Russian President Vladimir Putin (2nd right) is helped by Armenian Presidetn Robert Kocharyan (left) and Kazakh President Noursultan Nazarbaev (3rd left) to form a quorum on the podium with Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon (3rd right), Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko (2nd left) and Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiev (right).
Photo: Dmitry Azarov
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Vladimir Putin's Summit Birthday
Russian President Vladimir Putin celebrated his birthday yesterday, and gave Mikhail Fradkov a present – he appointed the former prime minister director of the Foreign Intelligence Service. Former general secretary of the Eurasian Economic Cooperation Grigory Rapota was appointed presidential representative for the Southern Federal District. Having just attended the summits of the Commonwealth of Independent States, Eurasian Economic Community and Collective Security Treaty Organization, Putin was asked about his birthday by Kommersant special correspondent Andrey Kolesnikov and, of course, he gave an exhaustive answer.
Saturday morning began in Dushanbe with a tortured account before journalists of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili's misbehavior. He told journalists that he had not signed even one of the document there. He did not disguise his pleasure from it. He had killed two birds with one stone: he attended the summit and quieted the opposition's criticism of him for being there.
It is hard to say exactly what happened at the (non-)signing ceremony. There was a great fuss, with presidents running around whispering in each others ears, gesturing and passing around papers. But I saw Saakashvili sign something. Later, the Russian delegation and the secretariat of the CIS took pains to make it known that Saakashvili signed the same documents as the other presidents.
On Sunday, a list of summit documents was made public with a signers indicated. According to it, Saakashvili signed the agreements on the chairman of the CIS executive committee, on the executive secretary of the CIS, on supporting the candidacy of Kazakh President Noursultan Nazarbaev for the presidency of the OSCE and the awarding of the CIS sign of honor to Nazarbaev. In addition, there were agreements on fighting crime, drugs, terrorism and the seizure of cultural treasures and “On Preparations for the Celebration of the 65th Anniversary of the Victory of the Soviet People in the Great Patriotic War” (that is, World War Two). Thus the Georgian president's words to the press seem to have been just gangsta rap.
Saakashvili was already at meetings in Zugdidi, Georgia, on Sunday, when the summits of the Eurasian Economic Community and Collective Security Treaty Organization took place, also in Dushanbe. The EEC leaders were to discuss the customs union with Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan that is supposed to be formed by 2011. That closed meeting was very long and journalists were not informed of its outcome. I heard it went badly with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, until he suddenly got tired of the subject, fell silent and let his colleagues get down to business.
The enlarged session of the summit was led by Putin and went quickly. He paid close attention to Lukashenko as the presidents passed the agreement on the customs union. (The Russian president asked the other leader to “vote for” the agreement, not “vote on.”) Then an agreement on a single energy market was returned to Belarus for further development. Then he mentioned that the next summit will be in Moscow. “Alexander Grigoryevich, shall we meet in Moscow?” he asked Lukashenko. It was a slip of the tongue. Since the next summit will be in May of next year, after the presidential election in Russia, he won't be there.
The summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization was held after lunch. Everyone was tired. Putin reaffirmed that he would sell member states arms at domestic prices, although he did not say when. All resolutions were passed without discussion. The memorandum on establishing relations with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization attracted a lot of attention, being called an attempt to form a counterweight to NATO. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters that the memorandum was strictly a matter of protocol. Everyone believed him.
At the same time, Putin was meeting with Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin, who then told the press that the only barriers remaining to resuming the sale of Moldovan wine in Russia are “technical.” Then I asked Putin what he was doing on his birthday. He is spending it with the Security Council and military leaders.
Andrey Kolesnikov
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 08, 2007
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