Asia Times: Georgia issues decree on pipeline security



	March 27, 1999	atimes.com

Central Asia / Siberia

NEWSLINE: Central Asia, Transcaucasia and Russia

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Georgia issues decree on pipeline security
Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze has issued a decree instructing an interdepartmental commission of the National Security Council to take the appropriate measures to ensure round-the-clock security of the Baku-Supsa oil pipeline, ''Nezavisimaya gazeta'' reported on 25 March. Meeting last week in Tbilisi, the Georgian and Azerbaijani defense ministers, Davit Tevzadze and Safar Abiev, signed a protocol on conducting joint exercises in Ukraine in April. Taking part in those exercises will be Georgian, Azerbaijani, and Ukrainian battalions deployed to guard that pipeline, Caucasus Press reported. (Liz Fuller)

Former Kazakh political prisoner points to abuses
Workers' Movement of Kazakhstan leader Madel Ismailov told journalists in Almaty on 24 March that government officials' claims that conditions in the country's prisons have improved since the adoption of a new criminal code are untrue, RFE/RL's Almaty bureau reported the following day. Ismailov, who was released last month after serving a one-year prison sentence for insulting Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbaev, has vowed to organize a new movement to protect prisoners' rights. (L.F.)

Typhoid outbreak suspected in Tajikistan
Some 90 people in Tajikistan's Garm Oblast, half of them children under 15, have contracted an infection that International Red Cross officials believe may be typhoid, ITAR-TASS and AP-Blitz reported on 24-25 March. (L.F.)

Ukraine extradites bomb suspects to Uzbekistan
The Ukrainian government has extradited to Uzbekistan four Uzbeks apprehended in Kiev earlier this month on suspicion of involvement in the 16 February bomb attacks in Tashkent, Interfax and AP reported on 24 March, quoting an Ukrainian Interior Ministry official (see ''RFE/RL Newsline,'' 18-19 March 1999). Human Rights Watch had earlier appealed to Kiev not to undertake such action. (L.F.)

Yeltsin seeks to reassure Azerbaijan
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Leonid Drachevskii met with Azerbaijani President Heidar Aliev in Baku on 23 March, Interfax reported. Drachevskii delivered to Aliev a letter from President Yeltsin reassuring him that Russia's military cooperation with Armenia is not directed against Azerbaijan. In a 20 March letter to Yeltsin, Aliev had claimed that deliveries of Russian fighter aircraft and S-300 air defense missiles to the Russian military base in Armenia violate the agreement on friendship and cooperation between Russia and Azerbaijan and upset the military balance in the region (see ''RFE/RL Newsline,'' 23 March 1999). Drachevskii also told Aliev that Russia no longer insists on the ''common state'' principle as a basis for resolving the Karabakh conflict, according to Interfax. The OSCE Minsk Group, of which Russia is one of the three co-chairs, proposed that model last year, but Azerbaijan rejected it. (L.F.)

U.S. general discusses cooperation with Georgia, Azerbaijan
Major-General Charles Wax, who is director of Plans and Policy for U.S. European Command Headquarters, held talks in Tbilisi on 22-23 March with senior Georgian parliamentary and Defense Ministry officials, Interfax reported. Parliamentary Defense and Security Committee chairman Revaz Adamia told journalists that the talks focused on broader Georgian participation in NATO's Partnership for Peace program. Wax then traveled to Baku, where he met on 24 March with Defense Minister Safar Abiev and President Heidar Aliev, Turan reported. Wax said his visit to Azerbaijan is of a fact-finding nature and that U.S. military cooperation with Azerbaijan should be balanced by similar cooperation with other countries in the region. Aliev termed such cooperation essential to stability throughout the Caucasus. Prior to Wax's arrival in Baku, Interfax quoted unnamed Azerbaijani diplomatic sources as saying that the U.S. delegation would inspect the former Soviet strategic bomber base located at Nasosnaya, near Baku. Unconfirmed reports suggest Azerbaijan has offered NATO the use of that base. (L.F.)

Russia to sell enriched uranium to U.S.
Russia's Atomic Energy Minister Yevgenii Adamov has signed a lucrative agreement with U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson on shipments of Russian highly enriched uranium to the U.S. for use in nuclear power stations there, ITAR-TASS reported. In addition, a memorandum of cooperation between the Russian Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Department of Energy was signed in Washington on 24 March. (Julie A. Corwin)

IMF chief Camdessus to meet Primakov in Moscaw
IMF Managing Director Michel Camdessus is expected in Moscow on 27 March to continue negotiations with Prime Minister Yevgenii Primakov, which were aborted when the latter canceled his trip to the U.S. in mid-air after learning of NATO action against Yugoslavia. While most of the Russian press praised Primakov for his decision to return to Moscow, ''Kommersant-Daily'' on 24 March was harshly critical, accusing Primakov of ''ignoring the interests of his motherland and people for the sake of internationalism.'' However, Sergei Karaganov, head of the Council for Defense and Foreign Policy, argued that Russia's apparent outrage over Kosova will encourage the U.S. ''to sweeten the pill for Russia'' and encourage the Fund to conclude an agreement, Interfax reported on 24 March. (J.A.C.)

Election Committee gets new head
Russia's Central Election Committee elected a new chairman, Aleksandr Veshnyakov, on 24 March. Veshnyakov is a former secretary of the body, whose candidacy was put forward by the Agrarian Party. Valentin Vlasov, former presidential envoy to Chechnya and the candidate favored by the Kremlin, withdrew his candidacy at the last minute and was instead elected deputy chairman. Political analysts are interpreting Veshnyakov's ascendancy as a blow for the Kremlin but a positive development for fair elections, since Veshnyakov is considered apolitical and devoted to fulfilling the letter of law, the ''Moscow Times'' reported. (J.A.C.)

Swiss prosecutor-general meets Russian counterpart
Carla del Ponte, who arrived in Moscow on 24 March for talks with Prosecutor-General Yurii Skuratov, issued a statement that day saying that she has brought no evidence with her to compromise anyone. However, an Interior Ministry source told Interfax that Del Ponte gave Skuratov evidence on ''dubious financial operations of Russian citizens.'' Interior Minister Stepashin stated that Del Ponte brought no materials ''regarding the members of President Yeltsin's family or the president himself.'' Duma Security Committee chairman and member of the Communist faction Viktor Ilyukhin told reporters the previous day that $2.3 billion of a $4.8 billion IMF credit had been illegally transferred to an Australian bank and that from there $235 million was deposited with an Australian company, in which Yeltsin's daughter Tatyana Dyachenko has a 25 percent stake. Former Central Bank chairman Sergei Dubinin told ''Segodnya'' the next day that Ilyukhin's charges revealed only his ''incompetence'' in financial matters. (J.A.C.)

Kirienko to return to Kremlin?
Former Prime Minister Sergei Kirienko confirmed on 24 March that members of the presidential administration have approached him about his becoming secretary of the Security Council, a post left empty by the dismissal of head of the presidential administration Nikolai Bordyuzha on 19 March, Interfax reported. ''Kommersant-Daily'' reported the same day, citing a Yeltsin administration source, that presidential representative to the CIS Ivan Rybkin and former ambassador to France Yurii Ryzhov are also under consideration. ''Moskovskii komsomolets'' suggested the previous day that Rybkin's assumption of the post would lend further credence to the theory that Boris Berezovskii has revived his influence in the Kremlin. ''Nezavisimaya gazeta'' predicted that another man in uniform is likely to take over the position, such as General Anatolii Kvashnin, chief of staff of the armed forces. (J.A.C.)

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