By Vestnik Kavkaza
The Azerbaijani newspaper Yeni Zaman reports that on February 27th the 7th Republican contest in the Russian language and literature began in the republic. This year the contest is devoted to the Year of Literature in Russia and the 120th anniversary of the birth of Sergei Yesenin. The contest is organized by the Russian embassy, the mission of Rossotrudnichestvo in Azerbaijan, the ministry of education of Azerbaijan, and the Association of Teachers of Russian-speaking Educational Facilities of Azerbaijan. Over the course of three months 15 regional rounds of the contest will take place. The first round was held in Sumgait at the City Gymnasium. Pupils of the 7th and 8th grades from 18 schools of Sumgait and the Apsheron Region participated in it. The head of the mission of Rossotrudnichestvo in Azerbaijan, Valentin Denisov, and the head of the Association of Teachers of Russian-speaking Educational Facilities of Azerbaijan, Lyudmila Yakunina, addressed the participants of the contest. About a thousand pupils from 210 schools of 11 towns and cities and 37 regions of Azerbaijan participated in the 6th contest in 2014. The results of the contest were summed up on June 6th 2014, on the International Day of the Russian Language. Winners were awarded diplomas and prizes; many of them visited Russia. Another round of the current contest will take place on March 6th in Khachmaz.
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President of Armenia Serge Sargsyan signed an order on the united international economic policy within the framework of international economic cooperation, which regulatee the activity of the Ministry for International Economic Integration and Reforms, which was established in December 2014.
According to the Voice of Armenia, the ministry will coordinate activities of state structures in cooperating with international unions, including the EU. According to the newspaper, the ministry will have to thread between two poles of integration – Eurasian and European, which are considered to be mutually exceptional at the moment. Some people may think that the new ministry has been established due to Armenia’s accession to the EaEU for working within the integration group, but it is not completely true. At least, in the relevant presidential order, the abbreviation is mentioned less frequently than the EU. It turns out Armenia doesn’t plan to reject the European course of cooperation. Moreover, the order stresses economic cooperation with the European Union. The newspaper believes that the biggest achievement of Vache Gabriyelyan, the head of the ministry, will be a balance between the formal choice of integration by Armenia and effective economic cooperation with Europe. He should present Armenia as a country which is not torn by two integration unions, but which effectively uses new opportunities and leverages provided by the EaEU and the EU.
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Kabardino-Balkaria sums up the results of industrial work in 2014. According to the Minister of Industry and Trade of the KBR, Zalim-geri Gubashiyev, who is cited by Kabardino-Balkarskaya Pravda, the pace of industrial growth was 17.4% in comparison with the results of 2013. The industrial production index was 9.3% in 2014. Speaking about manufacturing, which is the core industry in the republic, the index reached 12.8%. It is the highest index in the NCFD.
964 million rubles of investments were attracted for technical modernization.
Some enterprises have developed interesting promising projects on implementing the new industries. Rosgeologis is discussing the opportunity of establishing production of light drilling systems at the Terekalmaz Plant. The republic is discussing renovation of the Tyrnyauz tungsten-molybdenum field with the Ministry for the North Caucasus of Russia, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia, and the ROSTECH State Corporation. More than 1000 jobs are planned to be created there at the initial stage. According to the Minister of Agriculture, Muaed Dadov, last year the total growth in agriculture was more than 1.22 billion rubles.
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Free Georgia publishes an interview with Zurab Abashidze, the special envoy of Premier of Georgia on settlement of relations with Russia. He speaks about his view on Russian-Georgian relations and further steps in negotiations between the two countries.
According to Abashidze, today Russia is almost the only country which has difficult relations with Georgia, and it shouldn’t be so. Efforts have been made on finding a way out of the deadlock the countries got into after August 2008. Abashidze reminded that in late 2012 a format of bilateral dialogue with the participation of himself and the deputy Foreign Minister of Russia Grigory Karasin was established. The most difficult problems of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as well as security and humanitarian problems in this context, are discussed at the Geneva international consultations, where not only Russia and Georgia are present, but also representatives of international organizations, the UN, the OSCE, the EU, and representatives of the Abkhaz and South-Ossetian authorities. The sides have achieved successes over two years - trade and economic and transport communications have been restored. Russia opened its market to Georgian products. Some issues are being discussed. An agenda of the next round of talks in Prague includes implementation of the agreement on general principles of monitoring of customs administration and turnover between the two countries. At the same time, he notes that the talks will take place in a new negative atmosphere which is caused by the agreement on alliance and strategic partnership between Russia and Abkhazia and the agreement on alliance and integration between Russia and South Ossetia.
Speaking about relations with the republics, Abashidze stresses that the Georgian authorities will settle all problems peacefully, thinking about new forms and opportunities for dialogue with the Abkhazians and the Ossetians. Georgia has many times stated its principled approach to the problem. It was stated in the UN and European international structures.
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The president of Abkhazia, Raul Khadjimba, met activists of the Sukhumi Region and stated that money allocated by Russia to Abkhazia as economic aid would be spent on increasing pensions and salaries, and the process would take three years, the newspaper Republic of Abkhazia reports. Implementation of the Investment Program continues. It will be directed not only at social projects, but also at industrial development in the republic. Abkhaz business will have access to beneficial loans. 1.2 billion rubles will be allocated to this. Khadjimba says that more than 1 billion rubles will be spent on restoring roads in the towns and villages of the republic. 750 million rubles will be allocated to restoring the energy system of Abkhazia.
At the same time, the president stresses that Abkhazia shouldn’t put the settlement of all socio-economic problems on Russia: “We say that Abkhazia is an independent state, and we should meet the status not only formally only. We should increase the republican budget, which should be doubled next year,” the president said. He also stressed the need to establish favorable investment conditions in the country.
