Kommersant
Russia pushed into corner over Caucasus
The adoption of a resolution on a report by Dick Marty, the PACE rapporteur on human rights in the North Caucasus, was the highlight of the Parliamentary Assembly on June 22, and possibly of the entire current session.
Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the Russian PACE delegation, said the Russian deputies would not vote against the resolution even though it contains sharp criticism of the authorities in three North Caucasus republics.
The report, "Legal remedies for human rights violations in the North Caucasus," highlights the situation in the Chechen Republic, Ingushetia and Dagestan. Marty visited the republics in March.
The Assembly approved the resolution almost unanimously, with only six deputies (including Kosachev and two other Russian deputies) abstaining. No vote was cast against.
However, difficulties arose when a large number of deputies expressed a desire to voice their comments on the report. As a result, debate turned into argument.
Dick Marty began his speech with an expression of gratitude to the Russian authorities for their help in compiling materials for the report. Speaking about the North Caucasus, he said we should take into account the situation in Russia as a whole, the pain caused by the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the ensuing chaos. All of this, he said, should be taken into account if we want to understand what is happening there now.
In his report he said: "in June 2004, Grozny was still no more than a pile of rubble. The situation has totally changed: we saw for ourselves that the entire center has been rebuilt and no outward signs of the war are visible." But, he added, a legal vacuum co-exists with material prosperity. Kidnappings of human rights activists in Chechnya remain widely unpunished and the misdeeds of the security forces go unanswered. Disappearances, torture and murder continue with utter impunity, Marty said.
The Ingush president, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, who survived an assassination attempt a year ago, responded calmly and praised the report's honesty.
"The situation in the Caucasus should be compared not to that in Europe but what it was like in the Caucasus several years ago," Yevkurov said. "Anyone visiting the Caucasus will tell you that the situation has improved. I can assure you that we will do our best to turn the North Caucasus into a region of peace and prosperity. As the president of Ingushetia, I want order more than many others do, because our lives depend on it."
But this only added fuel to the fire. Estonian politician Aleksei Lotman accused the Russian government of "murders and kidnappings" claiming that such actions force people to become terrorists. He said the situation with women's rights is deteriorating and Ramzan Kadyrov is "the self-appointed" president of Chechnya, while terrorists and separatists Dzhokhar Dudayev and Aslan Maskhadov were "the legal Chechen presidents."
The Georgian, French and Italian speakers who addressed PACE after Lotman further complicated the problem. Kosachev and Yevkurov led the response to this international coalition of critics.
"I would divide this audience into three groups," Kosachev said. "First, delegates from the North Caucasus who know what is happening there. Second, those such as Dick Marty who went there to try to understand the situation. And third, those who form their opinion of the situation in the Caucasus based on press reports."
"When Mr. Lotman said that Kadyrov is a usurper, he offended the Chechens who voted for him," Kosachev said. "And those who claim that Budanov is a hero in Russia have been lied to; Budanov has been sentenced [for his crime]."
Yevkurov, who is known for his self-control, lost patience. "And who are you to talk? Who are you to judge us?" he said. "I listened to what the Estonian deputy said. You say our authorities are involved in murder. I am ready to talk about this issue on one condition - that you promise to resign if the court doesn't support your claim."
The Estonian deputy did not take him up on the challenge.
Passions cooled only after Mevlut Cavusoglu, President of the Council of Europe, put the resolution to a vote, although the result was predictable.
When the members of parliament, still flushed from their heated debate, broke up for coffee, Akhmed Zakayev, the envoy of the Chechen separatists, entered the Council of Europe only just missing the Ingush president.
In 2001, the Russian General Prosecutor's Office put Zakayev on the national and international wanted lists on charges of terrorism and for organizing the murder of civilians and law-enforcement officers. In 2003, the London court did not grant the request for Zakayev's extradition.
Zakayev's appearance in the hall further incensed the Russian delegation. The delegation's leaders and the Russian mission in Strasbourg sent a letter of protest to Mr. Cavusoglu "regarding the unwarranted appearance of Akhmed Zakayev in the Council of Europe."
