19 May 2004 -- The European Court of Human Rights ruled today that Russian authorities violated the rights of media tycoon Vladimir Gusinskii by detaining him in 2000 to pressure him into selling his television network.
19 May 2004 -- Russia today accused new European Union member Latvia of taking an "unfriendly step" by refusing a visa for a top Moscow diplomat.
19 May 2004 -- A report released today by Germany's federal air accidents board concluded that a Swiss-based air traffic controller was to blame for a mid-air collision of two planes in 2002 that killed 71 people, mostly schoolchildren from the Russian Republic of Bashkortostan.
The peaceful outcome of the Adjar crisis in early May has shown that Russia is now eager to preserve peace and stability in neighboring Georgia. Regional experts believe the warming of bilateral ties that followed the recent change of leadership in Tbilisi could also have a positive impact on Georgia's so-called "frozen conflicts."
"Why is Putin's Russia doomed to defeat in Chechnya?" asks self-exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovskii in an article published in "Nezavisimaya gazeta" on 19 May. The article is pegged to the claim made two days earlier by radical field commander Shamil Basaev of responsibility for the 9 May bomb blast in Grozny that killed pro-Moscow Chechen leader Akhmed-hadji Kadyrov.
Prague, 18 May 2004 (RFE/RL) -- The assassination yesterday of Abd al-Zahra Uthman Muhammad (a.k.a. Izz al-Din Salim), the head of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, dominates much of the commentary in the press today. As the scheduled 30 June date approaches for the return of sovereignty to Iraqi hands, several analysts are looking at the possibility that the nation will naturally fracture along religious and ethnic lines, despite Washington's calls for a unified and democratic government to take over. Also at issue today are Georgia's options for reuniting its restive provinces under Tbilisi's central control, and the difficulty of making the news in Chechnya.
The United States says advancing human rights and democracy around the world reflects its values and promotes its interests. The recent scandal involving U.S. troop abuse of detainees at Iraq's Abu Ghurayb prison has been a blow to Washington's image as a human rights standard-bearer. A report issued yesterday by the U.S. State Department paints a mixed picture of the work the U.S. government is doing to promote democracy and human rights in Iraq and elsewhere.
18 May 2004 -- A Russian military court today convicted a navy admiral of negligence in the fatal sinking of a decommissioned nuclear submarine, sentencing him to four years in jail.
18 May 2004 -- Russian news agencies say gunmen killed 11 Russian soldiers in an ambush in Chechnya.
17 May 2004 -- Two Russians abducted by insurgents in Iraq last week were freed today in the southern outskirts of Baghdad.
16 May 2004 -- U.S. national security adviser Condoleeza Rice has said that Washington and Moscow share "a common understanding" on how to bring stability to Iraq.
15 May 2004 -- U.S. national security adviser Condoleeza Rice held talks at the Kremlin on 15 May with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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