News Roundup!

I hope all the U of C students are having a good reading period! 

First off I have some interesting news of a type I usually don't cover: Wired magazine's blog Danger Room has an article talking about how Georgia is blaming the Russian government for a cyber attack which took place three weeks before the crisis this summer. Whether or not you believe them, it's an interesting story. 

There's been a lot of news floating around recently about the 2009 Eurovison Song Contest, being hosted by Russia this year. The most interesting story, in my opinion (more Georgia and Russia, my apologies!) is how Georgia's song was deemed unacceptable due to the political connotations in the lyrics. The BBC also reports on how Russia has chosen a Ukrainian singer to represent it in the contest. They also have a more opinion-type piece on the politics behind the contest (I find it interesting to read the comments, left by people from all over, as well).

While maybe not a current event, the NYT has a good piece on bribery in the Romanian medical system. I thought the most interesting part was how patients would worry that if the doctor didn't accept their bribe, it was because they had an incurable disease. From some of our favorite news sites: Balken Insight has a good page with news about the upcoming election in Macedonia, and Transitions Online has a followup article about the closing of the American air base at Manas. 

And, in things that you might not think is as exciting as I do: One of my favorite websites (The Daily Beast) did an article on stylish first ladies from around the world. Two from the CEERES region that made it are Kateryna Yushchenko, wife of the Ukrainian president, and Mehriban Aliyeva, first lady of Azerbaijan. I think two of ten is doing pretty good! 

News Roundup!

Sorry, it's been a while and I've missed a bunch of news!

I think the biggest piece of news is the closing of the US air base in Kyrgyzstan. It was obviously covered in many news sources. Some more recent news though, says that the Kyrgyz Parliament is to vote on a bill to close the base this week, as opposed to in March, which is when it had been expected. The BBC has an article about the base with a helpful map of other bases in the region. There's also a few articles speculating where the US might go next, as well, from Eurasianet and Transitions Online.

I've never really profiled other media than articles, but I've dug up some interesting video. While I haven't watched all of these, they look pretty good. The BBC has video of a reporter's trip there, discussing how Georgia is still trying to rebuild after the conflict with Russia. Also, a lot longer but possibly very interesting, I dug up this video of a lecture the Foreign Policy Association held with the former Prime Minister of Italy, on Russia from a European perspective.

Also exciting is the fact that Kosovo marked it's first independence day this week. Balkan Insight has a good article on the mixed feelings that the independence caused.

In brief: The Eurasia Daily Moniter has an article on Armenia and Turkey's relations, Russia is cutting the budget for the 2014 Olympics by 15% and an interesting article on the Obama administration's views of security threats in Central Asia.

News Roundup

At the World Economic Forum, where Putin gave the opening address, there was much blame placed on the United States for the current financial crisis. While Putin wasn't as "harsh" as he has been in the past few months, he commented on how "investment banks, the pride of Wall Street, have virtually ceased to exsist." Also in economic related news, Romania is in talks with the EU for a 6 billion Euro "rescue loan" to help the country buffer itself from the economic downturn and Siberia's currancy has lost a quarter of it's value in 4 months. 

In a follow-up from the last news roundup, about a week ago, Russia started to pump gas through Ukraine again, and the New York Times has a good piece about Putin's understanding of the use of energy as a political tool. While only slightly related, the Eurasian Daily Moniter has some good commentary about border disputes and Russia, focusing on Ukraine. 

In the Caucasus we have a Russian soldier who either deserted or was captured by Georgia, depending on who you ask. This piece on Azerbaijan's position between Russia and the West is also interesting, and the reports that Russia has given free arms to Armenia (denied by both countries) shows what a power Russia continues to be in the region. 

On the BBC: Polish WWII hero was not murdered, and the sad reality of selling babies in Tajikistan.

More on Russia and Georgia

In my feed reader this morning was this piece from the New York Times on the Human Rights Watch report on the Russian and Georgian conflict in August. The 200 page report accuses both Russia and Georgia of using unnecessary force where civilians were involved and says that it seems Ossetian militias were attempting to ethnically cleanse Georgian villages in South Ossetia. 

I searched a little and found that Human Rights Watch has its own summary of the report, and the report is also available to download in English or Russian in its entirety. 

CEERES News Roundup

Apologies for the sporadic posting of news roundups.

Turkmenistan recently rewrote sections of its national anthem to remove the multiple references to the former president who died in 2006. "An official said the changes were necessary to bring the anthem into line with international standards."

Speaking of reforms, Kazakhstan is working on reforming its parliament system, in order to avoid having a one-party parliament. The reforms are in advance of Kazakhstan's 2010 chairmanship of OSCE. However, parties in the country say the reforms are not going to actually help.

