Though they couldn't do the same for the Soviet economy, Russian scientists this week were given dozens of medals and other awards by Vietnam for their role in embalming and keeping Ho Chi Minh's earthly remains preserved for display in the 40 years since his death.

From Reuters:


-- Andy Heil

Posted At: 29 May 12:34   1 comment

A former Dutch UN peacekeeper, who witnessed the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, is relocating with his family to live in the town.

Rob Zomer is planning to live with his family in Srebrenica and start a business. This from AFP:


Incidentally, today is the International Day of United Nations peacekeepers

-- Luke Allnutt

Posted At: 29 May 12:26   0 comments

Here's one from the "oops" department.

A Russian antisubmarine warship participating in military exercises in the Gulf of Finland accidentally fired a salvo of missiles into the village of Pesochnoye, near St. Petersburg.

Russian news agencies cited a Russian Navy spokesman as saying that a total of 10 missiles were accidentally fired at the village. Remarkably nobody was injured and the only damage was a broken car window.

You can read all about it in Russian here, and in English here.

-- Brian Whitmore

Posted At: 29 May 12:23   0 comments

If you missed these stories from RFE/RL this week and are looking for something to read/watch over the weekend, try these:

Golnaz Esfandiari looks at the decisive role Iran's "silent voters" -- those who skipped voting in 2005 -- are likely to play in the upcoming presidential vote.

In a video interview with RFE/RL, the head of U.S. Central Command, General David Petraeus, says that the expected closure of Guantanamo and the abandonment of so-called enhanced interrogation techniques will "help" U.S. efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Olga Serebryanaya highlights the case of a Russian blogger taking on the police, after the death of his pregnant wife.

And Brian Whitmore assesses the chances of another war this summer between Russia and Georgia.

-- Luke Allnutt

Posted At: 29 May 12:18   0 comments

Two new RFE/RL blogs to bring to your attention.

With Iran's presidential election two weeks away, we’ve launched an Iran Election Diary featuring the twists and turns of the campaign's final stages.

And as a new and ongoing feature, we've launched Persian Letters, which offers a window into Iranian life by translating and showcasing the works of Persian-language bloggers.

Through their voices -- from clerics, to anarchists, feminists, or bus drivers -- we hope to sample the electronic dialogue going on within a society that is tough to characterize and often contradictory, but always interesting.

-- Luke Allnutt

Posted At: 29 May 12:14   0 comments

 

The former Czech Prime Minister and chairman of the Social Democrats party Jiri Paroubek has been left with egg on his face, once again.

At a rally in Prague yesterday, he was pelted with hundreds of eggs. Expecting the eggy onslaught, his aides even thoughtfully brought umbrellas, although didn't seem to be doing a very good job of shielding Paroubek.

Some background from AFP:
 

It seems there is no escape from the egg-throwers. A Facebook group, "An egg for Paroubek in every town," is mushrooming, with over 40,000 members.

Despite the spurious parallels that have been made between the egg-throwing and attacks on social democracy in 1930s Germany, the eggers appear to have the upper hand: Paroubek cancelled his remaining engagements yesterday.

-- Luke Allnutt

Posted At: 28 May 14:27   0 comments

Scant attention has been paid to Turkish President Abdullah Gul’s three-day visit to Kyrgyzstan, which began on May 26.

But some observers think Gul’s trip -- the first to Bishkek by a Turkish president in nine years -- is more than a bilateral visit and might be an important geopolitical gambit in which Gul is doing the West’s bidding.

At Gul’s May 27 press conference with Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiev, the Turkish leader said that “the most important issue of our discussions was the stability of Afghanistan.”

He added that talks were held about how the two countries “could give our support to improve the situation” in Afghanistan.

Gul and Bakiev also signed an agreement in which Ankara and Bishkek pledge to participate in the international community’s efforts in Afghanistan.

Such strong statements about Afghanistan raised suspicions among some experts that Turkey may be trying to persuade the Kyrgyz president to allow U.S. forces to continue their operations at Manas International Airport outside of Bishkek.

Washington has used the air base there to supply U.S.-led operations in Afghanistan since 2001, and the United States was not happy when Bakiev returned from Moscow in February with a Kremlin pledge for more than $2 billion in loans and promptly announced that the United States would have to vacate the air base.

The United States has been scrambling to find replacement bases in Central Asia to continue the crucial supply operations and, although it has received some promising offers from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, it has made it clear that extending its stay at Manas would be preferred to moving out in August -- as they have been told to do -- and setting up elsewhere.

Despite the parliament’s approval in March to proceed with the eviction of U.S. forces from Manas, some Kyrgyz officials have intimated that there still is a possibility that the Americans could stay at the air base under a new status.

It's possible that Gul could be taking an active role in trying to make a deal with Bishkek that would allow the United States to stay at Manas.

And Turkey -- a strong Washington ally hoping for a rejuvenated relationship with the United States under President Barack Obama -- did not come to Bishkek with empty hands, as more than 100 business people accompanied Gul on the trip to the investment-starved Central Asian country.

Turkey already exerts great economic and social influence in Kyrgyzstan. The Kyrgyz-Turkish Manas University has the best facilities and is one of the largest campuses in Kyrgyzstan.

The Turkish-owned Demir-Kyrgyz International Bank is the largest in Kyrgyzstan, and the immense Coca-Cola Company in Kyrgyzstan is also Turkish owned, as are Bishkek's two-largest shopping complexes.

It is also worth noting that this week’s violence in the Uzbek town of Khanabad -- which straddles the Kyrgyz border -- and the threat of instability it brings to the region gives Gul’s visit and any possible talk about U.S. forces staying at Manas greater importance.

Gul would be able to tell Bakiev some of the advantages to having a U.S. military base in your country and is likely to warn him about the disadvantages of relying too much on Russia.

-- Pete Baumgartner

Posted At: 28 May 14:23   3 comments