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


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

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01/21/12-01/25/12

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On January 24, hundreds of protesters gathered around Ismailli governors mansion, angrily demanding his resignation. The violent protests followed a night of rioting and arson, which allegedly began with a car accident.

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Azerbaijan

Country News Digest


Russia

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Independent

The Levada Agency found that Putins public approval rating is at its lowest since 2000. The leading factor in his low rating is that many believe that Putin can no longer guarantee an improvement in living standards. Despite the growing discontent with burgeoning corruption, Putin still has a solid base of supporters. Huffington Post

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Reuters

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Chicago Tribune

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The Prime Minister of Georgia Bidzina Ivanishvili met with Russias Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev while attending the Davos World Economic Forum. Although the meeting lasted only a few minutes, it was the highest level meeting between the two governments since the 2008 RussiaGeorgia War.

Georgia

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RT

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U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent a letter of support to imprisoned ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenka after new charges were brought against her. Secretary Clinton expressed hope that Ms. Tymoshenka would be released soon. She reaffirmed the U.S. and E.U. position that Tymoshenkas trial demonstrated selective justice. Ms. Tymoshenka was recently charged with arranging the contract killings of business rivals.

Ukraine

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Voice of Russia

Huffington Post

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Global Post

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Syrian-Armenians have found refuge from the conflict in Syria in the volatile region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The government of Azerbaijan has raised official objections to the OSCEs Minsk Group.

Armenia

Lukashenko wants to make better use of state funding of the sciences believing that resources should not be wasted on pure academic curiosity, but focused on making Belarus more technologically competitive.

Belarus

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Hurriyet Daily News Articles: Eurasia Net Belta

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Belarus

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On January 25, Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan appointed four new ministers. Notable among the Cabinet changes was the replacement of hawkish Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin with Muammer Guler in a move to support Kurdish peace talks. Solving the Kurdish issue is Erdogans top priority.

Turkey

Egg production in Moldova fell 17% to 586 million pieces this year. The decrease has been blamed on the effects of the summer drought, which severely cut the amount of feed available to breeders and farmers. The country still managed to export 10 million eggs, mostly to Iraq and Georgia.

Moldova

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World Poultry

WSJ Blog

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Bloomberg

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All About Feed

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US Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert Blake visited Bishkek last week to discuss the lease of the US transit center at the Manas International Airport. While details of the meeting have not been released, Blakes comments to the media have led to speculation the US may be looking for a new base elsewhere. Last year the Manas base injected $142 million into the Kyrgyz economy. Articles: Times of Central Asia Eurasianet

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Kyrgyzstan

Country News Digest

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In a report released this week, the United Nations concluded that the use of harsh interrogation techniques, including torture, is widespread in Afghan prisons. Efforts to train members of the Afghan police force and intelligence agencies in interrogation techniques that respect human rights seem to have failed.

Afghanistan

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New York Times

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The Guardian

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Kazakhstan placed 49th out of 185 on the World Banks Ease of Doing Business ratings, above countries such as Russia, China, and Turkey. Yerbolat Dossayev, the Minister of the Economy and Budget Planning, credited Kazakhstans new policies on enterprise registration and taxes for this jump in the rankings. Kazakhstan intends to reduce tax forms and streamline registration into an electronic process.

Kazakhstan

Tehran has proposed Cairo, Egypt as the location for a renewed round of talks on its nuclear program with the Big Six: France, China, Russia, Germany, Britain, and the United States. While some see this as a sign of Irans desire to cooperate on its program, others remain skeptical. According to the EU, Tehran has been delaying its responses and creating new pre-conditions for talks.

Iran

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Trend.az

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Caspionet

Washington Post

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Reuters

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This week Bishkek and Dushanbe began talks to delineate their border. Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan share a 970 kilometer border, of which only 519 kilometers were fully agreed upon after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The negotiations are taking place against the backdrop of the ongoing KyrgyzUzbek border crisis around the Uzbek region of Sokh.

Tajikistan

In an effort to reduce its dependence on Russian gas, Ukraine is hoping to resume purchasing gas from Turkmenistan. President Viktor Yanukovych raised the issue of gas transactions during a visit to Ashgabat in 2011 and again during Berdymukhammedovs visit to Kiev. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Leonid Kozahary said that Ukraine regretted not preserving its energy ties with Turkmenistan. Washington Post

Turkmenistan

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Trend

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RFE/RL

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Ria Novosti

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Talks between Bishkek and Tashkent to solve the border dispute over Uzbekistans Sokh district have stalled. Tensions began on January 5 when residents of Sokh fired on Kyrgyz border guards, who were installing electrical lines to a new Kyrgyz border post. Tashkent then unilaterally closed the border on January 17, blocking access to 7 Kyrgyz villages that are now accessible only by helicopter.

Uzbekistan

Tavan Tolgoi, a massive coal-mining project in Mongolia, has postponed its Initial Public Offering valued at $3 billion. The government has pledged a $350 million loan towards the project in order to ease its financial troubles, but the amount is likely not enough to overcome the massive underdevelopment of infrastructure that has slowed progress to date.

Mongolia

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Eurasianet

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RFE/RL

Reuters

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Business Week

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Last years statistics reveal that Estonia had the highest incidence of drugrelated deaths of any European country in 2012. One hundred and sixty people died from illegal drug usage, primarily from a synthetic substance called fentanyl, which is created in Russia. Efforts to contain the problem resulted in confiscation of record amounts of illegal drugs.

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Country News Digest

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Estonia

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The Czech Chamber of Commerce and Industry will open its CIS office in Baku sometime early this year. According to the Czech Ambassador to Azerbaijan, trade between the two states reached $1.4 billion in 2012. The announcement was made at a Caspian-European dialogue conference put on by the Caspian-European Integration Business Club. News.az

Czech Republic

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TIME

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ERR News

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ABC.az

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Members of the European Parliament have criticized Lithuania for failing to fully decommission outdated nuclear power plants. Although Lithuania has been receiving funding for that purpose for the last ten years, its nuclear plant is still running. Lithuania requested some $700 million more from the EU to finish the project, but the MEPs recently cut this figure by $200 million.

Lithuania

The Slovak government has offered a new set of incentives to U.S. Steel, one of the largest employers in Slovakia, in an attempt to maintain the companys presence in the country. Slowing demand in Europe and China has already led U.S. Steel to sell its Serbian mill.

Slovakia

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European Parliament Articles:

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Business New Europe Articles: Bloomberg

Europolitics

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Latvia ranked fourth on Akamai Technologies list of the countries with the fastest internet speeds in the world. Only Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea placed ahead of the small Baltic nation.

Latvia

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Bloomberg

Politicians from the ruling party of Hungary, Fidesz, failed to condemn a newspaper article written by one of its members that contained hate speech aimed at Hungarys Roma population. The article has been criticized throughout the EU and spawned a protest outside Fidesz headquarters in Budapest.

Hungary

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Baltic Course

Budapest Times

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CNN

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Polands president urged the country not to set a date for adoption of the euro until after the next round of elections in 2015, delaying for at least another three years Polands entry into the Eurozone. Poland has been obliged to adopt the euro since its admission to the EU in 2004, but has been reluctant to move forward on currency integration because of the recent financial crisis.

Poland

The Romanian parliament voted overwhelmingly to boost their immunity from detainment and prosecution. With 309 votes for, 56 against and two abstentions, the approved modifications lower MPs housing and transport allowances, but require prosecutors to obtain parliamentary approval before launching a criminal investigation against a MP.

Romania

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Reuters

Articles: Wall Street Journal

EurActiv

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Nine OClock

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On January 27, Bulgarians will vote on a referendum pertaining to the role of nuclear energy in the country. This is Bulgarias first referendum since the fall of Communism. Citizens will determine, Should nuclear energy be developed in Bulgaria through the construction of new nuclear power units?

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Country News Digest


Croatia

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Bulgaria

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Slovenia is refusing to ratify Croatias bid to join the EU until a dispute over the Ljubljanska Bank is resolved. Although Croatia is optimistic that the two sides will come to an agreement over the dispute before it is scheduled to join the EU in July, internal upheavals in the Slovenian government complicate the situation. Balkans.com

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Deutsche Welle

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Bloomberg

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Bloomberg

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Albanias power regulator revoked the license of CEZ, the Czech Republics largest energy producer, after a year of disputes over taxes and unpaid electric bills.The state has accused CEZ of breaching its license because it failed to limit the number of power outages and to import the required about of power. CEZ claims it was forced to run the company at a loss because of unpaid electric bills and a price hike on energy from Albanias state-owned generator.

Albania

The European Parliaments Committee on Foreign Affairs adopted the European Commissions 2012 report on Montenegro earlier this week. The report praised Montenegro for its progress towards EU membership, especially its parliamentary elections last October. Montenegro needs to continue improving on issues relating to the rule of law, media independence, and violence against women.

Montenegro

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Balkans.com

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Bloomberg

EP News

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Europolitics

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King Peter IIs remains were disinterred from Libertyville, IL this week and flown to Serbia for reburial. King Peter was the last King of Yugoslavia, having fled the country at the start of World War II. He died in 1970 in the United States and was not buried in his homeland due to communist rule. Peter IIs son, Crown Prince Alexander, had requested the return of his fathers remains several years ago.

Serbia

On January 23, Kosovo named Lulzim Peci as its first envoy to Serbia. In turn, Serbia is expected to name its envoy to Kosovo within a few days, although Belgrade has insisted that the envoy will not have diplomatic status.

Kosovo

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Reuters

Chicago Tribune

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Daily Herald

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Eurasia Review

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Greece has blocked Macedonias integration into the EU over a name dispute. Greece has a northern province called Macedonia. While Macedonia is officially referred to as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Greece sees the name issue as a threat to its security. The EU is currently trying to resolve the problem.

Macedonia

Around 100,000 public sector workers have gone on strike in Slovenia over recent austerity measures calling for public employee job and pay cuts. Ten to fifteen thousand people took part in mass demonstrations in Ljubljana. Protesters called for the resignation of Prime Minister Jansa who was criticized in a recent report on official corruption.

Slovenia

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Eurasia Review

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BBC

Fox News

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Focus

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Country News Digest


Bosnia has postponed its Bosnia & first census since the 1992Herzegovina 95 war on Wednesday due to disagreement among the regional governments over how to conduct it. Originally scheduled for April, the census will now be conducted in October and will likely show post-war demographic changes. The last census was conducted in 1991 when its population was 4.4 million.

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Reuters

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Balkan Insight

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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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