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Country News Digest Y Y Y Vol.2, Issue #6

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Editor: Eugene Imas Contributors: -Joseph Gates -Matthew OBrien -Bree Swineford -Jillian Tetirick -Grace Tran

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02/18/13-02/22/13

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Azerbaijan is promoting its culture in France by holding Days of Azerbaijan events in several parts of the country. Azerbaijans culture promotion project dates back to 2007, when the Heydar Aliev Fund made large donations to the Palace of Versailles for restoration work.

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Azerbaijan

Country News Digest

Russia

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Eurasia Net

Sergei Ignatiev, Russias central bank governor, stated that over $49 billion was lost in capital flight last year. A central bank study indicated that over half of the capital flight was in the form of narcotics, illegal imports, bribes, and tax evasion schemes. Ignatiev also suggested that the capital flight was controlled by one well-organised group of individuals. BBC

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Trend.az

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The Guardian

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In a sign of improving relations, Russian sanitation experts will soon venture to Georgia to inspect wine and mineral water production facilities in order to clear them for import. Georgian wine and mineral water has been subject to an import ban since the Russian-Georgian War of 2008.

Georgia

The Prosecutor Generals Office has stated that it has sufficient evidence to bring charges against former president Leonid Kuchma related to the 2000 murder of journalist Heorhiy Gongadze. A previous case against Kuchma was dismissed in 2011.

Ukraine

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Georgia Online

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RIA Novosti

Kyiv Post

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Interfax

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Armenia held its presidential election on Monday. As predicted, Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian won handily over his opponents with 58.64% of the vote. His primary opponent, Raffi Hovannisian (36.74% of the vote), has refused to accept these results, instead demanding a meeting with Sarkisian.

Armenia

A Belarusian Supreme Court sentenced a border guard to two years in prison for failing to protect the country from an invasion of foreign teddy bears. The court determined the man was guilty of failing to report the light plane that crossed into Belarusian airspace and dropped hundreds of teddy bears with parachutes holding human rights signs.

Belarus

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The Atlantic

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New York Times

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The Guardian

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Turkey and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have signed a military deal. The UAE will buy $200 million worth of weapons from Turkey, including CIRIT missiles.

Turkey

Officials from the Moldovan government held talks with EU leaders about the countrys progress towards membership this week. Moldovas recent political crisis is threatening to delay or halt progress towards EU membership with local elections possibly being forced as soon as April.

Moldova

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Vestnik Kavkaza

Articles: Albawaba Business

UPI

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BSANNA

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Five members of the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir organization were arrested in Kyrgyzstans southern city of Jalal-Abad. The State Committee for National Security (UKMK) reported that officers found and confiscated a large amount of extremist books and digital data recorders at the suspects residences.

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Kyrgyzstan

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An Afghan intelligence agency conducted an operation that captured Maulvi Faqir Mohammad, a high-ranking Pakistani member of the Taliban. Experts believe that since Mullah Faqir was heavily involved in terrorist activity in the Pakistani region of Swat, his capture by Afghan forces could improve relations between the two countries.

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Times of Central Asia Articles:

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The Guardian

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Kazakhstans national nuclear center has signed a memorandum of understanding with Japans Atomic Power Co. to build a nuclear power station in the Central Asian state. The two countries have recently come to agreements on the extraction of Kazakhstans resources, which Japan is eager to help its partner exploit.

Kazakhstan

Iran has agreed to build a refinery in Pakistan, which will supply Iranian fuel to the energy-hungry state. The refinery, set for construction in Gwadar near the border with Iran, will produce 400,000 barrels per day. The two countries also decided on a deal ,which will provide Iranian natural gas to Pakistan in exchange for food products such as meat, wheat, and rice.

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Tengrinews

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ABC News

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US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert Blake is in Dushanbe this week for a two-day visit. After a meeting with President Emomali Rahmon on Wednesday, Blake called on Tajikistans leadership to hold free and fair elections in November. Blake also said the US does not plan to use Tajikistans infrastructure for the withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2014.

Tajikistan

Two Turkmen civil society activists were recently freed after serving out their prison terms. Sapardurdy Khajiev and Annakurban Amanklychev were arrested in 2006 after they helped a French director produce a film about the state of human rights in Turkmenistan.

Turkmenistan

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Radio Free Europe

RFE/RL

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Trend

Articles: Human Rights Watch

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This week thousands of Uzbeks were stuck along the Uzbek-Kazakh border after police set up roadblocks preventing migrant workers from entering Kazakhstan. Only laborers with a work permit and a work agreement with a company in Russia or Kazakhstan were allowed to pass. Some have speculated that the roadblock was set up in response to President Islam Karimovs criticism of the interior ministry last month. Articles: Uznews RFE/RL

Uzbekistan

A paleontologist has pled guilty to charges of lying on customs forms, after he declared the value of dinosaur fossils that he discovered in Mongolia as $19,000 and then sold them at auction for $1 million. The government has since seized the Tyrannosaurus bataar fossils and will return them to Mongolia.

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Voice of America

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Estonia recently opened the first nationwide fast charging system for electric vehicles in Europe. The government, which partnered with Mitsubishi for the project, hopes this will boost sales of electric cars and reduce carbon emissions in the country. Estonia currently has one electric vehicle per 1,000 gas-fueled cars.

