Kosovo: "Russian Armed Threat"

From the RFE/RL Newsline:

BRITISH OPPOSITION LEADER WARNS OF RUSSIAN ARMED THREAT

Britain's "Daily Telegraph" reported on November 29 that Conservative Party leader David Cameron argued in Washington on November 28 that "Western forces, which could include British troops, must be sent into the Balkans to prevent Russia sparking a new European war" over Kosova. Cameron said "let me make it clear: there could be a new crisis in the Balkans by Christmas.... That [would be] a direct threat to our national security, and we must therefore take decisive action now to prevent it. We need to reinforce the military presence in the region now, by drawing on some of NATO's dedicated operational reserve, to prevent trouble later." The daily suggested that "British diplomats privately share Mr. Cameron's fears of a Balkan crisis, but ministers have stopped short of proposing a further military deployment, and the Tory leader's call could dramatically increase the diplomatic stakes over Kosovo." PM

The Telegraph report is here.

Foreign Body

An "information and guidance document" (pdf) for British state schools, issued by the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), demonstrates with graphic clarity why the religion of Islam will never be accepted or integrated into the British education system on the terms it demands - the strictures and regulations it seeks to impose on the social environment of its hosts are simply impossible to accommodate within a liberal and pluralistic context.

At War with All Islam

In the Spectator, Ayaan Hirsi Ali discusses why the West is at war, not with "terror", nor with "Islamism", but with the religion of Islam itself. On the other hand,she says on parting from her interviewer: "Yes, I am at war with Islam...but I am not at war with Muslims."

Islam in the North Caucasus

In Chechnya Weekly, Andrei Smirnov looks at the role of Kabardino-Balkarian rebel leader Anzor Astemirov in the founding of the "Caucasian Emirate", and concludes:

It looks as if Astemirov, following Basaev’s death, gave Umarov an ultimatum in an attempt to force him to “bury” Ichkeria and to declare the Emirate. Umarov, who needs the support of non-Chechen fighters in Kabardino-Balkaria, Ingushetia, and Dagestan, had no alternative but to agree.

The declaration of the Caucasian Emirate clearly demonstrates the rising influence of non-Chechen rebel leaders inside the Caucasian insurgency. For non-Chechen fighters, Chechen independence means nothing, and they do not want to fight any longer under the Chechen flag. Indeed, from the very beginning, the Caucasian insurgency, unlike the Chechen separatist movement, showed more signs of being a radical Islamist movement than a nationalist one.

The Corruption Tsar

As Anders Aslund points out in the Moscow Times this week, the view held by some in the West of President Putin as "an authoritarian reformer who has brought economic growth and stability to Russia" does not bear up under scrutiny. Not only has Putin presided over a staggering growth in corruption in Russia - to levels that far exceed those that prevailed under President Yeltsin - he has also visibly failed to introduce law and order in the country. Aslund makes reference to a recent analysis by Syracuse University professor Brian D. Taylor, and it may be useful to review that here. An excerpt from a Kennan Institute briefing follows:

The highly centralized system Putin has put into place has improved the state’s ability to conduct certain actions, according to Taylor: “It is clear that the central government can mobilize large numbers of police to deal with opposition protests, or to bring criminal cases against political and economic adversaries.” The police can function as a tool of foreign policy, Taylor observed, in cases such as Russia’s recent dispute with Georgia. During the height of tensions, police harassment of Georgians in Moscow ranged from document checks to tax police raids. “Whether that came from the Kremlin, I don’t know,” said Taylor, “but certainly the police felt that they were able to engage in such an operation during this foreign policy dispute.”

In terms of enforcing society’s laws, Taylor continued, Russia’s law enforcement structures are still very weak, both in specific and general terms. Specifically, in cases of high-profile assassinations or terrorist attacks, there are doubts about police capacity to solve or prevent such incidents. In general terms, such as fighting overall crime, the police are not sufficiently effective, as evidenced by consistently high murder rates under both Yeltsin and Putin.

Taylor questioned why law enforcement structures have not done better, given the centralization reforms that were designed to improve their effectiveness, and given the growing economy that is providing significantly greater resources to those structures. The key, he emphasized, is the “commercialization” of the enforcement structures, which was not undone by Putin’s reforms. In fact, Taylor said, there is little evidence that Russia’s law enforcement structures are getting any cleaner—the police remain one of most distrusted institutions in Russia.

There are both internal and external methods of monitoring law enforcement structures that can help reduce corruption, Taylor noted. External monitors—such as the media, non-governmental organizations, and opposition parties—have been consistently weakened in Russia over the last seven years, he noted. Taylor cautioned that exclusive reliance on internal monitoring and self-policing by the Russian state will make it more difficult to weed out corruption. So long as state officials are able to exploit state institutions for personal gain, he predicted, Russia will have persistent corruption and weak rule of law. “Recentralizing coercion does not reduce illegal state activity, and thus does not strengthen the state,” Taylor concluded.

Urban Guerrillas

Senior French police officials are warning that armed "urban guerrillas" are taking part in the current wave of violence.

Defending the Absurd

"The way the British think of the teddy bear - as far as Christmas is concerned, and toys are concerned - we don't have any teddy bears over here, so in Sudan, for us, it is a fierce and dangerous animal."

Dr Khalid al Mubarak, a spokesman for the Sudan embassy in London, quoted by the BBC in the case of Gillian Gibbons, incriminated by the Sudanese government, and facing a possible jail term or lashing for allowing the schoolchildren in her care to name a teddy bear "Mohammed".

Euro-Ichkeria

In the pages of the Caucasus Times, a well-known Russian commentator writing under a pseudonym examines the problem of Euro-Ichkeria Against the Emirate (my tr.). The article is simultaneously published by Prague Watchdog.

The violence in Ingushetia - IX

Reuters has an updated report on the forcibly dispersed Nazran rally. Excerpt:

A senior Russian rights activist said he and a television crew had been abducted and beaten by security agents in the southern region of Ingushetia, just hours before a protest against police brutality.

Oleg Orlov of rights group Memorial told Reuters he and a film crew from the REN-TV channel were snatched from their hotel rooms in the Ingushetian town of Nazran by a group of masked and armed men who said they were from an anti-terrorist unit.

Jussi

Jussi had a difficult time for a week or so - he developed an inflammation in the lining of his bowel, but it has healed now, and he's quite returned to his old self. Life in the cat shelter and before was hard, and he didn't get much of a diet there. The food I was giving him was too rich. Now after a couple of visits to the vet he's on dried food and water, and is doing much better.

Russia may face expulsion from CE

RFE/RL notes that if the European Court of Human Rights at Strasbourg agrees with the complaint now being brought by the Litvinenko family, Russia could face expulsion from the Council of Europe.

The violence in Ingushetia - VIII

According to some reports, Ingush police have opened fire on demonstrators taking part in an unauthorized rally in the Ingush city of Nazran. For the background to the demonstration, see this article.

Litvinenko: One Year On

On the eve of today's first anniversary of the death of Alexander Litvinenko, who was murdered by polonium poisoning in London, Akhmed Zakayev gave a memorial tribute to the former FSB officer at an event hosted by Lord Pearson of Rannoch. From the conclusion of the speech:

As a man of strong moral principle, Sasha embarked on an irreconcilable struggle against that criminal [Moscow] regime, and found natural allies in the Chechens, who for many years had been confronting the Kremlin terrorists in almost total isolation. Alexander did not opt for the hypocritical but far more comfortable stance of a Russian patriot, instead openly declaring his support for the Chechen people, whose resistance he saw as a beacon of freedom for everyone.

His enemies were scared of Sasha and mobilised all their resources, even nuclear resources, in order to physically take revenge on this hero. A year later we see those directly involved in his murder being celebrated throughout Russia in much the same way that, in Soviet times, the first cosmonauts were feted for having carried out what was described as an important state mission.

Despite all this, Sasha managed to make an incalculable contribution to the inevitable downfall of these terrorists, which will surely come, no matter how sure of themselves they may feel today.

The noble memory of Alexander Litvinenko will live on not only in the hearts of his friends. It is no exaggeration to say that he has already gone down in history as an ideal of human courage and nobility, a man who dared to challenge one of the most inhuman regimes the world has ever known.

Terror Threat in UK

Today MI5's Jonathan Evans will brief British members of parliament on the current security situation and terror threat in the UK, as part of the parliamentary inquiry into the subject. The BBC notes that particular emphasis will be given to railway security, with the announcement that "from next year there will be new security barriers, vehicle exclusion zones and blast resistant buildings, and rail travellers face having their luggage screened at large stations."

