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☆ Armenia tells World Court Azerbaijan blockade is 'ethnic cleansing'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Stephanie Van Den Berg | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

THE HAGUE, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Armenia told judges at the World Court on Monday that a blockade of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region by neighbouring Azerbaijan was designed to allow "ethnic cleansing", a claim rejected by Baku. Monday's hearing at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), also known as the World Court, was called to hear an Armenian request for the court to order Azerbaijan to lift the blockade. "Such blatant acts of ethnic cleansing have no place in the modern era and this court is the last hope for the ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh," Kirakosyan said. Mammadov also said that Armenia's claims of ethnic cleansing were "distorting reality deliberately" and were "fanning the flames" of conflict. On Tuesday the ICJ will hear a competing demand from Azerbaijan for the court to order Armenia to stop planting landmines in territories it once occupied.

☆ Azerbaijan strongly protests to Iran after fatal embassy shooting
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Nailia Bagirova | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

"Necessary security measures have been taken to continue normal activities at the embassy and diplomats of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Tehran," he said. [1/5] A general view of the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan after an attack on it, in Tehran, Iran, January 27, 2023. It said an "anti-Azerbaijani campaign" in Iran had contributed to the attack, without elaborating, and accused Tehran of long ignoring its appeals to boost embassy security. Iran's Amirabdollahian later told Azeri Foreign Minister Jayran Bairamov in a phone call that he hoped the attack would not damage bilateral ties. Israel has had an embassy in Baku since the early 1990s and has been a significant military backer of Azerbaijan in recent years.

☆ Russia, South Africa and a 'redesigned global order': The Kremlin's hearts and minds machine is steaming ahead
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Elliot Smith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visited Pretoria as part of an African tour, his second since the invasion, which will also reportedly take him to Botswana, Angola and Eswatini. On Feb. 24 2022, shortly after the Ukraine invasion, South Africa urged Russia to immediately withdraw its forces from Ukraine. South Africa was one of 15 African nations to abstain from the subsequent U.N. vote in March to condemn Russia's war of aggression. watch nowShe emphasized the multilateral responsibilities of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) bloc of leading emerging economies in a changing global landscape. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday that "the United States has concerns about any country … exercising with Russia as Russia wages a brutal war against Ukraine."

☆ Russia’s Influence Wanes in Ex-Soviet States as It Pursues Ukraine War
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Ann M. Simmons | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

MOSCOW—Escalating tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan are exposing the declining influence of Russia in its backyard, as the Kremlin diverts money and manpower to the war in Ukraine. The situation regards Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory in the South Caucasus that has been disputed, often violently, by the two former Soviet republics for almost three decades. The enclave is home to 120,000 people, mostly ethnic Armenians, but is internationally recognized as being part of Azerbaijan.

☆ Caspian seal deaths: Thousands of dead seals wash up in Russia's Dagestan
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-04 | by ( Mariya Knight | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Around 2,500 endangered seals have been found dead on Russia’s Caspian coast, state-run news agency RIA Novosti reported Sunday, citing authorities in the North Caucasus region. Caspian seals, the only mammals found in the Caspian Sea, have been classified as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list since 2008. According to RIA, inspectors were patrolling the coastline in search of additional dead seals. Meanwhile, specialists from the Caspian Environmental Center were analyzing samples from the dead seals to identify the cause of death. The mass deaths come after more than 140 Caspian seals were found dead on Kazakh beaches of the Caspian Sea earlier this year, according to KASPIKA, an agency for the conservation of Caspian seals.

☆ Putin's war in Ukraine looks more and more like a failure. Past Russian leaders haven't survived similar mistakes.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-04 | by ( Joy Neumeyer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Instead, Russia's failing war effort has raised doubts about Putin's hold on power. For now, Putin looks secure, but past Russian leaders have suffered at home for blunders abroad. By the following summer, the Germans had taken huge swathes of Russian-controlled territory and a million Russian soldiers were dead. Captured Russian soldiers after the defeat at Tannenberg, in present-day Poland, on August 30, 1914. After an ineffectual troop surge, Gorbachev gave up on trying to improve the situation, and the last Soviet troops left Afghanistan in February 1989.