It was later established that he had entered the building under an alias.
Vedomosti
Wages crisis over
In May, real wages in Russia topped pre-crisis levels, say analysts. But this was due to low inflation, not employers.
In May, wages in Russia exceeded pre-crisis levels for the first time. They were 1.5% greater than their historical high of September 2008, says Kirill Tremasov, head of Bank of Moscow's think tank. Their average for January-May was 3% above the same pre-crisis period, he added.
"Wages were adjusted not only to inflation but also in response to this specific economic cycle, including bonuses, cyclical work and pay patterns in some sectors," says Igor Polyakov, an analyst from the Center of Macroeconomic Analysis and Short-Term Forecasting (TsMAKP).
He calculated that the May indicator exceeded the high of September 2008 by 0.7%: "Although the figure is within the error margin, it can be said that the pre-crisis maximum has been reached, but not surpassed."
On average, wages for January-May were 1.6% higher than before the crisis, he said.
"Real wages were the first of all our basic economic indicators to surpass their pre-crisis levels," Tremasov said. Comparing this year's first quarter indicators with those of the second quarter of 2008 (the last pre-crisis quarter) shows that GDP is now down 7.3%; industrial production is down 9.4%; commercial cargo turnover is down 6.9%; retail turnover is down 2.8%; capital investment is down 9.6%; and construction volume is down 22.5%.
Low inflation was the main factor pushing real wages up, both Tremasov and Polyakov agree. Since May 2008, inflation has dropped from 15.1% to 6% a year. Although wages rose last year by 11% from January-May, in real terms they fell 2% due to inflation.
In January-May 2010, nominal growth was almost the same - 11.4%, but real growth was 4.4%.
This year's leader in wage growth is the financial sector (17% in January-April), followed by railroad transport (16.9%). In the mining industry wages increased by 11.2% and the processing industry saw an increase of 14.2%. Growth in the public sector was between 4.4% and 6.8%, which meant a decrease in real wages.
"Salaries paid to some Sberbank employees are already higher than before the crisis," says Alexander Morozov, head of the company's finance department. This year's wage bill has increased by 15%.
Russian Railways, one of the country's largest companies employing 1,027,800 people, raised average wages last year by 12.9% (up to 25,316 rubles), and by another 3.9% from May 1, says a spokesman for the company. But during the crisis period, not everyone drew these wages - an average of 410,000 people were working part-time, or were on unpaid vacation.
Pochta Rossii (Russian Post), which employs 415,000 people, raised its wages in 2009. Its spokesman explained the move by the pay level in the sector which was initially "very low."
Current wages of AvtoVaz production personnel are 17,591 rubles, or 1,664 rubles (8.6%) lower than in June 2008, said a spokesman for the company.
During the crisis, X5 Retail Group cut jobs, not wages and now it is increasing salaries. In March, 80% of its staff had their wages increased by 14%-15%, said a spokesman for the company.
Personnel at the Magnit retail network received 13,100 rubles on average per month in 2008, and 13,700 rubles per month in 2009.
MTS did not cut wages in 2009, and plans a 10% increase this year, said a spokesman for the company.
A monitoring survey carried out by Pyndex of 96 large industrial companies shows that 58% of them are planning to raise wages this year by an average of 10%. Real growth, taking account of inflation (which is officially forecast at 6%), will be 4%.
But in absolute terms, Russian wages remain low: a sampling survey conducted by the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) (excluding small firms and non-staff workers) showed that one in ten gets less than 5,000 rubles, while the median wage is about 13,200 rubles (with half of the employed drawing less and the other half drawing more), and the average wage is 18,287 rubles.
Vremya Novostei
Discrimination live
The Latvian Parliament has passed a new version of the media law stipulating tougher language quotas during television broadcasts. From now on, Latvian-language programs will account for 65% of all broadcasts and no subtitles will be allowed. Although programs made in the EU should make up for 51% of the total, this condition does not apply to news and sports broadcasts, games, commercials and home-shopping channels. All prime-time broadcasts must be in Latvian.
