Russia Manages Without Western Funds To Finance Chechen Assault
Even when a war is called an 'anti-terrorism operation', as the Russian authorities call their current works in Chechnya, it still has to be paid for.
Even when a war is called an 'anti-terrorism operation', as the Russian authorities call their current works in Chechnya, it still has to be paid for.
By Maria Eismont, recently in Samashki, Chechnya (CRS No. 9, 3-Dec-99)
Russian accusations that Georgia is aiding and abetting Chechen militants through its frontier with the breakaway republic have pushed this local "cold war" dangerously close to boiling point.
Between the tub thumping from Chirac and the soft glove approach from Clinton, Vaclav Havel points the best way forward for the OSCE.
Even Russian human rights activists say an anti-terrorism campaign is justified. But they sharply criticise the indiscriminate bombing and other attacks in Chechnya and propose a limited cessation of fighting to pave the way for talks.
What is it about Nakhichevan? Although comprising only 10 per cent of the Azerbaijani population, virtually every member of the country's political elite hails from the tiny enclave.
How deep was the crisis between President Robert Kocharian and the military? Thousands of troops were pointedly still patrolling the city last week.
The only real opposition to President Eduard Shevardnadze's Citizens Union of Georgia after last month's vote was Aslan Abashidze's Georgian Revival Party. Next year the two will face off again in the presidential poll.
On the surface at least, constitutional order has been preserved in Armenia in the wake of the October 27 attack on the Yerevan parliament - but tensions with the military continue.
Armenia's president is weak and its prime minister is dead. Whatever follows the attack on the National Assembly, political change is inevitable.