BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

13/06/2007

Alexander Lukashenko Objects to Russia's Choice

// Alexander Veshnyakov does not become executive secretary of the CIS

Russian President Vladimir Putin flew to St. Petersburg last weekend. But the real newsmaker was Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Kommersant special correspondent Andrey Kolesnikov thinks, for vetoing Alexander Veshnyakov's candidacy for executive secretary of the CIS.

The St. Petersburg Economic Forum just occurred. Putin flew in from the G8 summit for it. Against that background, the CIS summit could easily have gotten lost, were it not for Lukashenko and CIS Executive Secretary Vladimir Rushailo.

Early Saturday morning, Putin met with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili. "I know that there are problems now with the electricity supply in Tbilisi now," Putin told him. Saakashvili said that that was not so. "In any case, it was in the Russian media," Putin insisted.

"Georgia, naturally, has not just always been ready to engage in beneficial dialogue with Russia, but is simply obliged to pursue such a dialogue. The relations between our countries should be as close and friendly as possible, and this is the main strategic principle guiding our approach to relations with Russia. We seek close and friendly relations based on respect, on the principle of territorial integrity, and on recognition of each other's interests," Saakashvili said. The most important words there for him were "territorial integrity."

"I did not doubt that you would take note of our position in the discussions on the fundamental principles of international law," Putin replied. "These discussions were above all about the Balkans, but as you know, our position has always been based on the need to respect the fundamental principle of respect for countries' territorial integrity. Unfortunately, attempts are being made to dilute these fundamental principles and this, of course, creates problems for us in the post-Soviet area."

Saakashvili agreed readily with that.

Later that morning, Putin met with Uzbek President Islam Karimov. All the CIS leaders were present, including new Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, who seems not to have lost interest in the outside world yet.

The main interest provided by the summit was the approval of former chairman of the Russian Central Elections Commission Alexander Veshnyakov the next day. Sunday morning began with the leaders visiting an exhibit of the Russian economy at the economic forum that included robots that danced to rap music.

Putin handed out the Global Energy Prize. His comments at the conclusion of the award ceremony were more substantive than those at the beginning.

"All of us around the world face problems of one kind or another," the Russian president said, "or challenges, as is the fashionable word these days. All of us, each and every inhabitant of this world, feel the impact of these problems in our daily lives even if we do not think about them on a daily basis and even if we are not even aware of their existence. A considerable number of these problems are related to the energy sector. One of the greatest global challenges is that non-renewable energy sources are declining while demand for energy continues to grow, and careless use of traditional energy sources, to put it mildly, leads to serious and often irreversible environmental consequences. But the Earth's environment, the whole ecological system of the Earth and the Sun, to take a more global view, everything that surrounds us, is very vulnerable so vulnerable that any careless action can potentially destroy it. This is why, as I said in my opening remarks, we made energy the main item on the agenda of the G8 summit in St Petersburg last year, and why, on our German partners' initiative, we devoted considerable attention to climate change and environmental protection over the last two days in Heiligendamm in Germany. This was the initiative of our German friends and I saw how the federal chancellor, Mrs. Merkel, fought to ensure that these issues are addressed on the international level. Not everything that had been hoped for was accomplished because different countries have different approaches regarding these problems, but I think that the main issues were nevertheless resolved.

It might be more accurate to say that nothing that was hoped for was accomplished, since the final statement at the G8 did not contain specific targets for carbon dioxide emissions.

The president then looked at the economic exhibition himself before addressing the economic forum.

"As one of the participants and organizers of today's event put it," the Russian president said, "those present here today represent, figuratively speaking, more than half the world's GDP'. I would like to note too that traditionally, the economic and political leaders attending this international forum discuss not only economic issues but also take the opportunity to discuss and formulate positions on vital strategic issues and questions of truly global significance. The world is changing literally before our very eyes. Countries that seemed hopelessly backward only yesterday are becoming the world's fastest growing economies today."

This was a rare moment when journalists could see all the CIS leaders together, since their summits are becoming more and more closed, as they become more heated.

"Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan have become independent suppliers of fossil fuels to the world market," Putin said. "At the same time, the policy pursued by traditional consumers is far from unambiguous. We understand their desire to ensure energy independence and to diversify energy sources, but the policies they follow have a direct impact on the interests of supplier countries... The new steps we are taking aim to ensure energy security for the entire Eurasian continent. This is true also of the projects which we are planning and which we are carrying out together our neighbors and partners in this sector - Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Above all, of course, we are talking about the production and supply of fossil fuels - oil and gas. This encompasses the construction of the Northwest Gas Pipeline and Burgas-Alexandropoulis oil pipeline... We plan to modernise existing transport corridors and create new international transport corridors joining Europe to Central Asia and the Far East. We have also announced plans to build a second section of the Volga-Don Canal and give the Caspian Sea countries access to the world's oceans."

Apparently having some polemics left over from the G8 summit, the president criticized international financial organizations, saying that, "The new architecture of economic relations implies a principally new approach to the work of international organizations. It has become increasingly apparent of late that the existing organizations are not always up to the measure in regulating global international relations and the global market. Organizations originally designed with only a small number of active players in mind sometimes look archaic, undemocratic and unwieldy in today's conditions. They are far from taking into consideration the balance of force that has emerged in the world today. This means that the old decision-making methods do not always work. The World Trade Organization and the Doha round of trade negotiations, which are proceeding with great difficulty, to put it mildly, provide a clear example in this respect."

According to the World Bank, Russia accounts for 1.71 percent of the world GDP. Publishing figures like that is probably what makes it archaic. A few hours after Putin's speech, Minister of Economic Development and Trade German Gref held a press conference at which he stated that Russia may join the WTO by the end of next year.

While Gref was speaking, the CIS summit began and ended. It lasted a total of 40 minutes. All important issues had been settled the day before. Kommersant has learned that Lukashenko informed Putin and Kazakh President Noursultan Nazarbaev, who is now chairman of the CIS, that he is opposed to the candidacy of former chairman of the Russian Central Elections Commission Alexander Veshnyakov for executive secretary of the organization. Any CIS leader can veto a candidate for that position. Therefore, Veshnyakov was not even discussed by the leaders and the presidential press services claimed that they never intended to.

The problem with Veshnakov was that he had made several public statements about the lack of democracy and the non-transparency of elections in Belarus. Lukashenko had waited a long time to get even with him.

Andrey Kolesnikov

Source:

http://www.kommersant.com/p773574/r_527/CIS_summit_economic_forum/

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