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Estonia

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PM Necas ruling Civic Democrats Party (ODS) hit a fifteen year low in opinion polls released Wednesday. The center-right ODS dropped to 11.6% backing, behind its center-right rival TOP 09 (14.2%) and well behind the Social Democrats (28.2%). Allegations of corruption and recent austerity measures are the primary reasons behind the drop. Ceskenoviny

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Washington Times

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Global Post

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Together with Poland and Ukraine, Lithuania has agreed to create a joint peacekeeping team consisting of one battalion from each country. The brigade will support United Nations and NATO operations as well as humanitarian missions. Originally planned for 2012, the governments now hope to organize the brigade by the end of 2013.

Lithuania

The unemployment rate in Slovakia hit a nineyear high at 14.8%. Weak exports are a primary reason for the continued high unemployment levels, but analysts in Bratislava have also blamed recent government changes to the labor and tax codes as contributing to the problem.

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Articles: BusinessRecorder

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Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis has declared Latvias intention to formally apply for membership in the Eurozone early next month, with a complete transition to the Euro expected by the end of 2013. Experts believe that Lithuania and Poland will likely also seek Eurozone membership in the years to come.

Latvia

In order to protect freedom of expression, the Constitutional Court of Hungary has overturned a law that banned the use of communist and fascist symbols. A public outcry against the decision, led by the Hungarian Jewish community, has led many politicians to explore other means of instituting a ban on fascist and communist symbols, such as passing a constitutional amendment.

Hungary

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The Guardian

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Wall Street Journal

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EuroNews

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This week Fitch Ratings revised Polands fiscal status, raising its outlook from stable to positive but maintaining its A- credit rating. The revision reflects improvements in Polands budget deficit (down to 3.4%) as well as stabilization of the countrys public debt ratio. Fitch also predicted healthy growth rates for the medium term.

Poland

Businessweek

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Reuters

On Tuesday Romanian police raided the Med New Life private clinic on suspicion of illegally selling human eggs and arrested two Israeli citizens - Prof. Raphael Ron-El, head of the hospitals in vitro fertilization unit, and his lab technician, Daphna Komarovsky. Police also arrested a number of Romanian suspects. Officials believe that the clinic paid Roamian women between 600 and 800 to harvest their eggs, then sold them for for 3,000 to 4,000. Articles: Romania Insider Haaretz

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Violent protests over corruption, rising utility costs, and deteriorating standards of living led Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borisov to resign. However, his resignation has only further incited public anger, and more protests are planned over the weekend. President Rosen Plevneliev began talks to discuss forming a new government.

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Croatia

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Slovenian officials had promised to hold a meeting this week to resolve a longstanding banking dispute that threatens to keep Croatia from EU accession, but political upheaval has forced Slovenian officials to delay the meeting until March 10. Both countries believe that they can still resolve the issue in time for Croatias scheduled EU entry on July 1. Reuters

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Bloomberg

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The United States has warned Albanian leaders against stoking nationalism in a memo to the Albanian Foreign Ministry. Prime Minister Sali Berisha has recently raised eyebrows over his recent controversial comments, including referring to a Greek town as Albanian lands and calling former Albanian guerilla fighters in Serbia heroes of the Albanian nation. The memo also bluntly told Albanian politicians to stay out of the affairs of Serbia.

Albania

Montenegro has signed an economic and tourism cooperation agreement with neighboring Croatia. The agreement calls for more collaboration between the two states tourist industries and the deepening of economic ties. Croatia also voiced its continued support for Montenegro to join the EU and applauded the country for its treatment of its minority Croat population.

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Reuters

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Tanjung

Croatian Times

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Certain brands of milk are being pulled off store shelves while awaiting testing for the possible presence of a cancer-causing toxin. This comes after details that the government may have tried to hide the results caused large outbursts of public discontent. The agriculture minister accused the opposition Democratic Party of trying to destabilize the government by distorting public health matters.

Serbia

Kosovo recently celebrated its 5th year anniversary of independence from Serbia. Posters with the slogan Ko5ova decorated the capital. Even with the joyous, unilateral celebration of independence, Petrit Selimi, Kosovar deputy foreign minister, acknowledged that Kosovo still struggles with international recognition and is plagued with infrastructure problems.

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Washington Post

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BBC

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The Atlantic

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The head of the Social Democrats, the opposition party, stated that he hoped that they would be able to avoid a boycott of the elections in March. The Social Democrats refused to submit a list of gubernatorial candidates after the government ignore the partys demand to postpone the election.

Macedonia

The largest state-owned bank in Slovenia, Nova Ljubljanska Banka (NLB), announced further losses and stated that it will require approximately 400 million euros to comply with European regulatory requirements. NLB posted a 273.5 million euro loss in 2012. The Slovenian government is set to assume 90% ownership of the bank later this year.

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NZ Week

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Eurasia Review

Global Post

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The European Commission Bosnia & announced that Bosnia Herzegovina and Herzegovina (BiH) received the first loan tranche worth 50 million in macro-financial assistance. In November the Council of the European Union approved giving BiH a 100 million macro-financial assistance loan for further structural reforms and economic improvements as part of BiHs EU integration process. New Europe

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The Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies is a U.S. Department of Education Title VI-funded National Resource Center (NRC) that strives to increase understanding and appreciation of the cultures and challenges of the region stretching from Central Europe to the Pacific and from the Baltic to the Mediterranean, Black and Caspian Seas

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Box 571031, ICC 111, Washington, DC 20057-1031 Email: ceres@georgetown.edu Tel.: (202) 687-6080 Fax: (202) 687-5829

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