Vedomosti
CSTO needs greater intervention powers
"All agreed that the lessons learnt from events in Kyrgyzstan are pushing us to more effective mechanisms," Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said following an informal Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) summit in Yerevan. The meeting was held to discuss the measures the organization took to stabilize the situation in Kyrgyzstan.
The leaders of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan (the president of Uzbekistan did not show up) agreed draft amendments to the CSTO charter introducing "effective institutions" with "extended powers."
"Everybody understands that there are cases in which the organization needs to act more quickly and effectively," Medvedev said. Armenian President Sargsyan said the participants had read the tentative proposals by CSTO Secretary-General Nikolai Bordyuzha.
The CSTO Charter does not provide for interference in the internal conflicts of signatory countries. Troops can only be introduced following an appeal from the republic's leadership and then only to protect them against external invasion. A member of the CSTO secretariat said he knew nothing about Bordyuzha's suggestions.
Dmitry Rogozin, head of Russia's Permanent Mission to NATO, said he had repeatedly suggested to Bordyuzha that he set up a permanent working body led by ambassadors from participating countries, as in NATO, to monitor the situation in the region, forecast possible conflicts and hold talks to reach a consensus on various issues. Rogozin believes the CSTO's decision-making difficulties stem from the fact that the General-Secretary's sole decision is open to challenge, and presidents can't be called at a moment's notice. The Uzbek leader, Islam Karimov, has been absent from summits for a year now.
Rogozin believes the CSTO should be transformed into an organization that is both political and military and that a clear line should be drawn between these two components. This would solve the problem with Uzbekistan: it could remain in the political set-up without blocking any military decisions. A political superstructure might have played a positive role during the Kyrgyz developments. A joint statement would not have allowed countries to host ousted Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, a fact that later provoked the June massacre in the south of the country, said Vladimir Zharikhin, director of the CIS Countries Institute.
Full implementation of these plans will take our organization to a new and higher quality level, said Sargsyan, who earlier that day said that [in agreeing to extend the presence of Russia's military base in Armenia] Russia was bolstering Armenia's defense capacity.
Asked what Russia would do if Azerbaijan attacked Nagorno-Karabakh, Medvedev answered that it would follow the obligations it had regarding CSTO members.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta
Militancy flares up in North Caucasus after relative calm
No matter how hard the North Caucasus Federal District authorities try to fulfill the order President Dmitry Medvedev gave his envoy, Alexander Khloponin, to develop local resorts, all their efforts are thwarted by the renewed activity of underground militant groups.
Even the existing holiday resorts have lost much of their popularity. The flow of tourists to alpine resorts in Kabardino-Balkaria has grown much thinner of late, after more than ten police officers and civilians were killed in the region in one month. The latest outbreak took place last week in the Elbrus District of Kabardino-Balkaria, where local militants shot at a group of tourists, killed a local interior department officer and bombed a TV tower near a residential neighborhood in Tyrnyauz.
Law-enforcement authorities in Kabardino-Balkaria expect more bombings and terrorist attacks; they have made public several crisis hotline numbers and have asked the local population to assist the police in locating individuals involved in terrorist and extremist activities.
A hundred servicemen and mountain fighting instructors for the Army's motorized and alpine infantry units will take a month-long training program to perfect their combat skills in the Elbrus District.
Local militants are still waging their underground war from forests and mountains across the North Caucasus, carrying out attacks on densely populated areas and cities. But the federal forces are just as active. Several militants were killed in a special operation in Gunib; one of them was identified as being Magomedali Vagabov, the man suspected of masterminding the March 2010 bomb attacks in the Moscow metro. Russian special forces have also announced the death of Rustam Munkiyev, leader of the anti-government Khasavyurt group, killed in Dagestan.
Interior Force Colonel Ismail Dadalayev (Rtd.), president of the Association of Chechen public and cultural organizations, believes that recent militant activity in the North Caucasus has been encouraged through the special services of countries "that provoked the collapse of the Soviet Union and that are now trying to undermine Russia's stability." He said the Islamic world is celebrating the holy month of Ramadan, during which believers should demonstrate humility and love for all people regardless of their religion. "But these fighters hide behind Islam to justify terrorist attacks and killings, which are forbidden by the Koran. They should be fought and destroyed, because they bring death and grief," Dadalayev said.
RBC Daily
Number of innovation projects grows after Russian president's speech
The number of new projects presented by innovators in the first half of 2010 has grown by 32 percent, reports the National Association of Innovation and Development of Information Technology (NAIDIT) based on data from various agencies. The fields President Dmitry Medvedev mentioned in his message to the Federal Assembly are developing faster than others, although in most cases commercializing the projects remains an issue.
Analysts at NAIDIT stress that innovation priorities in Russia were totally re-assessed in the first half of 2010. Thus the number of innovation projects in medicine, information technology and energy efficiency has significantly grown since the president delivered his address to the Federal Assembly last November. Consequently there has been a drop in the number of projects focusing on transport, industry and agriculture.
