[Airbornelawyer]

From the RFE/RL Newsline:

Russia

• DEFENSE MINISTER SAYS CENTRAL ASIA IS RUSSIAN INTEREST ZONE... Answering a question about U.S. military bases in Central Asia, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said at a press conference in Paris on 11 October that every country has the right to decide which military bases it has on its territory, RIA-Novosti and other media reported. However, he continued, "The countries of the region are members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization [CSTO]. And [if the countries of the region are] making a decision about hosting new bases on their territory, they should take into account the interests of Russia and coordinate this decision with our country," Radio Mayak reported. Ivanov added that he does not know whether U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will discuss the bases issue on her current trip to Central Asia (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 10 October 2005). Ivanov and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in Paris on 10 October for talks with their French counterparts within the framework of the Russian-French Security Cooperation Council.

• ...AS RUSSIAN GENERAL ANNOUNCES CREATION OF 'CENTRAL ASIAN ARMY' CSTO Secretary-General Colonel General Nikolai Bordyuzha said on 11 October that a "large group of forces" will be created in Central Asia, similar to the Russia-Belarusian and Russian-Armenian integrated army groups, RIA-Novosti and centralasia.ru reported. The CSTO comprises Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Russia. Bordyuzha said that the Central Asian army group will be composed "not from battalions, but from regiments and divisions and, in the event of a serious military conflict, it will defend CSTO members from all sides," RIA-Novosti reported. In the event of an all-out war, CSTO members should transfer the command of their entire armed forces to the Central Asian group, he added.

• AL-QAEDA MEMBERS REPORTEDLY KILLED IN GUN BATTLE IN INGUSHETIA Russian security services killed two militants on 11 October in a gun battle lasting several hours in Ingushetia's Sunzha Raion, close to the border with Chechnya, and captured an unspecified number of their comrades in arms, Interfax, rg.ru and ingushetiya.ru reported. The fighters were located during a search operation instigated by the Prosecutor General's Office into the presence in southern Russia of members of an international terrorist organization. That search was prompted by information extracted from a captured militant. According to ntv.ru, the terror network in question was discovered during the ongoing investigation into the Beslan hostage crisis of September 2004, and it was headed by Chechen resistance leader and President Aslan Maskhadov and radical Chechen field commander Shamil Basaev. The Prosecutor-General's Office claimed the dead and captured militants belonged to a band led by Aslanbek Khatuev that was "directly subordinate" to the leaders of Al-Qaeda, rg.ru reported.

Transcaucasia And Central Asia

• ARMENIAN DEFENSE MINISTER DENIES LINK BETWEEN KARABAKH CONFLICT, RUSSIAN MILITARY BASE Serzh Sarkisian took issue on 7 October with a hypothesis expressed the previous day at a NATO-organized seminar in Yerevan by Sir Brian Fall, who is the British special representative for the South Caucasus, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reported. Fall suggested that the Armenian government's continued willingness to host a Russian military base is due to fears of renewed aggression from Azerbaijan, and he asked rhetorically whether Armenia would want a "substantial Russian military presence on its territory" even after the Karabakh conflict is resolved. Sarkisian responded on 7 October saying that the Russian military presence has "nothing to do with the Karabakh problem and our relations with Azerbaijan in general." He said the Russian troops constitute "an integral part" of Armenia's security and "could be useful" in light of the hypothetical threat from Turkey, which, Sarkisian continued, "has until now pursued a hostile policy toward us."

• GEORGIAN PARLIAMENT ISSUES ULTIMATUM TO RUSSIAN PEACEKEEPERS... Following a debate lasting several hours, the Georgian parliament approved on 11 October a resolution setting deadlines of 10 February 2006 and 15 June 2006 respectively for the Russian peacekeeping forces deployed in the South Ossetian and Abkhaz conflict zones to demonstrate they are complying with the terms of their respective mandates, Georgian and Russian media reported. In the event that the Russian peacekeepers continue to turn a blind eye to murders, abductions, smuggling, and other crimes, the Georgian parliament will insist on their withdrawal and replacement by an international peacekeeping force (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 30 September 2005). Deputies from the opposition Republican party and the Conservative party, which tabled an alternative resolution calling for the peacekeepers to be withdrawn earlier, abstained from the vote.

• ...WHICH RUSSIAN MINISTERS CONDEMN AS COUNTERPRODUCTIVESpeaking in Paris on 11 October, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov dismissed the Georgian parliament resolution as politically rather than militarily motivated, Caucasus Press reported. He acknowledged that Tbilisi has the right to request the peacekeepers' withdrawal, but said the resolution will not impact on their activities. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, for his part, argued that it would be more appropriate to try to rebuild trust between Georgia and the leaders of its breakaway republics, and he stressed that Russia is trying, together with the OSCE and the UN, to promote a political settlement of the two conflicts. In Sukhum, Sergei Bagapsh, president of the unrecognized Republic of Abkhazia, said the Abkhaz leadership will not permit the withdrawal of the Russian peacekeepers, trud.ru reported. That force was dispatched to the conflict zone under the CIS aegis in the summer of 1994. Its mandate, which CIS presidents must regularly renew, stipulates that if one of the conflict sides demands its withdrawal, it must comply with that request.

Southwestern Asia And The Middle East

• IRAQI MINISTER'S CONVOY TARGETED IN ATTACK The convoy of State Minister for Governorate Affairs Sa'd Nayif Mujhim al-Hardan was attacked in the Al-Qadisiyah neighborhood of Baghdad on 12 October, international media reported. A suicide car bomber drove his vehicle into the convoy and detonated it, destroying three cars in the convoy and wounding four guards and two passers-by, Al-Arabiyah television reported. The convoy was en route to al-Hardan's home to pick him up when the attack occurred. Gunmen assassinated tribal leader Hikmat Mumtaz outside his home in Samarra on 11 October, Al-Sharqiyah television reported the same day. Mumtaz was a chieftain of the Al-Baz tribe, and head of the Samarra Tribal Council, which comprises the representatives of more than 20 tribes.

• FORMER DEFENSE MINISTER SAYS IRAN HAS PENETRATED SECURITY SERVICES Former Defense Minister Hazim al-Sha'lan said on 11 October that the corruption charges leveled against him recently are part of a campaign sponsored by Iran to cover up Iranian penetration of Iraqi government structures, Al-Jazeera television reported the same day. "There are some parties within the [Shi'ite] alliance who are trying their best to drag Hazim al-Sha'lan into a political battle...for no reason other than the fact that [I] spoke out loudly about Iran; and that is the truth," al-Sha'lan said. "Through the institutions of the state, Iran has currently penetrated every structure of the state of Iraq -- be it the security services, the popular entities, or the official entities. The Iranian is present in the blood, formation, and structure of some persons who are in power." Al-Sha'lan was the most vocal member of Iyad Allawi's interim administration of Iraq in his criticism of Iranian interference in Iraqi affairs.