Arrests of opposition members continued this week in Azerbaijan reportedly in an effort to force certification of the highly contested presidential election carried out on October 15. Censured by most that is. According to this report:
In recent days, the US government has joined international calls for an investigation into election irregularities. On October 22, State Department officials acknowledged that Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage called President-elect Ilham Aliyev, son of the outgoing leader Heidar Aliyev, to commend him on a “strong performance” in the October 15 vote. As the international outcry has grown over the Azerbaijani government’s actions during the election, as well as the subsequent crackdown on opposition supporters and journalists, the US stance towards Baku has taken on a more critical tone.
The NYT’s today published this editorial decrying the evils of nepotism and issuing this note of caution:
…the United States would do better to keep the new president at arm’s length and avoid repeating the unfortunate history of supporting autocrats who sit atop oil riches.
The United States is the leading autocrat. Under the guise of fighting the war on terrorism troops were installed in Georgia during the early days of the bombing of Afghanistan, their priorities then and now safeguarding this new pipeline that Azarbaijan is an integral part of and one that is not embraced warmly by Putin. Vlad has only a strongarm for this player:
Russia’s richest man, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was sitting in a Moscow jail cell Sunday after a dramatic arrest which some experts believe could herald confiscation of his company, Yukos, the world’s fourth-largest oil producer.
Arms length? U.S. arms are so entwined it’s impossible to know where one starts and the other ends.
Spreading the wings of democracy? A grounded bird in the grips of oilmen.