Irresistible rise of the dictators' club Simon Tisdall Tuesday June 6, 2006 The Guardian
Tony Blair's promotion of shared global values and inclusive institutions in his Georgetown speech last month took little account of the rise and rise of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Few may yet have heard of it. But out of the east comes a radically different paradigm for 21st-century international organisation, short on idealism and long on hard-headed self-interest. The "universal" principles of "liberty, democracy and justice" lauded by Mr Blair are hardly its driving force.
Founded by China, the five-year-old SCO groups together like-minded authoritarian leaderships in Russia and four central Asian republics - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Pakistan, Mongolia and India are observer members. So too is Iran.
In terms of total population, area and resources, the SCO is far bigger than Nato or the EU. It dwarfs older regional organisations. It is not yet a mutual defence pact but ... >>full
Putin hails press freedom but TV ignores protest Tuesday, June 6, 2006
MOSCOW - Reuters
President Vladimir Putin told newspaper executives from around the world on Monday that press freedom was safe in Russia, but protesters gatecrashed the conference and shouted that he was muzzling free speech.
Russia's three national television stations -- which critics often point to as evidence the media has been cowed under Putin -- covered the conference in their daytime news bulletins but made no mention of the protest.
A handful of opposition activists in the audience, dressed in black, jumped to their feet just as Putin was taking his seat on the podium at the World Newspaper Congress in the Kremlin, a Reuters witness said.
Shouting "No to censorship" and "Russia without Putin," they scattered leaflets calling the Russian leader a "cruel and greedy dictator," said a spokesman for their party. They were ejected after about a ... >>full
Irresistible rise of the dictators' club Simon Tisdall Tuesday June 6, 2006 The Guardian
Tony Blair's promotion of shared global values and inclusive institutions in his Georgetown speech last month took little account of the rise and rise of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Few may yet have heard of it. But out of the east comes a radically different paradigm for 21st-century international organisation, short on idealism and long on hard-headed self-interest. The "universal" principles of "liberty, democracy and justice" lauded by Mr Blair are hardly its driving force.
Founded by China, the five-year-old SCO groups together like-minded authoritarian leaderships in Russia and four central Asian republics - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Pakistan, Mongolia and India are observer members. So too is Iran.
In terms of total population, area and resources, the SCO is far bigger than Nato or the EU. It dwarfs older regional organisations. It is not yet a mutual defence pact but ... >>full
08-June-06 Press under Threat in the North Caucasus
The difficulties of working as an independent journalist in the Russian Caucasus.
By Fatima Tlisova in Istanbul (CRS No. 343, 08-June-06) In each of the republics of the North Caucasus in which I have worked, I have to communicate with the authorities, law enforcement agencies and different circles of society. On the basis of this experience, I have to confirm with regret - freedom of speech as well as the independent press are in their infancy in the region. An analysis of the mass media present on the market shows there are no independent media outlets with the exception of three or four regional newspapers.
There is no denying that in the North Caucasian republics not only the government media, but also newspapers and internet sites are published that reflect public life from points of view different from the official position of local government. But, as a ... >>full
5.6.2006 14:30 MSK Provocateurs replace Democrats Russia’s democratic forces are faced with a new danger. This danger does not emanate from the OMON, or the FSB, or from one or the other various internal law and order forces. Nor does it come from the ranks of “Nashy”. These forces have been around since the late 1980’s and the democrats have grown accustomed to them. We are today threatened by false friends and allies with their dreams of Nazi or Bolshevik paradise.
One year ago, the democrats surrounded the Basman courthouse, in order to demonstrate their solidarity with Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, who were being read their unconstitutional sentences. Ultimately, the OMON came and broke up the demonstration, but the point was made both at home and abroad: Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were prisoners of conscience, and Russian democrats were defending and supporting them.
Today, 31 May, democratic forces wanted to demonstrate on Pushkin Square ... >>full
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