nikolai Tsoraev. "You never know when they are going
to sell you out to their brothers in Ingushetia."
With the spread of anti-Islamic sentiment, the Muslim community has
come under pressure to be as inconspicuous as possible. The
authorities, fearing that Wahhabism, an extremist Islamic movement,
might take hold in the country, have sought to restrict contact
between Muslim youth and Near East countries. "When I was on my way to
Teheran for Islamic studies a few years ago, they tried to stop me
going there," said one young Muslim.
The youth loudly proclaims that Islam offers worthy ideals for young
people and combats the ills of modern society. "Look around you, the
old generation has vodka as their god, youth have become drug addicts
and prostitutes," he said. "Islam would put an end to this."
The authorities are wary of such radical sentiment - and are clearly
determined to prevent it from becoming more widespread. With the state
so suspicious of Muslims, moderates among them seem to have little
hope of persuading the government to adopt a more tolerant approach to
their community.
Valeri Dzutsev is a regular IWPR contributor
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IWPR's Caucasus Reporting Service provides the regional and
international community with unique insiders' perspective on the
Caucasus. Using our network of local journalists, the service
publishes objective news and analysis from across the region on a
weekly basis.
The service forms part of IWPR's Caucasus Project which supports local
media development while encouraging better local and international
understanding of the region.
IWPR's Caucasus Reporting Service is supported by the Regional Media
Fund of the Open Society Institute. The service is currently available
on the Web in English and in Russian. All IWPR's reporting services
including Balkan Crisis Reports, Reporting Central Asia and Tribunal
Update are available free of charge via e-mail subscription or direct
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To subscribe to any of the news services, e-mail IWPR at
[email protected].
For further details on this project and other information services and
media programmes, visit IWPR's Website: <www.iwpr.net>.
Editor-in-chief: Anthony Borden. Managing Editor: Yigal Chazan;
Assistant Editor: Philip O'Neil; Commissioning Editor: Marina Rennau
in Tbilisi; Associate Editors: Ara Tadevosian in Yerevan, Shahin
Rzayev in Baku and Zarina Kanukova in Nalchik. Editorial assistance:
Mirna Jancic and Heather Milner. To comment on this service, contact
IWPR's Programme Director: Alan Davis [email protected]
The Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR) is a London-based
independent non-profit organisation supporting regional media and
democratic change.
Lancaster House, 33 Islington High Street, London N1 9LH, United
Kingdom.Tel: (44 207) 713 7130; Fax: (44 207) 713 7140. E-mail:
[email protected]; Web: www.iwpr.net
The opinions expressed in IWPR's Caucasus Reporting Service are those
of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the
publication or of IWPR.
Copyright (c) IWPR 2001
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