"Our developers are experiencing problems defining the projects. When officials ask what the idea can be related to and where it can be implemented, the innovators liven up at once," says Maxim Chebotarev, head of IT-Breakthrough's organizing committee. He finds biomedicine and IT the most attractive segments of innovation technology today.
At the same time the demand for innovation continues to fall. In late 2009 about 9.2 percent of companies aimed to implement the latest developments in production. Now this figure stands at 9.1 percent. In contrast, in Greece this figure stands at 23 percent and it is 39 percent in Portugal. Only 3.7 percent of small businesses are planning to implement innovative solutions: 0.2 percent less than in 2009.
Skolkovo Fund representative Andrei Shtorkh thinks interest in implementing innovations is growing steadily, though as yet there has been no firm interest from businesses: "Commercializing innovation projects and developments in Russia is a key issue that has yet to be solved, that is where we need a breakthrough, and that will lead to a surge in the number of innovation projects," he said.
Among the positive trends, NAIDIT analysts make special mention of the fact that representatives of the Russian innovation sector have become significantly younger in general, with an average age of between 27 and 29. However, young people's interest in innovation entrepreneurship fell by approximately 9 percent, according to the poll NAIDIT conducted in June.
Rossiiskaya Gazeta
Russia outstrips seven leading countries in economic growth
The Russian economy is growing faster than those of the world's seven leading countries. Its GDP increased by 5.2 percent in the second quarter compared with the same period last year.
Germany's GDP grew by 3.7 percent. The Federal Service for State Statistics published this information on Friday after analyzing data from the International Monetary Fund, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the national statistical agencies. There was a 3.2 percent rise in GDP in the United States and the figure was 1.1-1.9 percent for Japan, France, and the United Kingdom. However, these countries experienced less of a fall during the crisis than Russia.
At 5.2 percent, Russia's GDP growth was lower than the 5.4 percent growth forecasted by the Ministry of Economic Development. However, Russia is third in terms of industrial production growth, which stands at 10.9 percent. The largest growth in industrial production was recorded in Japan (an increase of 23 percent) and Brazil (16.4 percent). Russia is followed by Germany, France, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
The unemployment level in Russia fell more than expected - from 7.3 percent to 6.8 percent. The lowest level is in Japan (5.3 percent). Of all the G8 countries, unemployment is highest in France, where it stands at 10 percent of the economic workforce, followed by the United States (9.5 percent). Italy's unemployment rate is 8.5 percent.
At 5.8 percent (as of June 2009) the inflation rate in Russia is quite high. Annual inflation is no more than 3.2 percent in the United Kingdom and averages about 1.5-0.9 percent in France, Italy, the United States, Canada, and Germany.
IMF experts forecasted in spring that economic growth in Russia would stand at 4.3 percent, triggered by a consumption boom and the gradual renewal of bank lending. The state car scrappage program and the record-breaking volume of exported metals, together with oil and gas, also contributed to the economic recovery.
Vzglyad
Russians tire of opposition
A public protest has long been planned for August 21 in Kaliningrad. The plan was to demand the resignation of Governor Georgy Boos. However, the protesters eventually found themselves stripped of their key slogans because the pro-Kremlin United Russia party decided against asking the president to re-endorse Boos as governor. The PR stunt by Boris Nemtsov's unregistered opposition group, Solidarity, was ignored even by the movement's former supporters.
The opposition's plans to repeat their January success and convene another thousand-strong protest failed. Saturday's meeting in the outskirts of Kaliningrad was had a very poor turnout, drawing only about 1,000 participants instead of the planned 10,000. Yet, the protesters hurried to report much greater support among the population. According to one Solidarity leader, about 3,000 people attended the protest. Nemtsov himself claimed that it was a joint opposition meeting, involving representatives of Solidarity, the KPRF (Communist Party), Russian Patriots and a number of women's associations.
However, the communists deny they were involved in the Kaliningrad protest; moreover, they even refuse to have anything to do with people like Nemtsov. "The Communist Party cannot have anything in common with these people, even for tactical reasons; any common strategy is totally out of the question," KPRF first deputy chairman Vladimr Kashin said. "They need absolute freedom, taking Russia through exactly what happened with the Soviet Union. Therefore, I categorically declare that communists will never stand alongside this 'orange' opposition," he added.
The leaders of January's protests have not appeared this time either. Konstantin Doroshok, leader of the Spravedlivost (Justice) movement, said he would not participate in Solidarity's PR stunt.
United Russia has in fact acted wisely by meeting the demand of the local majority. The key demand of the August protest was going to be the resignation of Georgy Boos; without it, their meeting and the planned consolidation of the opposition were rendered senseless. This is why their meeting lost the wide support they had expected, something that was especially apparent against the backdrop of the city-center open-air concert that attracted over 3,000 viewers. "People have grown tired of the opposition," Dmitry Orlov, director general of the Russian Agency of Political and Economic Communications, commented for Vzglyad.
The protestors should also forget their hopes for successful stunts in the future, according to the analyst. "The opposition has proved unable to draw up a proper agenda and propose a viable alternative to what the government is doing; what happened in Kaliningrad signifies the opposition's defeat nationwide," he said.
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MOSCOW, August 23 (RIA Novosti)
