Vladimir Putin

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said NATO military exercises in Georgia did not help efforts to rebuild Moscow’s relations with the United States in comments published on Sunday.
Putin, speaking in an interview with Japanese media before a trip to Tokyo, said the NATO war games were a signal of support for the Georgian authorities which last week clashed with protesters demanding President Mikheil Saakashvili resign, Reuters reported.
When asked about Washington’s efforts to reset relations with Moscow, Putin said: “As to the NATO military exercises in Georgia, this is of course a signal in the other direction.
“We really hope that today’s leaders of the United States will hit the pedal properly to put a brake on the negative trends in our ... ties and take the necessary steps to make sure they really gain new substance.“
Russia says the war games are dangerous muscle flexing by the western military alliance that have raised tensions in the Caucasus nine months after Russia repelled a bid by Saakashvili to retake the pro-Moscow rebel region of South Ossetia.
Russia’s relations with the United States sank to a post-Cold War low after the war in Georgia and Russia’s subsequent recognition of South Ossetia and another rebel region, Abkhazia, as independent states.

Georgia Case
US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, have said they want to rebuild ties, but Georgia--a transit route for Caspian oil and gas to Europe--remains a sticking point.
Moscow says the NATO war games send the wrong signal to Saakashvili, who has faced weeks of protests by domestic opponents demanding he resign for blundering into the war with Russia and crushing democratic freedoms. Saakashvili, who is reviled in Moscow, has refused to resign. He faced a mutiny at a Georgian military base on the eve of the NATO exercises, which started on May 6.
“Against all this they decide to hold military exercises. It cannot be seen as anything but support for the ruling regime,“ said Putin, according to a transcript of the interview supplied by the Russian government.
“Even if you take the traditional approach of our western partners--the United States and Western Europe--to democratic problems then no such standards are being adhered to today in Georgia,“ Putin said.
“So why hold military exercises there which give such a clear signal of support to the ruling regime? We consider this is movement in the opposite direction.“
NATO says Russia was fully informed about the war games in advance and had been invited to participate.
Putin said there had been positive signals from Washington on efforts to reduce the number of nuclear weapons before a Cold War arms treaty, known as START I, expires in December.
The former Kremlin chief said Russia was linking the talks on finding a replacement for START I to concerns about plans initiated by former US President George W. Bush to deploy an anti-missile system in Europe.
“The new US administration has not yet made a decision on the future of the anti-missile defense system, at least in relation to Europe,“ Putin said.
“Russia will of course link questions about anti-missile defense, and all related issues, to those about strategic offensive weapons,“ Putin said. A new round of talks on nuclear weapons cuts will take place later this month in Moscow.
Germany Criticizes Exercises
Germany’s foreign minister criticized on Sunday the timing of NATO military exercises in Georgia that have angered Russia but said they were planned months before the ex-Soviet republic’s current crisis.
“In the current phase of domestic political tensions in Georgia one should have course carefully considered whether this is the right time to let the exercises take place there,“ AFP quoted Frank-Walter Steinmeier as saying.
It will definitely not contribute to calm.
“But of course NATO maneuvers like this are not something that you plan a week in advance. The whole thing, I suspect, was prepared over the space of three, four months or more,“ he said.

A senior British lawmaker said Parliament will set up an independent body to oversee legislators’ expenses following a series of damaging revelations.
The Telegraph newspaper has been publishing leaked details of expense claims by Prime Minister Gordon Brown and other politicians. They reveal claims on the public purse for everything from cans of cat food and chocolate bars to cleaning services and household repairs, AP reported.
Although most of the claims appear to be within Parliament’s rules, the revelations have tarnished the House of Commons’ image and sparked calls for a clampdown on expenses.
Labor legislator Stuart Bell said Sunday parliamentary governors would set up an independent auditing unit to verify all future expense claims. The government hit record opinion poll lows on Sunday as more details of lawmakers’ expenses, detailing lavish spending on everything from home improvement to pest control, emerged in the press.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s already unpopular administration has been hit by a wave of public distrust over the affair, polls suggested, although the revelations have not spared other political parties either.