☆ Kazakhstan seeks share of booming Russia-Iran cargo traffic
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Zhumangarin said reducing red tape and improving infrastructure could streamline cargo flows. Zhumangarin also said Kazakhstan was considering building a third railway crossing on its border with China. The move could be regarded as either positive or negative for Russia, depending on where the added volumes go. The Central Asian nation is in talks with the European Union about boosting its transit capacity as part of a project to divert China-Europe cargo traffic from Russia to the Caspian and the Caucasus. Reporting by Olzhas Auyezov and Mariya Gordeyeva; Editing by Jan HarveyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ These economies are booming as Putin's war drives migrants and money out of Russia
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( Karen Gilchrist | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Russians cross the border between Russia and Georgia days after President Vladimir Putin announced a mobilization drive on September 21. Daro Sulakauri | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesAs many economies reel from the impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a select few countries are benefiting from an influx of Russian migrants and their accompanying wealth. The country's initial wave accounts for almost a quarter (23.4%) of all emigres out of Russia up to September, according to an online survey of 2,000 Russian migrants conducted by research group Ponars Eurasia. The majority of the remaining Russian migrants have fled to Turkey (24.9%), Armenia (15.1%) and uncited "other" countries (19%). 'Highly active' migrantsGeorgia's strategic location and its historic and economic ties with Russia make it an obvious entry point for Russian migrants.

[1/3] Members of the pro-Ukrainian Chechen battalion check an area, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the town of Bakhmut, Ukraine November 11, 2022. Maga, his nom-de-guerre, is part of a unit of Chechen fighters helping Ukraine battle Russian troops in eastern Ukraine. "We're not fighting just for the sake of fighting," said Maga, who declined to give his real name for security reasons. That has not extinguished hope among Kadyrov's opponents, including Chechens fighting Russian forces in Ukraine, that the authoritarian "power vertical" which Putin has built could crumble if Moscow lost in Ukraine. "The armed forces of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria are being renewed here today," he told the Ukrainian service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty on Oct. 24.

Fighting flared in September between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and the two sides said more than 200 soldiers had been killed. "It is depressing that Armenia's membership in the CSTO did not deter Azerbaijan from aggressive actions," Pashinyan told the meeting in the Armenian capital, Yerevan. "Right up to today we have not managed to reach a decision on a CSTO response to Azerbaijan’s aggression against Armenia. In his own remarks, Putin acknowledged some unspecified "problems" facing the CSTO, and said more effort was needed to bring about peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Azerbaijan enjoys backing from Turkey and is not a member of the CSTO, which comprises Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan as well as Russia and Armenia.

☆ A failed war helped bring down the Soviet Union. Now Putin's failing war in Ukraine might set Russia up for a bleak future.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( Joy Neumeyer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

The Soviet Union's war in Afghanistan and Russia's current war in Ukraine have obvious similarities in their disastrous planning and execution. In the 1990s, Afghanistan veterans' sense of aggrievement fused with that of veterans returning from Boris Yeltsin's war in Chechnya. Putin's war, Russia's futurePutin meets soldiers at a military training center outside the town of Ryazan in October. While glasnost-era revelations about the Soviet war shocked the country into supporting withdrawal, these days there is little left to expose. Public self-criticism surrounding the Soviet war in Afghanistan, however brief and contested, shows that reassessment of imperial ambitions is possible.

☆ From Russia with cash: Georgia booms as Russians flee Putin's war
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-05 | by ( Jake Cordell | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), for example, predicted in March the Ukraine conflict would deal a major blow to the Georgian economy. "On the contrary, we see the Georgian economy growing quite well this year, double digits." Business leaders also worry that the country could face a hard landing should the war end and Russians return home. TO GEORGIA WITH $1 BILLIONGeorgia itself fought a short war with Russia in 2008 over South Ossetia and Abkhazia, territories controlled by Russian-backed separatists. 'THE CRISIS COULD HIT'TBC's Butskhrikidze said he saw potential in the new arrivals to fill skills gaps in the Georgian economy.

☆ MENA, Central Asia economies show resilience but global headwinds loom -IMF
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Wayne Cole | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

DUBAI, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Economic activity in the Middle East and Central Asia was resilient with recovery continuing in 2022 but the region must guard against growing global headwinds and push ahead with reforms, the International Monetary Fund said on Monday. Countries should be on alert as "headwinds are growing, vulnerabilities are growing" with a global economic slowdown, volatile food and energy prices and tightening financial conditions, IMF Middle East and Central Asia Director Jihad Azour told Reuters ahead of the October report's release. An urgent policy challenge was tackling the cost-of-living crisis by restoring price stability, protecting vulnerable groups through targeted support and ensuring food security. Economic growth in 2023 was forecast by the IMF at 4% percent and likely narrow to 3.5% in the medium term. "Spillovers from the war could put the CCA's progress toward reducing poverty and inequality at risk," the report said.