The amendments will primarily affect commercial channels broadcasting Russian TV series with subtitles in the evenings. In all, Latvia has four national TV channels, namely the two state-owned LTV-1 and LTV-7 channels and the two commercial LNT and TV-3 channels.
Both channels are part of a free digital TV network catering to 60% of Latvian audiences. Commercial channel executives have already said the new law could force them to switch over to cable networks.
"Amendments passed by the Latvian Parliament highlight Riga's commitment to discriminating against the Russian-speaking population and curbing freedom of speech in general," the Russian Foreign Ministry's spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said on Tuesday.
Nesterenko said such moves ran counter to the Latvian government's assurances about their commitment to democratic principles of united Europe and reaffirm their reluctance to consider the legitimate humanitarian rights and interests of the Russian-speaking minority.
On Tuesday, Latvian President Valdis Zatlers returned the controversial document to parliament for upgrading but advised toughening language quotas. His letter to the deputies said the requirement that state language programs account for at least 40% of European programs broadcast between 7 and 11 p.m. should also apply to the national and regional media. Latvian-language news broadcasts should be added and extended by an hour, from 6 till 11 p.m.
The parliament will vote the document's final version on Monday, June 28.
Latvia drafted the media law's new version at the demand of Brussels, which is trying to break Hollywood's domination of EU TV channels. Latvian TV has already introduced language quotas. In fact, Latvian-language programs were to have accounted for 75% of local broadcasts several years ago. But the Latvian Constitutional Court repealed this amendment in 2003.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta
CSTO fails test in Kyrgyzstan
Russia's reluctance to despatch peacekeepers to the conflict in Kyrgyzstan is understandable. President Dmitry Medvedev is not keen on making Russia responsible for the clean up after the anti-Uzbek riots. The status of the interim government is also questionable. Moreover, Uzbek president Islam Karimov is strongly opposed to Russian forces being deployed in Kyrgyzstan.
But the CSTO is different. This organization was designed specifically with collective security in mind and has essentially been training for this kind of mission for the past five or six years. But now an opportunity has emerged to test its proficiency and it is denied access.
Throughout the conflict, we essentially heard two major arguments against using CSTO forces in Kyrgyzstan: the CSTO charter has no legal authorization or regulations for their use in internal conflicts and Roza Otunbayeva's interim government lacks legitimacy.
These arguments are disputable. First of all, let us consider what is expected of the collective forces. According to the CSTO agreement, this organization lays the foundation for preparing and conducting peacekeeping operations. In 2008, this agreement was ratified by Belarus and Kazakhstan, followed by Russia. It is important that, if a peacekeeping operation on the territory of a member country is to take place, the decision be made by the Collective Security Council (CSC) and that the UN is notified immediately.
Considering the circumstances, the scale of the conflict and its possible repercussions for the region, the CSC may request a UN Security Council mandate. The CSTO and the UN signed a declaration of cooperation last spring, which says they agree to take into account each other's mandates and spheres of competence, as well as opportunities to work together "in order to coordinate international efforts to deal with global challenges and global threats."
It follows that CSTO forces could have been sent to Kyrgyzstan without a UN mandate, because it is a CSTO member country and has also ratified an agreement on peacekeeping actions. The country is an integral part of the collective security system.
In any case, a number of loopholes could have been found or created to actually use force in Kyrgyzstan. The easiest solution would have been to label the attackers and rioters "external forces." Seeing the scale of the humanitarian catastrophe in Kyrgyzstan, the international community would not have tried to halt the CSTO mission.
However, while CSTO forces are trained and ready to act, the political will of their heads of state is not. They do not trust each other and are afraid of Russia's growing influence in the region. It is no secret that the CSTO has never grown into anything more than an organization on paper due to its leaders' indecisiveness. Moreover, its silence in response to the violence in Kyrgyzstan devalues the whole initiative.
RIA Novosti is not responsible for the content of outside sources.
MOSCOW, June 23 (RIA Novosti)
