by Patrick Armstrong
Russia and France. I have been saying for some time that Paris has a
better take on the reality of Georgian-Russian relations than other capitals
and that this knowledge is gradually working its leaven. The first reason is Salome Zurabishvili
who, as a former French Foreign Service employee, has a certain inside track in
France. The second is that Foreign Minister Kouchner made the effort to visit
the Ossetian refugees in Vladikavkaz and learned more about the actual
situation than other capitals and the Western MSM who did little more than
parrot Tbilisi’s press releases. Thus, Paris freed itself from much of the
nonsense about the 2008 South Ossetia war and has come to realise how much Saakashvili was manipulating coverage and to better
understand the real nature of his rule. Medvedev just visited Paris and
meetings seem to have gone very well with Sarkozy’s address
at the state dinner a concise statement of past relations and present common
interests. Medvedev responded
in kind. (Press
conference.) The talks seem to have covered a lot: visa-free regime,
Georgia, Mistral sales,
Middle East, new European security architecture. Both said much about trusting
each other). Indeed, it seems to have been quite an important visit and should
serve to further move the reflex reaction away from the binary position that whatever
“we” do is good and whatever Moscow does is bad.
Business. On Friday Medvedev met with business leaders and promised
to reduce the “administrative burden”. True to his word he then introduced a bill that would set
bail limits for people accused of economic crimes. There is very little bail in
Russia and the interminable pre-trial detentions in the terrible prisons can be
fatal.
It’s also a racket: as Medvedev said, “Corrupt officials get the word from an entrepreneur’s
competitor, put the entrepreneur behind bars, and then let him out after he
coughs up a certain sum”. So that is a step forward as was the coming into
effect Tuesday of a law
banning businesses from forming their own security departments (the 90s saw
much fighting between biznessmen and their private armies – and their media outlets).
Olympics. Russia’s relatively poor performance has been the
cause of some angst.
The Olympics, which long ago ceased to be about mere sport, serve as the peg
for the silliest comment about Russia that I have ever seen: “but
why not try to measure Russia's greatness by its ability to build a free and prosperous
country, a good global citizen at peace with its neighbors? This kind of Russia
might also fare better at the Olympics. The four leading medals winners in
Vancouver are free-market democracies.”
GLONASS. Despite the happy talk from Moscow, there appear to be
problems with the system. Three more satellites were orbited yesterday
but we are now informed that of the 22 up there only 16 are functioning. Thus,
despite many promises of imminent world-wide coverage, the system can barely
maintain coverage of Russia. I hope Putin doesn’t lose his dog.
Russia and Europe. The Constitutional Court has affirmed that Moscow
should obey Strasbourg human rights court decisions. Given the fact that a very
large proportion of the cases there are against Moscow, I’m not convinced that
this was a wise ruling. But it does conform to Art 15.4 of the Constitution.
Zhirinovskiy. Is in the
business of staying in the public eye (more difficult these days because the
Kremlin doesn’t need his votes). He has just proposed cloning
himself “for the nation's benefit”. He is a very clever clown figure and, in
retrospect, it is very fortunate that he (and the Communist Party) absorbed many
of the nasty super nationalists in the 1990s rather than much more dangerous
figures prevalent then.
Ukraine. Yesterday Tymoshenko’s government failed a no
confidence vote. Yanukovych’s
party has 30 days to put together a coalition and 60 a government.
Comments