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Putin hosts 3 days of summits and parties.
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Posted by: lester

Sunday May 8, 08:34 AM

Odd mix of ex-Soviet rulers meet, some stay away.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday hosts leaders of an ill-assorted alliance of former Soviet states, kicking off three days of summits and glittering parties he hopes will lift his international image.

The high point of the May 8-10 ceremonies will be Monday's 60th anniversary of the Soviet defeat of Nazi Germany in World War Two, attended by over 50 leaders, among them U.S. President George W. Bush and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

The gatherings come after stinging criticism by the United States of what it sees as Putin's excessively strong grip on power and concerns over the risks of investing in Russia rooted in uncertainty over the application of laws.

Russia itself has had to watch its influence, in a region where it once held absolute sway, steadily erode as former subject states shift their allegiance from Moscow and towards a welcoming and more financially alluring West.

The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) joins 12 of the 15 old Soviet republics, stretching from Central Asia on the border with China to the edge of the European Union, with a combined population of 280 million -- half of it in Russia.

They are ruled by an unlikely mix of leaders, most of whom trace their political roots to the Soviet days and who rose to power in elections internationally criticised as flawed at best.

At one end of the political spectrum are the autocratic rulers of much of Central Asia, including Turkmenistan's President Saparmurat Niyazov who has built up a bizarre personality cult, and Belarus's Alexander Lukashenko who heads what Washington calls Europe's last dictatorship.

Most have made plain that they will not ease their grip and allow the 'people power' revolutions that brought pro-Western leaders to office in Georgia and Ukraine.

Tiny Moldova too is slipping from Russia's orbit with its president, Vladimir Voronin, and the only official communist leader in the CIS, seeking more integration with the West.

Security in Moscow was tight amid fears of a strike by Chechen rebels, who have launched attacks during past victory commemorations.

The city centre, awash with Soviet-style hoardings and banners lauding victory over Germany, was cordoned off by police, interior ministry troops and OMON special forces. Heavy trucks blocked access roads and officials said military aircraft were patrolling the skies to protect leaders arriving on Sunday.

"Moscow without Muscovites," read a headline in one daily.

Georgia will be the last port of call for Bush on his tour of the region which began in the Baltic states, also once part of the Kremlin empire but which as EU members now are pressing Moscow to atone for decades of Soviet oppression.

It will confirm Kremlin alarm that Washington is stepping a little too eagerly into its former domain. On Saturday, Bush rubbed salt into the wound by saying the Baltic states were an example of democracy for Russia.

GEORGIAN LEADER BOYCOTTS PARTY

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili -- who came to power in the 'Rose Revolution' in late 2003 -- is boycotting the Moscow festivities after failing to reach a deal late last week with Russia to quickly dismantle Soviet-era bases on Georgian soil that he calls a form of occupation.

Azeri President Ilham Aliyev will also stay away rather than meet Armenian leader Robert Kocharyan on May 8 which is also the anniversary of a decisive defeat of Azeri forces in the war over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, one of the bloodiest conflicts to erupt in the dying days of the Soviet Union.

But Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko, who came to power in the last 'Orange Revolution' and defeated the candidate openly backed by Putin, will attend the CIS meeting.

Putin, who dismisses suggestions that the group is an attempt by the Kremlin to hang on to past glory, says the CIS still has value.

"(It is) a very important instrument that helps us to exchange information, to solve common political, humanitarian and administrative problems. We ... must not lose this," he said recently.

A key goal of the CIS has been to try to resume trade ties and recreate what it calls a single economic space but latest statistics show that the group accounts for just 17 percent of Russia's exports and 21 percent of its imports.

Moscow also needs cooperation from CIS members in efforts to ensure its own stability. Facing an attempt by Chechen rebels in the south to break away, Russia needs help from neighbours in cutting their supply routes.
It deems unjust, Western criticism of its drive against what it sees as criminals and terrorists.

Posted by: Pawel_PL.USA

Nothing to really commemorate ! To half of Europe V-Day was nothing more than a change of occupation and the West sold it's most loyal allies (Poland, Czechoslovakia) to the bandit empire that collaborated with Hitler for almost 2 first years of WW II.