The Jamestown Foundation: The Jamestown Foundation

Controversial Osh Mayor's Fate Hinges On Election A EurasiaNet Partner Post from: The controversial mayor of Osh faces an uncertain future on March 4 as residents vote for a new city council. Mayor Melis Myrzakmatov, whose critics accuse him of doing little to prevent the deadly ethnic clashes in Osh two years ago, will have to resign if his National Unity party fails to win a majority of the council's 45 seats. The contest, the first since the Osh violence, includes a total of eight parties fielding 706 candidates. The government in Bishkek, which has long sought to remove Myrzakmatov, is mounting the strongest challenge. Both President Almazbek Atambaev's Social Democrats and Prime Minister Omurbek Babanov's Respublika have been campaigning for months in the city to fight the mayor's well-entrenched political machine. That machine was on display on March 1 when up to 15,000 of Myrzakmatov's supporters rallied. Former Osh regional police chief Abdylda Kaparov told the crowd that the city stands firmly behind its mayor. Divided City

Johnson's Russia List Government, Politics, Elections, Protests - archive :: Putin Urges Duma Dominance as Medvedev Promotes New Parties Opposition leaders who organized protests that erupted after alleged Duma election fraud in December say that a new law proposed by lame duck president Medvedev will not prevent authorities from blocking the formation of parties wishing to compete in elections ... Ilya Arkhipov and Stepan Kravchenko, Bloomberg ; JRL 2012-62, 4.4.12 :: Moscow Region Governor to Leave Post in May The powerful governor of the Moscow region will step down once his term ends in May, signaling that the Kremlin is serious about removing unpopular governors before the possible return of direct gubernatorial elections this year ... U.S. :: Russian Pundits Say 'Reset' With USA Over, Mull Future Of Bilateral Ties Two Russian pundits interviewed by state-owned RIA Novosti news agency have said that U.S. :: Video: Ambassador Mike McFaul Interview with VOA - Back to the Top - Middle East, Syria - archive Interfax

Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs What is RSS? RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds are files which can be loaded into RSS viewers, and automatically display new content from the Chatham House website. This allows you to keep up to date with news from Chatham House without having to view every section of the website. An RSS service (or channel) consists of a list of items, each of which contains a headline, a description, and a link back to a web page on the Chatham House site. You can choose to sign up to the main chathamhouse.org feed (Chatham House - What's New below), which will stream the headlines of all new Chatham House content to you, or you may prefer to receive a feed only on, for example, new Africa-related material. How do I use RSS? To begin using RSS, you need an RSS reader. Once you have chosen your RSS reader you can subscribe to RSS feeds by cutting and pasting the URL of the RSS feed into your news reader How do I use Podcasts RSS? Complete List of Available RSS Feeds: Chatham House - What's New Americas

Kyrgyz parliament approves new coalition government Kyrgyzstan's parliament voted on Friday to accept the structure of the new coalition government, which vowed to follow through on reforms designed to build parliamentary democracy in the country. Social Democratic Party leader Almazbek Atambayev, who told the parliament that his government would and put an end to the period of instability and disorder in the country, was appointed prime minister. The coalition government comprises Social Democrats, Ata Zhurt and Respublika, three of the five parties elected to parliament in the October elections. Atambayev pledged that first of all he would make an official visit to Moscow, which has "provided the greatest support to the republic." The new government will build good-neighborly relations with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, China and Tajikistan, Atambayev said, adding that cooperation with the European Union, United States and Turkey will also be bolstered. MOSCOW, December 17 (RIA Novosti)

The Moscow News Adam Smith Institute Kirghizstan: l'ex-dictateur serait à l'origine des violences Les violences se sont poursuivies lundi dans le sud du Kirghizstan, faisant au moins 124 morts et 1.700 blessés. Les affrontements ont été très violents à Och, la deuxième ville du pays. Des coups de feu ont éclaté, des corps calcinés étaient visibles dans les rues et des maisons ont été incendiées. Le clan Bakiev à la manœuvre Les violences interethniques ont éclaté vendredi à Och entre des Kirghiz et la minorité ouzbeke (15 à 20% de la population). >> Le Kirghizstan, un pays rongé par les tensions régionalistes et les intérêts russo-américains Selon David Gaüzere, spécialiste du Kirghizstan, ces violences interethniques sont orchestrées à distance par le richissime clan de l'ex-dictateur Kourmanbek Bakiev, chassé du pouvoir par un soulèvement populaire en avril et réfugié en Biélorussie. faustine vincent Mobilisation Lundi, la communauté internationale a commencé à se mobiliser.

The Moscow Times | Russia's only daily English-language newspaper DIW Berlin Pourquoi le sud du Kirghizistan s'embrase Comment s'est enclenchée la spirale de violence qui a fait au moins une centaine de morts et 1 200 blessés dans le sud du Kirghizistan ? Depuis jeudi soir, de violentes émeutes ont lieu dans les villes du sud du pays. De nombreux témoignages décrivent les expéditions punitives menées par des Kirghizes armés dans les quartiers ouzbeks, où des maisons sont pillées et incendiées. A l'origine des émeutes, une rumeur qui s'est propagée dans la journée de jeudi. "Le prétendu viol d'une femme kirghize par des Ouzbeks a déclenché une bagarre entre de jeunes Kirghizes et Ouzbeks, qui s'est transformée par la suite en émeutes dans la nuit du 10 au 11 juin à Och", explique le politologue Sergueï Massoulov, interrogé par l'AFP. "Ce qui se passe actuellement dans le Sud n'est pas un conflit ethnique", estime M. Au-delà du rôle supposé des organisations criminelles dans les violences, les tensions entre Kirghizes et Ouzbeks sont une réalité dans le pays.

Russia Press Review Domenico Dispenza, president of the International Group of LNG Importers and former chief operating officer of Eni‘s gas and power division, speaks to Interfax about the group‘s new report on global LNG imports for 2013. more Interfax spoke to Dr. Leonhard Birnbaum, member of the board of management for markets and services at E.On, about the energy balance in Europe and gas’s place in it. more On Friday, March 14, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. more NATO Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow has given an interview to Interfax correspondent Ksenia Baigarova in which he speaks about the Ukrainian crisis, its consequences for NATO-Russia relations, differences of the Kosovo and Crimean situations, and a possibility of a new Cold War. more The Middle East has always lured investors with its oil and gas resources, but the political risks in this region are also high. more more more