Asia Times: Israeli prime minister visits Georgia



	March 25, 1999	atimes.com

Central Asia / Siberia

NEWSLINE: Central Asia, Transcaucasia and Russia

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Israeli prime minister visits Georgia
On a one-day stopover in Tbilisi on 22 March following a two-day visit to Russia, Benjamin Netanyahu met with Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze to discuss bilateral relations, including expanding trade and economic ties as well as the situation in the Caucasus and the Middle East. They also signed an agreement on expanding cooperation, including in the military sphere, according to Caucasus Press. Netanyahu told reporters that Georgia offers excellent potential for Israeli investors, particularly in the energy and transport sectors, AP reported. (Liz Fuller)

Turkmenistan, Iran discuss cooperation
Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov met with Iran's visiting Minister of Islamic Culture and Guidance Ataollah Mohajerani in Ashgabat on 22 March, Russian agencies reported. The talks focused on ways of expanding regional cooperation. On behalf of Iranian President Mohammed Khatami, Mohajerani invited Niyazov to attend the Organization of the Islamic Conference summit in Tehran in June. (L.F.)

Uzbekistan sets deadline for turning in Soviet passports
Uzbek Interior Ministry official Badriddin Shoriskhiev on 19 March warned that anyone who fails to exchange his old Soviet passport for a new Uzbek one by 1 January 2000 will be deprived of Uzbek citizenship, AP-Blitz reported from Dushanbe on 23 March. Shoriskhiev said some 12 million people have handed in their old passports since the new ones were introduced in 1995, but 1.8 million have not yet done so. (L.F.)

Armenia anticipates OSCE pressure on Azerbaijan
Speaking at separate press conferences in Yerevan on 22 March, the foreign ministers of Armenia and the unrecognized Nagorno- Karabakh Republic, Vartan Oskanian and Naira Melkumian, predicted that during his visit to the Transcaucasus in April, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) chairman-in-office Knut Vollebaek will try to persuade Azerbaijan to accept the most recent OSCE plan to end the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. Azerbaijan has rejected that plan, which calls for Azerbaijan and Karabakh to form a ''common state.'' Melkumian said the plan ''has not been and will not be changed'' to accommodate Azerbaijan. Melkumian added that a ''very serious shift'' has occurred over the past year in the international community's attitude toward the conflict in favor of a settlement of the conflict avoiding what she described as ''two extremes'' of outright independence or conventional autonomy for Karabakh. (L.F.)

Armenia warns against Turkish base in Azerbaijan
Noting that Azerbaijan and Turkey have already begun discussions on whether Azerbaijan should host a Turkish military base on its territory, Oskanian warned that the opening of such a base would disrupt the military balance of forces in the region and force Armenia to take unspecified appropriate moves in response, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. Oskanian dismissed repeated Azerbaijani claims that Armenia's military cooperation with Russia and the deployment at Russia's military base in Armenia of Russian arms pose a threat to Azerbaijan. He said the base in question is intended solely to protect the external borders of Armenia and the CIS and that Armenia will have no access to the weaponry in question if the war with Azerbaijan resumes. (L.F.)

Azerbaijan again condemns Russian arms shipments
In a 20 March letter addressed to Russian President Yeltsin, Heidar Aliev expressed concern at the recent deployment at Russia's military base in Armenia of MiG-29 fighter aircraft and S-300 air defense systems, Interfax and Turan reported. Aliev wrote that those arms shipments and the deepening military cooperation between Moscow and Yerevan ''contradict the letter and spirit of the agreement on friendship and cooperation between Russia and Azerbaijan'' and upset the military balance in the region. He further deplored the failure to clarify responsibility for previous shipments of Russian arms worth $1 billion to Armenia. In an interview published in ''Nezavisimaya gazeta'' on 23 March, Aliev's military adviser General Tofik Agaguseinov similarly argued that the buildup of arms at Russia's military base in Armenia violates Russia's allocation under the Conventional Forces in Europe flank agreement. (L.F.)

Shevardnadze issues decree on terrorism
In his weekly radio broadcast on 22 March, Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze announced that he has signed a decree on intensifying anti- terrorism measures in Georgia. Referring to the previous day's failed attempt to assassinate Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov, Shevardnadze also proposed a coordinated campaign against terrorism throughout the Caucasus, Reuters reported. It is unclear whether the first target in Georgia of the new measures will be the ethnic Georgian White Legion guerrillas who over the past year have killed several dozen ethnic Abkhaz police and civilians in Abkhazia's Gali Raion. ''Nezavisimaya gazeta'' on 19 March suggested that Tbilisi is seriously concerned at the possible export of Wahhabism from Chechnya to contiguous regions of Georgia populated by Kists, who are ethnically close to the Vainakhs. (L.F.)

