The former president of Armenia Robert Kocharyan told The Voice of Armenia that he saw no necessity to the Constitutional reform. It was his answer to a question on the acute topic in the political life of the country – the Constitutional reform initiated by the President. “I am sure that there is no urgent problem which the country faces that cannot be solved without the Constitutional reform,” he said. “There is no foreign pressure which could be explained by mismatch between the Constitution and common democratic norms. The initiative of the reform comes from the authorities. Their explanations are poor and dim, and the society doubts about their true goals in the process.”
Speaking about the situation which preceded the Constitutional reform of 2005, when Kocharyan was President, he recalled that the Constitution required that the president had too much power to the detriment of the parliament and the government. He composed the judicial power as well. All decisions by the government had to be approved by the President; the Premier could organize a governmental meeting only according to the President’s order. In fact the fundamental democratic norms of separation of powers and a balance between its branches were violated. At that moment the Constitutional reform was an urgent question in the political agenda of the country and it was an Armenian requirement for joining the Council of Europe.
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If citizens of Georgia are issued Russian passports in a summary procedure, according to a recently adopted Russian law, they will be automatically deprived of Georgian citizenship. To avoid deportation, they will have to use visas or obtain a residence permit, Netgazeti reports. It is unknown how many citizens of Georgia would like to get Russian citizenship in a summary procedure. However, last week Netgazeti conducted a public opinion poll, according to which 12% of 243 people stated that they speak Russian and intend to get Russian citizenship in a summary procedure.
The newspaper warns that along with benefits from Russian citizenship (higher pension, visa-free access to Russia, and so on) there are negative consequences. According to representatives of Georgian official bodies, when the state receives information on issuing foreign citizenship to a Georgian citizen, the authorities begin a procedure of deprivation of Georgian citizenship. It usually lasts for three months.
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“South Ossetia” Newspaper reports that despite stagnation in the republican industry, the situation is not hopeless. A representative of the Committee for Industry, Transport, and Energy of the Republic, Vasily Dzaseyev, told the newspaper that last year the volume of goods which were produced by industrial enterprises which are supervised by the Committee increased by 5 million rubles compared to 2012's figure. In general enterprises of the Committee contributed more than 30 million rubles to the budget. Certain enterprises are being revived. The Bagiat Mineral Water Plant has established a new assembly line with a capacity of 3 thousand bottles per hour. The issue of mineral water export to Russia is being discussed.
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Heads of leading media resources of the NCFD announced establishing of the Association of the Mass Media of the North Caucasus. “Kabardino-Balkaria Pravda” reports that the foundation meeting of the new social union took place in Pyatigorsk. The head of the Nalchik TV Company, Vladimir Vorokov, was elected the president of the company. The goals of the Association are a contribution to dialogue between the authorities and the society; development of the all-district agenda and proceeding information threats for the NCFD and put of its boundaries; and the improvement of information trust by the society.
The Code of the Mass Media of the North Caucasus was adopted at the first session. It says that members of the Association are responsible for the expression and presentation of a consolidated position to the society; they are responsible for improvement of quality of following international standards of journalist ethics.
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The Day of the Republic, a Karachay-Cherkessia newspaper, informs that, according to monitoring of quality and availability of state services in 2013, the Department of the Russian Registration in KCR takes the first place in the all-Russian rating of territorial bodies.\
