[Airbornelawyer]

From the RFE/RL Newsline:

Russia

• RUSSIA, INDIA BEGIN JOINT MILITARY EXERCISES. Russian Air Forces Commander General Vladimir Mikhailov announced on 9 October that three transport aircraft with soldiers from the Pskov-based 76th Airborne Division arrived in India for joint antiterrorist military exercises, which started on 10 October and will last until 20 October, ITAR-TASS reported. The exercises, which are being held in the Bay of Bengal, will also involve ships from Russia's Pacific Fleet. Meanwhile, speaking to journalists in Lisbon, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said that the recent South Asia earthquake has not affected the area where the exercises will take place and they will be held as planned, RIA-Novosti reported.

• FOREIGN MINISTER: MOSCOW NOT OPPOSED TO U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE'S CENTRAL ASIA VISIT. Foreign Minister Lavrov said on 11 October that Moscow does not object to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's tour of Central Asia, Russian news agencies reported the same day. "There is no conflict of interests," Lavrov said in remarks reported by RIA-Novosti. He also said Russia favors cooperation with the United States and the West to fight terrorism in the former Soviet region, which Moscow has long viewed as its sphere of influence. Lavrov added, however, that these relations should be transparent. Rice's tour of Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan began on 10 October.

• TRIAL OF SLAIN CHECHEN LEADER'S COMRADES-IN-ARMS OPENS, ADJOURNS. The trial began on 10 October in Chechnya's Supreme Court, and was immediately adjourned until 18 October, of four men apprehended in the house in Tolstoi-Yurt where the Russian military claims Chechen resistance leader and President Aslan Maskhadov was killed on 8 March, gazeta.ru reported. The four men include the owner of the house, Skanderbek Yusupov, and Maskhadov's nephew and bodyguard, Viskhan Khadjimuradov. They face charges ranging from unlawful possession of weapons and membership in illegal armed formations to organizing an armed insurrection. In a statement posted on 10 October on chechenpress.org, Isa Akhyadov, who is coordinator of the World Chechen Congress, linked Maskhadov's murder to his renewed offer several weeks earlier to begin negotiations on ending the war peacefully. Akhyadov further predicted that the trial is intended to substantiate official claims that Maskhadov was shot by his bodyguards rather than risk capture and trial. He implied that, broken by torture, the four defendants will confirm that scenario.

Transcaucasia And Central Asia

• POLICE AGAIN USE FORCE TO DISPERSE AZERBAIJANI OPPOSITION SUPPORTERS. Riot police intervened on 9 October to prevent supporters of the opposition Azadlyq bloc, the Liberal Party of Azerbaijan, and the National Unity movement gathering for pre-election rallies at several venues in Baku, Reuters and Azerbaijani media reported. The Baku municipal authorities withheld permission for the rallies, proposing that the opposition gather instead at alternative venues farther from the city center. Observers say the police acted with greater brutality on 9 October than when dispersing earlier opposition attempts to assemble on 25 September and 1 October. Dozens of people were injured, including up to 10 journalists; the online daily zerkalo.az noted on 11 October that police violated the Law on Police, which expressly prohibits hitting people on the head. The U.S. Embassy in Baku issued a statement deploring the police violence and appealed to Azadlyq members to "show restraint," zerkalo.az reported. The statement also called on opposition and authorities to resume the dialogue that began earlier this summer. Veteran human rights activist Eldar Zeynalov told day.az on 10 October the absence of such a dialogue contributes to further destabilization of the political situation in the runup to the 6 November parliamentary elections.
  
  More here: http://www.eurasianet.org/department...av101005.shtml

• AZERBAIJANIS DESERT FROM GEORGIAN ARMY. Georgian military police are investigating the circumstances that impelled 10 Azerbaijanis to desert from a Georgian military base at Dedoplistsqaro on 9 October, Georgian media reported on 10 October. The Azerbaijanis demanded a meeting with ombudsman Sozar Subar, and told him that they were routinely insulted by senior officers because they do not speak either Georgian or Russian. The Azerbaijanis further complained of poor food and said they have not been issued with warm winter uniforms. An army spokesman denied that the 10 men were subjected to physical violence.

• KYRGYZ OFFICIAL DENIES UZBEK CLAIMS OF INSURGENT TRAINING. In a televised interview, senior Kyrgyz National Security Service official Azamat Shopokov strongly denied on 7 October recent Uzbek reports that "insurgents" responsible for the violent clashes in Andijon in May were trained in Kyrgyzstan, Osh TV reported. Shopokov also refuted allegations that arms were sent to the eastern Uzbek town of Andijon from Kyrgyzstan.