Georgian gets life for murder of UN employee
A Georgian court sentenced 21-year-old Zurab Bregladze to life imprisonment for the murder last July of Maria Magdalena Wieworska, a Polish woman employed at the UN mission in Tbilisi, Western agencies reported on 22 March. (L.F.)

Russian ruble continues long slide
The ruble fell for the ninth consecutive day on 23 March, closing at 24.29 rubles to $1, ITAR-TASS reported. Central Bank Chairman Viktor Gerashchenko said the previous day that the ruble's decline is ''in large part psychological.'' Earlier, he had argued that an agreement with the IMF would reassure the market. On 20 March, First Deputy Prime Minister Yurii Maslyukov told Interfax that although the ruble had slumped to 24 to $1, the 1999 budget, which was based on an assumed rate of 21 rubles to $1, would not have to be revised. Maslyukov blamed the ruble's slide on the ''alarming situation in society,'' with ''ex-Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin slinging mud at me, then former junior reformers abusing the government.'' (Julie A. Corwin)

Prosecutor-general Skuratov strikes back
Investigators from the office of Russia's Prosecutor-General Yurii Skuratov on 23 March sealed off several Kremlin offices as part of its investigation into whether the Swiss company Mabetex bribed officials in order to win a lucrative contract to renovate the Kremlin. Pavel Borodin, head of the facilities directorate, told NTV that a number of officials have been questioned and have denied any wrongdoing. ''Novye Izvestiya'' reported earlier that Borodin tried to force Skuratov out of office because he had uncovered Borodin's shady dealings with Mabetex (see ''RFE/RL Newsline,'' 16 March 1999). Skuratov is scheduled to meet with Switzerland's Prosecutor-General Carla del Ponte on 23 March. (J.A.C.)

Primakov attacks anti-Semitism
Before leaving for the U.S., Prime Minister Primakov told an audience at the Anti-Defamation League that ''his government takes a very strong position against any manifestation of nationalism, including anti-Semitism.'' He also said that Duma deputy and member of the Communist faction Albert Makashov must ''be condemned unambiguously'' for his anti-Semitic pronouncements, Reuters reported. On 19 March, by a vote of 133 to 104, the State Duma rejected a motion to condemn Makashov for his recent statements in Krasnodar Oblast (see ''RFE/RL Newsline,'' 17March 1999). Writing in ''Sovetskaya Rossiya'' on 23 March, Communist Party leader Gennadii Zyuganov said the people's patriotic forces are ready for a Russian-Jewish dialogue. He also argued that the ''Russian question'' is the most acute ethnic question in Russia. And he called for a national policy program to ''save the unique Russian civilization'' and ''revive the Russian people as the backbone of the Russian state.'' (J.A.C.)

Israel, Russia to cooperate on non-proliferation
Addressing reporters after a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on 22 March, Russian Foreign Minister Ivanov said that Russia is open to close cooperation with all relevant countries on non-proliferation issues. According to Israel state television, the nations agreed to set up a joint control body to monitor exports of sensitive technology to Iran and to be chaired by the countries' two foreign ministers. Netanyahu had said earlier that Russia's alleged technology transfers to Iran would be the top item on the agenda of his two-day trip to Moscow, which began on 21 March. Netanyahu also met the same day with Prime Minister Primakov, who said relations between the two countries are ''normal and expanding.'' According to Ivanov, specific projects for cooperation will be discussed at a Russian- Israeli inter-governmental commission meeting slated for July or August. (J.A.C.)

Bolsheviks ready for alliance with neo-nazis
Eduard Limonov, novelist and leader of the nationalist extremist National Bolshevik Party (NBP), announced on 22 March that he is ready to form an alliance between his party and the neo-nazi Russian National Unity (RNU) party, ITAR- TASS reported. Limonov told members of his party at a meeting in St. Petersburg that the NBP is ready for joint actions with the RNU. The same day, Russian Television reported that at a rally organized by the RNU in Krasnodar, some local Cossacks were in attendance. According to the television station, the Cossacks have previously kept their distance from all parties and movements. (J.A.C.)

Chechen president seeks talks with Moscow
As Chechen investigators continued their search on 22 March for the perpetrators of the previous day's bomb attack on President Aslan Maskhadov, the latter told journalists in Grozny that there are forces both in Chechnya and in Moscow who have a vested interest in removing him. Maskhadov said he still hopes for a meeting with President Yeltsin, whom he described as the sole individual empowered to resolve problems in bilateral relations but noted that no date has been set for such a meeting. He added that he is prepared to meet also with Prime Minister Primakov, who will visit the Caucasus next month, and that he hopes talks will be renewed on a comprehensive treaty defining relations between Russia and Chechnya. Maskhadov endorsed Chechen Foreign Minister Isa Idigov's proposal, made earlier that day, that representatives of international organizations or a third country should participate in Russian-Chechen negotiations. (L.F.)

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