☆ 2 intensifying border wars show Putin is losing sway in his neighborhood while Russia struggles in Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Michael Peck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

In recent weeks, border disputes in the Caucasus and Central Asia have escalated into clashes. And the Russian troops that once kept the peace between those feuding neighbors? Kremlin Press Office/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty ImagesRussia's complicated history with Central Asia goes back centuries. Russian leaders, including Vladimir Putin, inherited this colonialist mindset, seeing Central Asia (and Ukraine) as part of the Russia sphere. KAREN MINASYAN/AFP via Getty ImagesTo some extent, the deployment of Russian troops, or threat to do so, has tamped down conflicts.

☆ Ukraine lawmakers brand Chechnya 'Russian-occupied' in dig at Kremlin
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Ichkeria is the historical name of Russia's southern region of Chechnya that was devastated by two bloody wars between Russian troops and Chechen separatists after the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union. A majority of Ukrainian lawmakers voted on Tuesday to back a resolution that "recognises the Chechen republic of Ichkeria as territory temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation as a result of armed aggression which contravened the UN's Statute". Ukraine uses the same language - "temporarily occupied" - to describe swathes of Ukrainian territory that were seized by Russian forces in 2014 and following this year's invasion. Ukraine's 450-seat parliament, which has continued to function behind closed doors despite Russian attacks on the capital Kyiv and other cities, said 290 lawmakers had voted to adopt the resolution. The parliament known in Ukraine as the Verkhovna Rada said 352 lawmakers were present for the vote.

☆ Analysis: What is Russia's policy on tactical nuclear weapons?
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( Guy Faulconbridge | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

WHAT ARE TACTICAL NUCLEAR WEAPONS? Academics and arms control negotiators have spent years arguing about how to define tactical nuclear weapons (TNW). The clue is in the name: they are nuclear weapons used for specific tactical gains on the battlefield, rather than, say, destroying the biggest cities of the United States or Russia. The atomic bomb dropped by the United States on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945 was about 15 kilotons. The president is the ultimate decision maker when it comes to using Russian nuclear weapons, both strategic and non-strategic, according to Russia's nuclear doctrine.

☆ France accuses Russia of stoking Armenia, Azerbaijan conflict
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

PARIS, Oct 12 (Reuters) - France's President Emmanuel Macron accused Russia on Wednesday of purposefully provoking the recent clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan as part of an effort destabilise the Caucasus region and beyond. The worst fighting between the two ex-Soviet countries since 2020 broke out in late September, killing more than 200 people. However, speaking to France 2 television on Wednesday Macron said Moscow had stoked tensions in recent months in favour of Azerbaijan. France, along with the United States and Russia are co-chairs of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's (OSCE) Minsk Group that mediates over Nagorno-Karabakh. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by John Irish; Editing by Sandra MalerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Russian Borders Swamped as Putin’s Draft Order Sparks Exodus
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-29 | by ( Drew Hinshaw | Kate Vtorygina | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

DARIALI, Georgia—On a narrow road high in the Caucasus Mountains, thousands of cars packed with young men have waited three days to inch through a six-mile traffic jam to the Russian frontier, their passengers running low on food and water. North of the Arctic Circle, a sleepy Norwegian border post has been swamped with five times its normal traffic, as potential Russian conscripts trek hundreds of miles to one of the last remaining entry points into Europe. Tens of thousands more cars wait snarled up at border posts along the Mongolian steppe.

Russians trying to avoid getting conscripted to fight in Ukraine appeared to be trying to cross the border into Georgia, Kazakhstan and even remote Mongolia, satellite imagery suggested Monday. Russian border guards didn’t appear to be trying to stop them. The Russians are fleeing to Georgia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and other countries because they don't require visas. Logvin said he waited 34 hours at the border before he was allowed to enter Georgia. According to Maxar, this satellite image appears to show a traffic jam near the Russian border with Georgia on Sunday.

☆ Desperation on Russia's borders as draft-eligible men flee
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-27 | by ( Felix Light | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Travellers from Russia cross the border to Georgia at the Zemo Larsi/Verkhny Lars station, Georgia September 26, 2022. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterHis escape was part of a vast exodus from Russia that has seen thousands of military-age men make for the borders with Finland, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia. On Monday, Novaya Gazeta Europe reported that 261,000 men had left Russia since mobilisation was declared, citing a Kremlin source. On the Kazakhstan border, Nikita described would-be emigres pitching tents along the highway leading up to the Vishnyovka border post, while others less well-equipped slept on the tarmac, building makeshift beds out of their own clothes. Some of the most dramatic scenes were at Russia’s only operational border crossing with Georgia, which allows Russians to stay for a year without a visa.

☆ Gunman fires at Russian draft office amid anger over Ukraine mobilization
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Yuliya-Talmazan-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Yuliya Talmazan | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

A gunman opened fire at a draft office in Russia’s Siberian region of Irkutsk on Monday amid a growing backlash against President Vladimir Putin’s chaotic efforts to mobilize more people to boost his troops in Ukraine. A video circulating online, confirmed by NBC News to have been shot in the draft office, showed people inside running for cover and screaming as the gunman fired. But Melvin said it's further evidence of Russia's disorganized mobilization drive. The unrest throughout Russia comes against the backdrop of a voting process underway in four Moscow-occupied regions of Ukraine. Meanwhile, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church has said that Russian soldiers who die in the war against Ukraine will be cleansed of their sins.

☆ U.S. warns of 'horrific' consequences if Russia uses nuclear weapons in Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( Natasha Turak | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Washington responded to Russian President Vladimir Putin's veiled threat of using nuclear weapons, warning of serious consequences and that the U.S. response would be "decisive." "The consequences would be horrific," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during an interview. The number cited for the mobilization — 300,000 — is nearly double the size of the initial invasion force. Anti-mobilization protests appear to be continuing, with reports of standoffs with authorities and several arrests in Russia's North Caucasus region of Dagestan. Western and Ukrainian officials are condemning the referendums as a sham that will allow Putin to annex the territories and then use them to justify threatening anyone trying to retake them with nuclear weapons.

☆ Russians flee to Georgia after Putin's mobilisation order
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The Georgian capital Tbilisi had already seen an influx of around 40,000 Russians since Moscow invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, according to government statistics. There, they hired a local driver to take them through the border checkpoints and after 24 hours they arrived in Tbilisi. The exact number of people who have left Russia since Putin announced what he called a "partial mobilisation" last Wednesday is unclear. LOCAL RESENTMENTRussians already in Tbilisi saw Putin's mobilisation decree as further vindication of their decisions to flee. More than 200 men who were detained at anti-war protests in Moscow last week were issued draft summons, state media reported.

☆ Police clash with people opposed to mobilisation in Russia's Dagestan
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Sept 25 (Reuters) - Police clashed on Sunday with people opposed to the mobilisation in the southern Russian region of Dagestan, underscoring the level of discontent with President Vladimir Putin's decision to send hundreds of thousands more men to fight in Ukraine. Russia's first military mobilisation since World War Two, announced by Putin on Wednesday, has triggered protests in dozens of cities across the country. Public anger has appeared to be particularly strong in poor ethnic minority regions like Dagestan, a Muslim-majority region located on the shores of the Caspian Sea in the mountainous north Caucasus. There have been several reports from across Russia of people with no military service or parents of young children being called up in the draft - despite guarantees from Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu they would be excluded. Earlier on Sunday Russia's two most senior lawmakers - key Putin allies - also addressed public concerns about mobilisation, acknowledging "excesses" had stoked public anger.

☆ In poor, rural Buryatia, Russia's partial mobilisation hits hard
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-23 | by ( Felix Light | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

The Ulan-Ude draft office and the defence ministry in Moscow did not reply to a request for comment on the situation. PROVINCIAL MOBILISATION"There’s nothing partial about the mobilisation in Buryatia," said Alexandra Garmazhapova, president of the Free Buryatia Foundation, an organisation that provides legal help to those mobilised. Her foundation collected hundreds of appeals for help from residents whose relatives had received mobilisation papers. One resident of the Buryatia village of Orongoi, whose population in 2010 was 1,700, told Reuters that 106 men from the village had been mobilised. "The federal centre is trying not to touch St Petersburg and Moscow, because in Moscow you can have protests against the Kremlin," she said.

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