Zimbabwe premier Morgan Tsvangirai said his country is on track, despite ongoing battles within the fragile unity government and the strain of a ravaged economy, in an interview published on Sunday.
In an interview with the Sunday Times newspaper in South Africa, Tsvangirai said his first three months as prime minister had been “the most wonderful and awful“ of his life, AFP reported.
“It is only 100 days so far, but this government has consolidated. We have our problems--who doesn’t--(and) some people are not happy with everything that’s happening, but sceptics are now the minority,“ he said. “The majority believe we are on the right track and I believe so myself.“ The erstwhile opposition leader and longtime rival of President Robert Mugabe, said the two had managed to build a “positive relationship,“ even though he accuses the veteran leader of failing to abide by all the provisions of the unity accord.
Despite the problems, Tsvangirai and his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party have repeatedly indicated they will not pull out of the power-sharing deal.
Tsvangirai took office on February 11 after a bloody political crisis over inconclusive elections in March last year, causing months of deadlock over a way forward as the economy bottomed out.

The secular party of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has scored a victory in Indonesia’s parliamentary elections, but will likely be forced to govern with several Islamic parties after a political feud with his main coalition partner.
According to AP, the final tallies, released late Saturday, give the reform-minded leader a boost before he runs for reelection in July. His Democratic Party garnered 20.8 percent of the popular vote in the April 9 election, tripling its showing from 2004.
Yudhoyono’s party now has 148 seats in the 560-seat parliament and without a majority, he will have to team up with other parties to push through much-needed economic and institutional reforms.
But a decision by Golkar party Chairman and Vice President Jusuf Kalla to run for president has caused a rift between the former coalition partners. Yudhoyono is now expected to form an alliance with four Islamic parties--even though they did poorly in the polls. Their support fell from 39 percent in 2004 to 24 percent last month.
Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, emerged from decades of dictatorship in 1998 when Gen. Suharto was swept from power in a wave of pro-democracy street protests. With his ouster came reforms that freed the media, saw a vastly improved human rights record, and tackled graft.

Nepal’s President Ram Baran Yadav asked the Himalayan nation’s parliament on Sunday to elect a new leader to replace Maoist Prime Minister Prachanda who resigned last week after failing to sack the army chief.
The move came hours after a deadline for political parties to form a national unity government with the consensus of all parties, including the Maoists, expired, Reuters reported.
Election of a new leader will not be easy because the Maoists, who control 40 percent of parliament seats, have vowed to disrupt parliament sittings.
Old enmity and mistrust between the other political parties makes the task of choosing a leader even more difficult.
“It is complicated and hard. The party which is going to head the new government has to make big compromises to win the support of many small and diverse groups,“ said Lok Raj Baraj, chief of Nepal Centre for Strategic Studies.
Prachanda, a former rebel chief, quit last week after Yadav blocked his plans to fire army General Rookmangud Katawal, saying he had refused to accept the “supremacy“ of the civilian government.
The Maoists and the army were on opposite sides of a decade-long civil war that caused more than 13,000 deaths.

India Sunday welcomed Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari’s remarks that India is not a threat to Islamabad, saying it is a positive step towards the peace process between the two neighbors.
“It is a positive step. It looks to be a positive step towards the peace process. Pakistan should now concentrate only on Taliban militants who are a threat to the world security,“ an Indian External Affairs official said on condition of anonymity, Xinhua reported.
For the first time, a top Pakistani leader like Zardari has said that India is not a threat to Pakistan and terrorists inside the country is the worst threat for Pakistan.
“Well, I am already on record. I have never considered India a threat,“ the Pakistani president told an interview on the PBS news channel’s popular show “News hour With Jim Lehrer“ in Washington DC Saturday.
“I have always considered India a neighbor, which we want to improve our relationship with. We have had some cold times and we have had some hard times with them. We have gone to war thrice, but democracies are always trying to improve relationships,“ he said.