Recently, Evans pointed out that in Britain children as young as 15 are being recruited for terrorist-related activity by al-Qaeda, and that resources that could be devoted to counter-terrorism are instead being used to protect the UK against spying by Russia, China and others, as espionage by these countries is now at Cold War levels.

Kelam: Stop Politicization of Human Rights

Kelam: The European Union must oppose the politicizing of human rights by Russia

12-11-2007, Strasbourg

(via Mari-Ann Kelam)

In his speech at the European Parliament’s plenary session in Strasbourg November 12, Tunne Kelam of the European Peoples’ Party and European Democrats faction sharply criticized an idea to create a Russian-European institute for democracy and human rights as proposed by Moscow at the recent EU-Russia summit in Mafra.

President Putin sees this institute as a Russian Center in the European Union which would be financed from the Russian state budget.

"Russian representatives have openly admitted that this step is planned as a political countermeasure against the European Union’s continuing criticisms of the worsening situation with human rights in Russia,” stated Kelam.

Kelam emphasized that EU leaders have to oppose any and all attempts to politicize the topic of human rights.

"Sufficient mechanisms to develop dialogue between Russia and the EU on human rights already exist," said Tunne Kelam. "These mechanisms have not been adequately used because Russia has not responded to problems pointed out by the EU.”

According to Tunne Kelam it has become clear that Russia plans to finance such an institute and its activities.

"To push this idea to its logical conclusion, we can imagine that tomorrow, for example, President Ahmadinejad would demand the creation on EU territory of an institute financed by Iran to study human rights and the Holocaust,” added Kelam.

Tunne Kelam is convinced that implementing the proposal made in Mafra would discredit the noble cause of defending human rights.

Kelam believes that the hope of some EU representatives that agreeing to the proposal would in turn open the door for financing independent non-profit organizations in Russia is short-sighted and naive.

Blackmail

Robert Spencer has some apt reflections on point three in the "Islam Is Peace" campaign that was recently launched in the UK by the Muslim Council of Britain. As he points out, the MCB's call on the British government to create a "just and lasting peace" actually amounts to a threat, backed up by blackmail: change your foreign policy or face terrorist attack.

Debate, Not Dialogue

In the IHT, Adrian Pabst argues that what's needed in the uneasy encounter between Islamic and Christian belief is not a "dialogue" where religious texts are placed side by side for comparison, but rather a thorough debate, where the real issues and differences are hammered out. "The fundamentalists on both sides," Pabst says, "will only be intellectually defeated and politically marginalized by reasoned belief and rational argument - not by subjective textual interpretation."

Excerpt:

Last month, 138 Muslim scholars addressed an open letter to Pope Benedict XVI and other Christian leaders in which they call for a new dialogue between Christianity and Islam based on sacred texts.

Entitled "A Common Word Between Us and You," the document claims that the shared Muslim and Christian principles of love of the One God and love of the neighbor provide the sort of common ground between the two faiths that is necessary for respect, tolerance and mutual understanding.

The publication of this letter coincided with the anniversary of a previous open letter in response to the pope's controversial Regensburg address on Sept. 12, 2006, when he appeared to link violence in religion to the absolute transcendence of God in Islam. His point was that according to Muslim teaching, God's will is utterly inscrutable and therefore unknowable to human reason - with the implication that divine injunctions cannot be fully understood and must be blindly obeyed.

Against this background, the latest initiative by Muslim scholars marks an attempt to move interfaith dialogue away from debates about reason and revelation towards scriptural reading. Christian-Muslim relations, so their argument goes, are best served by engaging in textual interpretations that highlight shared commandments and common beliefs.

But to suggest, as the authors of "A Common Word" do, that Muslims and Christians are united by the same two commandments which are most essential to their respective faith and practice - love of God and love of the neighbor - is theologically dubious and politically dangerous.

Via Leopoldo

Power Audit

Via Marko Mihkelson:

A Power Audit of EU-Russia Relations (pdf)

Debate: Russia Is Becoming Our Enemy Again

A couple of weeks ago, Edward Lucas moderated a debate for National Public Radio on the subject: Is Russia Becoming Our Enemy Again?

"Caucasian Emirate" Discussion

At chechnya-sl there is an ongoing discussion about the proclamation of a "Caucasian Emirate" by Ichkerian leader Dokku Umarov. The most recent post is here.