Translated material
Channels of cooperation
CIS leaders are trying to build a competitive Eurasia
The CIS summit, held within the framework of the XI St. Petersburg Economic Forum , turned out to be, as announced, informal. This quality was as obvious as the framework of the forum itself was implicit: sometimes it seemed that its events flowed into discussions between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Nursultan Nazarbayev. The presidents of Russia and Kazakhstan were the main characters of one of the plenary sessions of the forum, the title of which was: “Competitive Eurasia - a space of trust.” Their partner in the discussion was one of the gurus of Western political science, the author of the famous essay “The End of History,” American professor Francis Fukuyama. Commentators included European VIP officials, EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson and WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy.The Russian president's speech was similar in nature to all previous ones recently, that is, offensive. Judging by the fact that, as Putin said, “general words about the fair distribution of resources and investments cannot solve anything,” the object of his attack was the unfair nature of this distribution. First - in energy markets. Having talked about the emergence of “new significant producers - Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan” (obviously, the order of their listing, not alphabetically, was not accidental) and “new large consumers, such as China and India,” Putin said that “The policies of traditional consumers are far from clear,” and called on them all to engage in strategic dialogue.
The President of Russia shared plans for creating new transport corridors, including “the construction of the second stage of the Volga-Don , opening access to the open ocean for the Caspian states.” Putin immediately made a remark, saying that “Nazarbayev’s colleague has his own vision of the problem, and he will also say about it.” The colleague lived up to expectations in the most sensational way after just twenty minutes. The President of Kazakhstan proposed digging a new shipping canal between the Caspian and the Black Sea, saying that “according to experts, it would be 1000 kilometers shorter than the Volga-Don.” This question, Nazarbayev said, had been studied since the 19th century, and in 1936, on behalf of the Council of People's Commissars, a project for its construction was developed. He chose not to go into further detail. According to Vremya Novostey, the 700-kilometer canal, 70 meters wide and 16 meters deep, is planned to be laid through Russian territory. According to preliminary estimates made in Astana, its cost will be about $5 billion. Nazarbayev also again called for a return to consideration of the project of diverting part of the flow of Siberian rivers to Central Asia.
Mr. Nazarbayev dwelled in detail on the situation in the CIS, which “has been experiencing stagnation for the second decade.” He proposed treating this illness with a “pragmatic approach”, moving on to forming the agenda of the CIS summits according to the principle of “one year, one topic.” A couple of hours later, the President of Kazakhstan, after a general meeting of all 12 presidents of the Commonwealth, being the chairman of their “club”, will state that since there is a consensus on this idea, but the summit is informal, the official decision will be made at the next, “formal” CIS summit. The date of this summit, given the location of it - Dushanbe, looks significant: October 5-6. For those who are unfamiliar with the horoscopes of top officials in the CIS, we inform you that on October 5, the President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon will turn 55 years old, and two days later Vladimir Putin will celebrate the same date. So, for a trip to the Tajik capital, most leaders of the Commonwealth will begin to prepare two gifts at once...
Meanwhile, Mr Nazarbayev continued to outline his initiatives. If we take into account Vladimir Putin’s critical considerations already outlined at this point about the organizations that have become “archaic and undemocratic”, designed to regulate global international relations (using the example of the WTO), and his calls to “think about creating Eurasian free trade institutions,” then Nazarbayev’s proposals looked like practical steps in this direction. Moreover, they were made as an open challenge to Moscow. What is Nazarbayev’s remark that the volume of Kazakh investments abroad, which reached $20 billion, taking into account the Kazakh-Russian population ratio of 1:10, is worth $200 billion and exceeds the $140 billion of Russian investments abroad announced proudly by the Russian president ...
And Nursultan Nazarbayev, listing the problems that hinder integration into the CIS, said: “The greatest danger is conscription, and even more so attempts at forceful reintegration. The principle of voluntariness must be maintained." It is unlikely that there is any other center of power in the CIS, besides Moscow, to which such attempts will be attributed... Nazarbayev once again emphasized this circumstance at the end of his speech, saying that the success of half a century of integration cooperation in Europe is due to the “principle of equality in the community” , approved thanks to the ideological inspirer of the European Union, Jean Monnet, who convinced German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer to accept this principle back in 1951.
Meanwhile, the President of Kazakhstan once again returned to the topic of searching for alternative routes for hydrocarbon resources , which he spoke about a month ago when receiving his Russian colleague in Astana. If Russia ensures free and unhindered access for our goods to the world's oceans, we will not need to look for these routes, Nazarbayev said, “there is no politics here.” His proposals looked ambitious - to turn his capital Astana, in his words, “the center of the Eurasian region,” into the largest center of integration of the region. Create there the Eurasian Club of Bankers and the Business Congress, the Eurasian Club of Scientists and the Bank of New Technologies... And also establish a new EU-CIS forum. Apparently, Nazarbayev’s capital is also seen as one of its permanent sites...
Putin did not have to respond to all these initiatives; he spoke to Nazarbayev. But the answer to both of them could be the speeches of three Western guests. Francis Fukuyama was delicate. To begin with, he criticized Americans who “give too much advice today.” And then, discussing the shortcomings of the development of post-Soviet states, the main problem of which is corruption, he advised the governments of these countries to “act in the interests of the people, not family or colleagues.” This is especially important for states with rich natural resources, Professor Fukuyama noted, where “government activities must be transparent to the media and civil society in order to protect authorities from the temptation to abuse the rents obtained from the sale of resources.”
After this, the economic forum participants and the CIS leaders parted ways. The latter moved to the countryside Strelnya, where they retired to the Konstantinovsky Palace for their informal summit. In addition to the main result stated above, there was one more that did not materialize. The former chairman of the Russian Central Election Commission, Alexander Veshnyakov, was not approved as the new executive secretary of the CIS instead of Vladimir Rushailo.
According to Vremya Novostey, the consensus on this issue was disrupted at the very last moment by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. According to newspaper sources on the sidelines of the summit, the old man recalled to Veshnyakov the critical statements he made several years ago about the electoral system in Belarus.
The hero of the summit, as we predicted (see Vremya Novostei on June 9) , turned out to be the new President of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedov. The presidents of Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Uzbekistan sought and achieved meetings with him. But the heir of Turkmenbashi refused an audience with the President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko. According to VN, Mr. Berdymukhammedov referred to being too busy... It should be noted that, having returned from St. Petersburg extremely satisfied with the work done at the summit, which he reported immediately upon arrival in Ashgabat, the Turkmen president continued to amaze observers with his hectic activity. Within one day, he received the leaders of LUKOIL, TNK-V R, as well as the head of the Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry. The latter, by the way, made an offer to the President of Turkmenistan, which, obviously, he will not refuse - to come as a guest to the SCO summit, which will be held in Bishkek in August. Let us note that Uzbekistan’s participation in the activities of the SCO began with a similar status, which later became a member of the Shanghai organization...
Finally, another highlight of the St. Petersburg events was the next meeting of the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, dedicated to the peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict . Two and a half hours of communication between Robert Kocharyan and Ilham Aliyev (including one-on-one, and then in the presence of their foreign ministers and the three co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group), as expected, were not particularly successful. According to Vremya Novostei information obtained from sources close to the negotiations, two issues were the focus. The first is related to the problem of the Lachin corridor connecting Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, and the second is related to the formal designation of the procedure for expressing the will of the residents of Karabakh, on the basis of which its status will be adopted. There may no longer be a next meeting of presidents in this composition; at the beginning of next year there will be presidential elections in Armenia, the winner of which is confidently called the current Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan.