Lauren: These Are Articles Sent to Me by Georgian Government Representatives to Prepare

Lauren: These are articles sent to me by Georgian government representatives to prepare me for my meetings with Mr. Yakobashvili and Ms. Tkeshelashvili… so I wanted to pass them along…

1. Mistral helicopter transport ship.
((NOTE: This issue is still evolving, but it appears France has decided to sell an advanced warship to Russia. This would be the largest ever military sale by a NATO country to Russia, and has many members (Germany and most recently the US) questioning the wisdom of the sale. At the same time there is an unofficial arms embargo against NATO ally (and Afghan troop supplier) Georgia, which can’t get resupplies of military hardware since the August 2008 Soviet invasion. And it comes despite the fact that Russia is violating the August 2008 cease fire accord that Sarkozy himself negotiated. Some key issues have not yet been announced/negotiated, including how many Mistral ships France would sell to Russia, and the level of technology they would be outfitted with.))
THE NEW YORK TIMES
February 9, 2010
Gates Voices Concern About Warship Sale to Russia
By THOM SHANKER
PARIS — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told French officials Monday that he was concerned about their plans to sell Mistral-class amphibious assault ships to Russia, although there is little if anything the United States could do to block the deal, officials said.
Russia has been engaged in negotiations for months over what would be the first significant purchase of advanced NATO weaponry since the collapse of communism. Each Mistral warship costs up to $750 million, and the vessels, which can launch helicopters and armored vehicles, would be viewed as a notable addition to the Kremlin’s rusting fleet.
Mr. Gates chose the well-known diplomatic code for disagreement in describing his discussion of the arms sale with his French counterpart, Defense Minister Hervé Morin.
“I think I would just say that we had a good and thorough exchange of views,” Mr. Gates said.
Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said later that Mr. Gates’s meetings here were “very amicable and positive” on issues that included the NATO effort in Afghanistan, but that Mr. Gates “made our concerns very clear” on the arms sale.
The weapons deal has raised alarm in capitals across formerly Soviet territory — in particular in the republic of Georgia, which fought a war with Russia and sees the vessels as a threat that could be based in the Black Sea off its shores.
The maritime Baltic states, also former Soviet republics, have sought information from France about what weapons and advanced technology would be included.
But Mr. Morin emphasized that the cold war was long over, and that Russia is a changed nation. He said that if Moscow is to be viewed as a partner in global stability, then there should be no objections to the French sale.
“We can’t have a double discourse of saying they are partners and then talking about relations with Russia as if it were pre-1991,” Mr. Morin said. He acknowledged however, that “scars” of the Soviet era are still present in some nations of eastern and central Europe.
French officials have agreed to sell one of the ships to Russia and are discussing a deal for three others, according to news reports in France.

THE ECONOMIST (Charlemagne Blog)
February 9, 2010
Why is France selling amphibious assault ships to Russia?
HERE is a story that may get bigger, as the full implications sink in. After much shilly-shallying and contradictory briefing, France has decided to sell Russia at least one, and possibly four, amphibious assault ships. In an unhappy piece of timing, the news broke as Robert Gates, the American defence secretary, was en route to France for an official visit.
The ship involved, the Mistral, is not just any hunk of steel. It is a 200m long warship, whose job is to land soldiers, helicopters and armoured vehicles on foreign shores. It can carry 15 helicopters, 13 tanks or several hundred troops (different reports talk of 750 soldiers, or a 1,000). After one of these hefty ships paid a port visit to St Petersburg, in November 2009, Vladimir Putin said on a visit to Paris: "I can assure you that if we purchase this armament, we will use it wherever deemed necessary."
French reports of the port visit make clear that authorities in Paris were all too aware of the sensitivities of their commercial project. It was, for example, deemed "provocative" when a senior Russian admiral approvingly declared that if such ships had been in the fleet in 2008, Russian forces would have overrun Georgia "within 40 minutes", rather than in 26 hours. After that sally went down badly, the Figaro reported, the Russians were careful to talk about using such ships for peacekeeping operations, and other kindly activities.
Several news outlets have named the French prime minister, François Fillon, as the driving force behind the deal. The Figaro, house journal of the Sarkozy administration, has talked of "doubts" among officials working for the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, which were finally overcome by the "necessity" of finding work for the French naval shipyards of Saint-Nazaire. Various clever-clogs in the French civil service also came up with a nice line repeated by several government members, that "one cannot say we need to build a partnership with Russia and then refuse to sell it arms." French officials have also briefed that the ship would be sold "bare", without advanced weapons systems. Yet last year, Le Monde talked of opposition to the sale from the French foreign ministry.
Hmm. I wonder if all those doubts have been quelled. It is early days, but it is interesting to note that the first French press reports of Mr Gates's visit played down the Mistral sale. Reflecting French official briefing, I would assume, the French reports focus on subjects like Franco-American co-operation in Afghanistan and the Iranian nuclear dossier, which also came up when the defence secretary met Mr Sarkozy and French ministers.
American press reports, in contrast, led off with the Mistral, and made Mr Gates's dismay at the sale announcement plain. Here is how the New York Times opens its first report online:
PARIS — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told French officials Monday that he was concerned about their plans to sell Mistral-class amphibious assault ships to Russia, although there is little if anything the United States could do to block the deal, officials said.
Members of congress in America, including Senator John McCain, have already expressed their concerns about the deal. I have a hunch this is not the last we will hear of the Mistral.

Washington Post
Wednesday, February 3, 2010; A06
Critics say proposed sale of French Mistral ship to Russia will harm region
By Edward Cody
PARIS -- When the French navy's 23,700-ton Mistral-class amphibious assault ship dropped anchor in St. Petersburg's frigid harbor Nov. 23, it was doing more than paying a friendly visit to the Russians.
The boxy 600-foot vessel -- an advanced helicopter carrier, command center and hospital built for power projection and landing operations -- was also advertising its many high-tech virtues with an eye on selling a copy to the Russian navy for about $750 million.
Such a deal, which the French Defense Ministry said is under negotiation, would mark the Russian military's first major arms purchase abroad in modern history. It would also be a seminal moment for France and the West. The sale would be the largest and most sophisticated by a NATO country to Russia and would dramatize the evolving role of an alliance conceived to counter Soviet military power.
The Obama administration has remained silent on the matter, in public at least, as part of an effort to improve relations with Moscow. But six Republican senators, including John McCain (Ariz.), wrote a letter in December to the French ambassador in Washington, Pierre Vimont, complaining that the sale would be inappropriate because it would suggest that France approves of Russia's conduct, which the letter called increasingly aggressive and illegal.
In particular, the letter cited Russia's refusal to adhere to all the terms of a cease-fire negotiated by French President Nicolas Sarkozy in the summer of 2008 to end the brief war with Georgia. Despite promises to the contrary, some Russian troops have remained in territory recognized as Georgian by most nations.
Criticism in Georgia
Georgian officials have been at the forefront of those questioning the proposed sale. Eka Tkeshelashvili, head of Georgia's National Security Council, said Tuesday that her government has campaigned against the sale on grounds that it would signal Western acceptance of a Russian presence in Georgian territory and raise the specter of Russian military pressure on other surrounding nations.
The Russian navy's commander, Vladimir S. Vysotsky, said recently that Mistral ships would be a welcome addition to his aging fleet and that had they been available in 2008, the Russians would have defeated Georgia "within 40 minutes." Vladimir Putin, Russia's prime minister and former president, added to the jitters, telling reporters during a visit to Paris in November: "I can assure you that if we purchase this armament, we will use it wherever deemed necessary."
"They're saying, 'If we have the ship, we will consider ourselves free to use it wherever we need to,' " Tkeshelashvili said in a telephone interview. "They don't see themselves restricted in any way."
She and other critics of the sale pointed to Russia's affirmation of a right to exercise influence in neighboring nations that once were under Moscow's thumb as part of the Soviet Union and now are aspiring NATO members. The Mistral-class ships, which can carry 16 helicopters, several dozen tanks and hundreds of troops, would be ideal for military actions to exert such influence, they contend.
France defends deal
Sarkozy's government said the proposed sale was a logical extension of NATO's repeated expressions of willingness to work with Russia as a partner, not an enemy. Prime Minister François Fillon has been a particularly vigorous champion of the deal, framing it in a context of broadened economic and political relations with Russia, including participation in strategic oil-pipeline ventures and joint automobile manufacturing projects.
"It would be impossible to call for continental stability in partnership with Russia if we refuse to sell armaments to Russia," Fillon said during Putin's visit to Paris. "A refusal would amount to contradicting our own statements."
Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner was no less eloquent in his defense of the negotiations. "We do not want to be prisoners of the past," he said after a negotiating session with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in Moscow.
In addition to cultivating friendship with Russia, a big factor for Fillon's zeal has been the prospect of continuing contracts for the STX shipyards at Saint-Nazaire on France's Atlantic coast, where up to 1,000 jobs are at stake at a time of rising unemployment.
The French navy has put two Mistral-class vessels into service and has a third on order, expected to be delivered next year. Some defense officials have predicted that a fourth and final ship may be ordered later. Except for the prospect of sales to Russia, no other orders are on the horizon.
Russian officials suggested that they would like to buy several vessels, pointing out that their navy sails in several seas and noting President Dmitry Medvedev's pledge to modernize the Russian fleet over the next decade. According to reports from Moscow, they proposed buying one Mistral in a deal that would convey the know-how to manufacture more such ships in Russia.
Seeking to calm critics, Sarkozy's government pledged that the Mistral's most advanced electronics will not be part of any deal and that Moscow's dream of manufacturing its own Mistral-class ships will not be fulfilled. Whether the Russians will still want to buy under those terms may become clear only when Medvedev visits Paris next month, officials suggested.
Correspondent Philip P. Pan in Moscow contributed to this report.

