Russia 110201 Basic Political Developments

SCO jubilee summit to be held in Astana

http://www.aysor.am/en/news/2011/02/01/astana-summit/

Astana will host the jubilee summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization on June 15, 2011, RIA Novosti reports citing Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry.

The 10th anniversary of SCO is marked this year. SCO gathers together China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

TODAY, 11:08

Aysor.am

Azerbaijan and Iran to establish joint venture related to construction of Gazvin-Rasht-Astara railway

http://en.apa.az/news.php?id=139574

Baku. Ali Ahmedov – APA-ECONOMICS. On January 31, next trilateral meeting (Azerbaijan, Russia and Iran) on the realization of North-South international transport corridor was started in Tehran.

According to Azerbaijan Railways, establishment of joint venture on construction of Gazvin-Rasht-Astara railway and projection construction will be discussed at the meeting, which will last two days.

Azerbaijan is represented by the delegation led by Deputy Chairman of the Azerbaijan Railways Igbal Huseynov. Final document is expected to be signed at the end of the event.

Sukhumi regime acquired two planes

http://eng.expertclub.ge/portal/cnid__7500/alias__Expertclub/lang__en/tabid__2546/default.aspx

31/01/2011 14:42
The puppet regime of Abkhazia has acquired two planes for development of civil aviation. Planes were delivered by Russian special design office Interavia. As it was stated by representative of the company Vladimir Maryan it is planned to establish production of these palnes directly on the territory of Abkhazia.

Additionally, federation of aviation enthusiasts were established that will organize private flights in small single-seater and two-seater planes. Vladimir Maryan was chosen as president of the federation. Chief manager of the airport "Sukhumi" Vyacheslav Eshba became a deputy.

According to the legislation of Georgia, Abkhazia is closed to international flights. According to the decision of the International Civil Aviation Organization, Sukhumi airport was stripped of international status. The Organization confirmed that it recognizes the territorial integrity of Georgia and single air space.

Occupants conduct military exercises in the Tskhinvali region

http://eng.expertclub.ge/portal/cnid__7513/alias__Expertclub/lang__en/tabid__2546/default.aspx

01/02/2011 11:50
The occupying troops of Russia are holding exercises in the Tskhinvali region together with local militants. According to the defence ministry of the puppet regime in Tskhinvali, five-day exercises aim at combat coordination of military units and law enforcement agencies. In addition to army units, soldiers of the border service of the Russian FSB and KGB of Tskhinvali are involved in exercises.
Abkhazians will not be able to cross the Russian border using Soviet passports

http://eng.expertclub.ge/portal/cnid__7493/alias__Expertclub/lang__en/tabid__2546/default.aspx

31/01/2011 13:26
From February 1st it will not be possible to cross the Abkhazian part of the Georgian-Russian border using passports with Soviet symbols. The decision was taken following negotiations between Sukhumi and the Russian Federation.

According to the press centre of border agencies of the coast guard of the FSB of the Russian Federation, this change will affect a very small part of the population, as daily only two percent of the population cross the border using passports with Soviet symbols.

As it was suggested in the department, this innovation will not change the situation on the border.

Workers Trickle Out of Restive Egypt

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/workers-trickle-out-of-restive-egypt/430089.html
01 February 2011

By Anatoly Medetsky

Energy companies LUKoil and Novatek are flying their employees out of strife-torn Egypt but say the evacuations won't affect operations in the country.

Novatek planned to arrange a flight to take six employees out of Cairo on Monday, company spokesman Mikhail Lozovoi said. Russia's second largest gas producer maintains an office there for coordinating exploration of oil and gas reserves off Egypt's Mediterranean coast.

“All work will continue” uninterrupted at the El-Arish area that Novatek is exploring in a 50-50 venture with Egypt's Tharwa Petroleum, Lozovoi said.

LUKoil flew 15 people from Cairo to Dubai on Sunday, a company spokesman said, Interfax reported. That group, and one more employee who is working on an Egyptian production site, are scheduled to return to Moscow on Tuesday.

LUKoil and its international partners, which include the Egyptian government and a unit of Italy's Eni, will do business as usual, producing oil from two fields that each hold a little more than 30 million barrels of oil. The West Esch El Mallaha field is on the Red Sea shore, near Hurghada, while the Meleiha field is in the middle of the Egyptian part of the Libyan Desert.

Some other Russian companies that have offices in Egypt, such as software company Softline and satellite tracking firm Russian Navigation Technologies, rely on local staff and won't need to arrange evacuations, their spokespeople said.

Russian students in Cairo appealed for evacuation Monday, saying they had to barricade themselves on the fourth floor of a dormitory to keep away marauders. The 120 students, including 50 people from the Bashkortostan republic, said they were running out of food, according to Bashkortostan presidential spokesman Artyom Valiyev, RIA-Novosti reported.

Bashkortostan authorities have forwarded the plea to the Cabinet, the Foreign Ministry and the Emergency Situations Ministry, Valiyev said.

Russian tourists in Egypt are safe and don't require any rescue measures, deputy Sports and Tourism Minister Nadezhda Nazina said Monday.

“Judging from the information that comes from various sources, including special representatives of the Federal Tourism Agency … everything is quiet at the places where Russians are vacationing,” she said, Interfax reported.

Russian officials nevertheless issued a sterner warning to travel agencies Sunday to stop sending tourists to the country, where more than 100 Egyptians have died in anti-government riots, she said. Agencies that don’t heed the instruction are in violation of the law, given the security threats there, she said.

Egyptian Unrest Likely to Affect Moscow’s Position in North Caucasus, Markedonov Says

http://georgiandaily.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=20949&Itemid=72

February 01, 2011

Paul Goble

Vienna, January 31 – Many analysts have speculated that the events in Egypt, especially in the wake of the revolutionary events in Tunisia, will have affect other authoritarian regimes in the Arab world, but few have considered the ways in which these events may have an impact further afield, including on the Russian Federation.

But in an essay posted on the CaucasusTimes.com portal today, Sergey Markedonov, one of Russia’s leading specialists on the North Caucasus, argues that “the Egyptian factor” is likely to have a significant impact on the evolution of events in that region, albeit in ways that many do not know suspect (www.caucasustimes.com/article.asp?id=20744).

That factor, the Russian analyst suggests, is likely to prove “particularly important” as far as the North Caucasus is concerned, as, Markedonov continues, “the terrorist attack on Domodedovo [Airport] demonstrates.” That is because an attack on that facility is an attack not only on Russian officialdom but on citizens of other countries.

If terrorist actions in the North Caucasus have become so common as to be part of the background noise, the attack on Domodedovo is something that could not be ignored, Markedonov says. “The goal of such an action is obvious.” On the one hand, it is intended to show Russia’s inability to hold the 2014 Olympics and the 2018 Football Championship.

But on the other hand – and Markedonov’s language suggests that he views this as the more important factor at least relative to the Egyptian events – the attack on Domodedovo is intended to show to the world that “the Caucasus jihad” has gone over to a general attack and that it has “the forces and resources needed to do every more.”

Like his predecessors Gamal Abdel Nasser and Anwar Sadat, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has pursued a policy of modernization that has required him to take from Western sources many ideas an approaches, a borrowing that has made Egypt a more important power but only at the cost of exacerbating problems in Egyptian society.

“The social-economic transformations [his policies have entailed ] have violated the traditional foundations of Eastern society,” a transgression that has led to “a fundamentalist reaction to innovations and to withdraw into its difference and ‘uniqueness’” and thus reject everything Western.

From that, Markedonov continues, “Islamism is growing.” And despite Mubarak’s repressive regime, Egypt remains “one of the most serious centers of the jihadist movement,” something that means that those who are part of that movement elsewhere will attend to with utmost seriousness.

That is all the more so because, the Russian analyst continues, “Egyptian Islamists support without reservation the supporters of analogous transformations in other Muslim countries and hope for the construction or more precisely the revival of a unified Islamic state, the khalifate.”

And, Markedonov continues, “although for them the chief enemies are the United States, Israel and the secular Egyptian government, they also have negative feelings about Russia.” It is worth remembering that “about 40 percent of the Arab volunteers in the Afghan war agains thte Soviet Union were from Egypt.”

Now, he continues, “the Egyptian Islamists accuse Russia not of communist atheism but of suppressing ‘brothers in the faith’ in Chechnya, Daghestan, and the North Caucasus in general.” And to that end, the Egyptian supporters of “’pure Islam’” provide “serious” support to their fellows in the North Caucasus.

Many of the ideologues of the North Caucasus Islamists trace their ideas back to the Egyptian ideologist Said Kutb (1906-1966) who elaborated the doctrine of “jahilia,” according to which “true Muslims must struggle not only with ‘godless communism’ or ‘mercantile capitalism’ but also inside Muslim countries where the principles of the faith are distorted.”

In fact, to this day, Islamists in the North Caucasus consider Kutb, who was executed by the Egyptian secular powers to be “one of the martyrs.”

What is happening in Egypt now, Markedonov notes, is not the world of the Islamist element alone. It is a far broader phenomenon. But that very fact may have negative consequences for Russian power in the North Caucasus because as he points out “mass uprisings not infrequently throw overboard moderates” as events develop.

Since it intervened in Chechnya in 1994, Moscow has sought to limit the adverse reaction in the Arab world. It has succeeded in part, but if things change in a major way in Egypt, Russian calculations in this regard may have to be changed, especially if events in Egypt lead to changes elsewhere.

At the very least, “the fall of such a secular fortress as Egypt,” Markedonov concludes, “would create not a few new problems for Moscow” especially because Islamists in the North Caucasus will be watching what is taking place and drawing their own conclusions about what they can and should do next.