Fledgling Democracies

*Russia upped the ante this week in the stare-down with Georgia by sending additional troops to Abkhazia. Here, the Chicago Tribune has the back story and an analysis of Russia’s geopolitical aims in the conflict.

*Voice of America chats with Depty Asst Sec of State David Merkel, who says that Russia would do well to take a more “hands-off” approach to the former Soviet states.

• On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko urged Russia not to set aside the Agreement of Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership, a key treaty setting out relations between the two countries. Russia’s parliament suggested voiding the agreement in retaliation for Ukraine’s EU and NATO ambitions. See the EU Business story here.

• Kazakstan, home to 3.3 percent of the world’s oil reserves, announced that its economy’s growth will slow in 2009, to 6 percent or less after seven years with and average growth of 10 percent thanks to the skyrocketing price of oil. A hefty supply of oil will not be enough to ward off the ill effects of the credit crunch, says this Kazinform story.

So say Russian nationalists, who are doing what they can to reverse the 1954 transfer of ownership of the Crimean Peninsula from the USSR to, well the other USSR (Ukranian Soviet Socialist Republic).

With Ukraine aching for NATO membership, and Russia doing their best to thwart it, this dust-up centers around a naval base in the Ukrainian coastal town of Sevastopol. Vladimir Putin has nightmares of the strategic base falling under NATO command should Ukraine succeed in joining.

The (Scottish) Sunday Herald has all the he said, he said here.

Also see this post on the same topic, from a blog called Windows to Russia.

The folks at the World Database of Happiness recently ranked 95 nations on a happiness scale, asking people to rate how happy they are between 1 (least happy) and 10 (most happy).

Unsurprisingly, Denmark and Switzerland topped the list with ratings of 8.1, while dreary former Soviet republic Moldova came in dead last, managing only a 3.5 rating.

Commentary by Forbes notes that per capita income in the former Soviet republic comes in at a measly $880 per year. We all know money can’t buy happiness, but such a severe shortage of it certainly doesn’t help.

Belarus, Ukraine and Uzbekistan are other former Soviet republics which keep Moldova company near the very bottom of the list.

Just FYI, Americans reported an average happiness rating of 7.3, giving us the 17th spot.

A Russian NGO calling itself the Institute of Democracy and Cooperation, which aims to challenge Western views of Russia, has published a book theorizing that the events leading up to the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, as well as the toppling of Slobodan Milosovec in Serbia and Georgia’s Mikhail Saakashvili’s rise to power all were masterminded by forces in Western countries.

The analysts who make the case point, in particular, to the Committee of Voters of Ukraine, a group the authors say used American funds to resist Viktor Yanukovich, the pro-Russian candidate. Nonsense, says spokesman Aleksandr Chernenko: “The money we received from Western donors was allocated specifically for monitoring the election. After that we haven’t got a penny from anyone.”

Regardless of the credence (or lack thereof) of the allegations the book makes, it’s premise does put the spotlight on just what rights and responsibilites foreign NGOs have when their motives go beyond providing humanitarian aid, and also seek to affect a nation’s politics. Its precisely the concern behind Russia’s decision to closely monitor all foreign NGO activity.

The Discovery Institute’s Russia Blog has a great piece re: the above-referenced Institute for Democracy and Cooperation.