2. Eutelsat dust-up.
((NOTE:The French- and Spanish-owned communications company Eutelsat is in a major battle with Georgia Public Broadcasting for pulling the plug on First Caucasian TV, which is a Georgia-produced, Russian-language news channel designed to be beamed into Russia and surrounding areas. Eutelsat aired the channel for free for a short time and was to begin airing it under contract Feb. 1; Eutelsat pulled it off the air in late January and said they never had a legitimate, finalized contract with GPB. Georgia claims they did, saying Eutelsat’s decision to yank First Caucasian came only after Gazprom’s media group finalized a massive satellite deal with Eutelsat on Jan. 15. Georgia says this is all about censorship, and a European company caving in to Russian political and economic pressure to silence free speech. This issue is still evolving; a court hearing in Paris is scheduled for Feb. 22.))
New York Times
February 2, 2010
Georgian TV Channel Says Russian Company Elbowed It Off the Air
By ANDREW E. KRAMER < SCOTT SAYARE
MOSCOW — In an echo of the cat-and-mouse game of signal jamming in the Soviet Union, a Russian-language television station in Georgia < accusing a Russian company of blocking its broadcasts into Russia < by buying out the spectrum on a French-operated television satellite.
The Georgian station, Georgian Public Broadcasting < , had signed a contract with the satellite operator Eutelsat, < in Paris, to broadcast news in Russian to Russia and other former Soviet states, apparently trying to crack the Kremlin’s near monopoly of television news.
The Georgian channel, which is publicly financed, broadcast on a trial basis for 11 days in January and was to formally begin its broadcasts on Monday. But it is off the air for now, and the Georgians are accusing Eutelsat of caving to Russian pressure.
At a news conference in Paris on Monday, Georgian television executives said that as late as Jan. 14 they had a binding offer from Eutelsat to broadcast the new channel for one year.
But according to the Georgian executives, the French company backed out the next day, after announcing that it had received a more lucrative offer from Gazprom Media < , an arm of Gazprom < , the Russian natural gas < for the same spectrum the Georgians had contracted for.
“It would be easy to interpret the series of bizarre excuses from Eutelsat to GPBS as the result of pressure from Gazprom Media Group on Eutelsat to preserve Gazprom Media’s monopoly in Russian broadcast areas,” the Georgian station said in a statement in Paris.
Eutelsat, in a statement, said it had offered an alternative satellite for Georgia. “We are not refusing to broadcast the channel,” Vanessa O’Connor, a spokeswoman for Eutelsat, said in a telephone interview. “If that were the case, surely we wouldn’t be proposing anything else.”
The Gazprom contract was signed in 2008 or 2009 and was not made public until January because Eutelsat wished to first ensure the proper functioning of the W7 satellite, which was launched in November, Ms. O’Connor said. The satellite carries broadcasts for Eastern Europe and Africa, she said, and most of the Eastern European capacity is now owned by Gazprom.
A spokeswoman for Gazprom Media, Irina A. Zemkova, called the satellite booking purely commercial and said Gazprom Media had concluded the contract “without any political ideas at all.”
Gazprom Media, the largest satellite television company in Russia, will not use all of the new spectrum at first, she said, but will roll out new, data-intensive products like video on demand or satellite Internet. A spokesman for the Russian government did not return calls on Monday.
The Georgian government conceived of the idea of a Russian-language news channel after the Russian-Georgian war in 2008 as a counterweight to the anti-Georgian propaganda in Russia’s state-owned news media, which are widely viewed throughout the former Soviet Union.
Eutelsat has offered to shift the programming to another satellite, called W2. But this satellite would require a type of antenna that few people have in the former Soviet Union, Georgian television officials said. Not only were Russians unlikely to buy the specialized antennas, the Georgians said, but owning one would also immediately identify customers of the Georgian station to law enforcement.
Signals from the satellite would also reach less of Russia’s territory, according to a map on Eutelsat’s Web site < .
“They said they have no capacity, everything was sold out,” Maya Bichikashvili, deputy director of Georgian Public Broadcasting, said in a telephone interview.
Eutelsat first told the Georgian station that it ended the 11-day trial transmission over concerns about the content of the Russian-language programming, Ms. Bichikashvili said. Only later did it assert that transmission was terminated because the satellite’s capacity was fully booked. Ms. O’Connor, the spokeswoman for Eutelsat, denied that content had played any role in the decision to stop the trial transmission.
Henri d’Armagnac, a lawyer for the Georgian station, said that the contract for the W7 satellite became binding once the Georgian side signed it, and that Eutelsat had no right to retract the offer. Georgian Public Broadcasting filed an urgent complaint on Monday in the Commercial Court of Paris; a hearing is scheduled for Thursday.
Ms. O’Connor said that Eutelsat had never entered into a contract with Georgian Public Broadcasting, but that the company hoped to sign one in the coming days.
Andrew E. Kramer reported from Moscow, and Scott Sayare from Paris.