Due to a border dispute between Croatia and Slovenia, Slovenia is saying it will block Croatia's EU bid. Slovenian Prime Minister Pahor complained that the documents submitted by Croatia "could prejudge the common border" and Croatia worries that Slovenia will not allow the accesion talks to cont

Seems Russia is having just as many economic problems as the rest of the world, as they've devalued the ruble twice in a week. Economists blame the recent falls on the dropping oil prices.

And in the Caucasus: Russia is blocking the return of OSCE monitors to South Ossetia, Armenia is having issues with mandatory military service and the Council of Europe, and the conflict between Russia and Georgia is causing NATO to push back Georgia's entry.

Weekly News Roundup

This weekly news roundup is heavy on conflicts in the Caucasus. Back to more varied news next week!

Monday, Armenia's foreign minister spoke, asking Turkey to re-open the Armenia/Turkey border, which has been closed since 1993 as a result of Armenia and Azerbaijan's war over the Karabagh region. Armenia and Turkey have not had diplomatic relations since Armenia became an independent country after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Georgia's and Poland's Presidents were taking a nice drive up by South Ossetia where their motorcade was shot at on Monday. Of course, Russia denied having any part in it. This comes a few days after the BBC reported Russia-Georgia peace talks were making "substantial progress."

Meanwhile, in the Russian republic of North Ossetia, the mayor of Vladikavkaz was killed on Wednesday. This is after a suicide bomber killed at least 8 people earlier this month, also in Vladikavkaz.

In another separatist region (they seem to abound in the South Caucasus!), Nagorno-Karabagh, apparently some shots were fired which led to the death of one Azeri soldier. This is in light of recent peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan (some commentary can be found here). Apparently, after the skirmish, Armenia's president also met with party leaders in Armenia to discuss the conflict, as well.

Weekly BBC Roundup: The BBC Magazine wrote a piece about children who are scared to leave their homes because of blood feuds in Albania. Check out this article about the Amnesty International report about domestic violence in Armenia. Also, Sochi's feelings about the Olympics.

Have a good Thanksgiving!

Weekly CEERES news roundup

Big in the news this week was the meeting in Moscow between Armenia's President Sarkisyan and Azerbaijan's President Aliyev during which they signed a joint declaration regarding the sepratist region of Nagorno-Karabagh (BBC, Wikipedia). Reactions are mixed, as reported on EurasiaNet and the Euraisa Daily Moniter (which also includes a run-down of the declaration). From a completely different angle, on October 16th, apparently over 700 couples got married in Karabagh, in an attempt to help boost the region's small birth rate (IWPR).

Apparently Saakashvili is having a grand old time firing people. (BBC)

While not directly related to the region, the US presidential election was big news everywhere. Some pre-election feelings from the region can be found on EurasiaNet and TOL, and articles on reactions from Macedonia and Kosovo are highlighted on the homepage of BalkenInsight. 

In brief, we also have the EU's effort to increase it's presence in Tajikistan, teaching diversity in Romania via some new textbooks, and Ukraine's recent dropping of Russian channels from cable.

And because I love the BBC, I'd like to point out this interesting article discussing the Ossetians' love of the movie "Braveheart." 

Weekly CEERES news roundup!

The New York Times did an excellent piece on Moscow's mayor Luzhkov and his propensity for creating foreign policy. They followed it up by translating many of the comments the post received on their Russian language blog and picked out some specifically to write a follow-up article talking about how Russians feel about Luzhkov.

Georgia's President Saakashvili announced he would be replacing the Prime Minister. (BBC)

Monday, the IMF said it would offer loans to both Ukraine and Hungary as the two Eastern European countries have both been hit hard by the global credit crisis. (BBC)

While not completely current, two weeks ago Azerbaijan's president Aliyev was re-elected with 89% of the vote. Many of the opposition parties boycotted this election, which caused many international observers to remark on the lack of real competition. (BBC, EurasiaNet)

This piece that the BBC did on Albania's "sworn virgins" is very interesting and offers an interesting look at a phenomenon that's dying out.

Steve LeVine at Chicago again. Russia, Georgia, and the Rest

About a year ago, The University of Chicago hosted journalist Steve LeVine, now senior foreign affairs correspondent for Business Week, when his book "The Oil and the Glory" came out. That book dealt with the history of the former Soviet region through the lens of the jockeying for control of oil and natural gas. (You can view last year's presentation on the UChicago CHIASMOS website).

Steve Levine joins us again tonight to discuss the recent conflict between Russia and Georgia, the reasons for it, the consequences affecting the U.S., and some projections on the future of the region and international relations. When we first conceived of this talk with Steve, not long after the early August military conflict between Russia and Georgia, our effort was to do something timely on the conflict, and what it meant circa September 2008. We entitled the talk "Putin's Labyrinth: What Russia won in Georgia; Why the U.S. Will Continue to Lose." The gist being that the U.S.'s inattention to the region was an enabling factor for Russia to launch this sort of reprisal. In the period since then, the global climate of investment has taken a nose-dive, and the price of oil has precipitously declined, perhaps providing new economic and diplomatic avenues for the U.S. to influence and secure the region. Perhaps a better subtitle for tonight's talk would be "Why the U.S. May Continue to Lose." This of course will not be found out until a new U.S. presidential administration takes over.

If you're curious about where this discussion leads, come see Steve LeVine tonight at 6pm in the Home Room of International House at The University of Chicago.

This talk is also coming out of Steve's new book "Putin's Labyrinth: Spies, Murder, and the Dark Heart of the New Russia." This books looks at the new displined Russian power structure under Putin through the prism of shadowy murders.

Abkhazia asks for recognition of its independece

Citing the recent break of Kosovo from Serbia as precedent, the breakaway region of Abkhazia in Georgia recently passed a resolution asking the international community to recognize its independence. This move came right after Russia lifted sanctions on the region. Russia says this is not related to Kosovo, whose independence Russia does not recognize.

Some news:
BBC: Abkhazia in independence appeal
International Herald Tribune: US, Georgia caution Russia against backing militants in breakaway Abkhazia
Reuters: U.S. says it regrets Russia's moves on Abkhazia

Georgia Election

The recent election in Georgia seems to satisfy all but the opposition parties and Russia. Mikheil Saakashvili was re-elected on January 5 in an election which was monitored by several hundred international observers who say it was a significant step for democracy, even though there are some problems which need to be corrected. The opposition parties, however, are saying the election results were falsified.

One of the articles brought up an interesting point as well. In the Iraq war, Georgia is an ally of the United States, providing 2,000 troops, which is more than any country other than the United States and Britain.

Here are some articles to check out:

International Herald Tribune: US Says Georgian Election Largely in Step With International Standards
Transitions Online: 'A Triumphant Step'
New York Times: Pro-Western President Re-elected in Georgia
BBC: Georgian President 'Re-elected'

Teaching Science, vis a vis Georgia

I ran into a fascinating article in the Chicago Tribune yesterday, Sunday, Nov 18. It's called "In Georgia, a missing link?", and can be found here.

It's about recent discoveries of pre-historic human and human-like remains in the fertile region below the Caucasus mountains.

I thought this might be of special interest to middle school and high school science teachers looking to bring a bit of international areas into their teaching. But it's also interesting in terms of the economics and state of research in the region.

song and dance

After the summer festivals, fall seems to be the opening of the performance season in the city. Perhaps it feels like that to me since I'm writing from a university campus; all of the students have returned, their sports teams and a cappella groups have reconvened. But it's more than that in Chicago.

Here's a few entertainment options coming up in Chicago that could be of real interest to you if you're interested in culture from our region.

Georgian State Dance Company will be performing at the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University on October 6, 2007 at 7:30pm. The costumes will be authentic, and the acrobatics will be explosive. In the CEERES office, we actually have $5-off discount vouchers, so if you're on campus, come by and see us and we'll pass this on to you.

October 13 is the Macy's Day of Music, with performances by a wide range of groups and artists, including a few performing music from our region, not to mention the Chicago Symphony Orchesta with Branford Marsalis, and the legendary Tortoise. The entire event is free and open to the public - yeah! A pdf of the day's schedule and locations is available here. Performers of our region include-

• University of Chicago's very own GOLOSA, a Russian folk choir.
• LIRA SINGERS will perform traditional music in authentic costumes from various regions of Poland
• CHICAGO KLEZMER ENSEMBLE, founded by clarinetist and music director Kurt Bjorling

Yuri Yukanov's Romani (Gypsy) Wedding Band will play at the Old Town School of Folk Music, October 26, 2007. One of my first blog entries was about gypsy culture and music- if you were interested in that, definitely put this on your calendar.

There's a World Music program at Symphony Center that is putting on "Spiritual Sounds of Central Asia", on Friday, November 9 at 8:00PM. This will feature music performers and ensembles from six countries of the region. Student tix are a reasonable $10, and the program will include some multi-media documentaries and text feeds to contextualize the performances.

For more music from our region, check out some of the programming happening at our local radio station down here in Hyde Park, WHPK 88.5 FM in Chicago. They have an expansive international music interest, whose centerpiece is Marta Nicholas' "Music Around the World" show on Thursdays at 4pm. Marta picks a rainbow of music and topics, and does some complementary interviews. Also, UC students Ksenia and Sasha have a hot little show on Tuesday's at 5pm that they are calling "Not Necessarily Russian". Poslushai!