Ukraine warns Russia of rocket tests near Crimea

The tests would begin on Thursday and almost certainly further damage relations between two former Soviet neighbours that treat each other as open foes.

 News Briefs

Ukraine ratcheted up tensions with Moscow on Wednesday by warning the Kremlin its military intended to hold two days of rocket launching exercises near the border with Russian-annexed Crimea.

Rocket exercises near the peninsula would be a first for Ukraine and its was not immediately clear what sparked their preparation.

Ukraine also failed to say whether the tests would involve specific targets or if the rockets would only be fired into the air.

But Moscow last week arrested an alleged Ukrainian military spy in Crimea and accused Kiev of abducting two Russian servicemen from the region.

Kiev accuses Russia of illegally annexing the Black Sea peninsula in March 2014 following the preceding month's ouster of Ukraine's Russian-backed president.

It also accuses Moscow of backing a 31-month pro-Russian insurgency in Ukraine's industrial east that has claimed nearly 10,000 lives.

Russia calls its takeover of Crimea legal and denies either plotting or backing Ukraine's bloodiest conflict since World War II.

Ukraine's Deputy Defence Minister Oleksandr Dublyan said the rocket test launches would begin on Thursday in conformity with international law.

"We are not violating a single international norm," the Dzerkalo Tyzhnya website quoted Dublyan as saying.

Kiev and the overwhelming majority of the international community consider Crimea -- a mostly Russian-speaking resort region of around two million people -- as part of Ukraine.

"We have our own national territory where we intend to conduct exercises," Ukrainian defence ministry spokesman Andriy Lysenko told the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

"And as for (Russia's) threats -- they cannot harm the army's plans," Lysenko said.

Moscow-based RIA Novosti state news agency earlier quoted Russia's aviation authority as saying that Ukraine's rockets would even approach the Crimean capital of Simferopol.

Kiev's media was full of speculation that Russia intended to shoot down the Ukrainian rockets once the tests begin.

But Russian President Vladimir Putin's official spokesman kept to a more cautious line.

"The Kremlin would not like to see any sorts of actions from Ukraine that contradict international law," spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow.

He added that the tests could "create dangerous conditions for international flights crossing the territory of Russia and neighbouring regions".

WB

Kosovo finally gets own dialling code

After years of talks, Kosovo will finally get its telecom country code

 News Desk

Kosovo will finally get its own international telephone code in mid-December after six years of talks with neighbouring Serbia, authorities in Pristina announced Sunday.

The tiny Balkan territory unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008, a move consistently denied by Belgrade.

The two sides have been negotiating to improve ties since 2011 under guidance from the European Union but several issues had remained unresolved including disputed state property and, until now, the dialling code.

"Kosovo will have its own international dialling code, +383," said Edita Tahiri, Kosovo's chief negotiator with Serbia.

The International Telecommunication Union will officially launch the code on December 15, she added.

Kosovo landlines currently use the same dialling code as Serbia, +381.

Under a bizarre arrangement, mobile phone users trying to reach Kosovo from abroad must first dial the code for Monaco or Slovenia.

According to Pristina, the lack of a dialling code has cost it some 200 million euros ($217 million).

Serbian negotiator Marko Djuric welcomed the deal.

"It's an important agreement which will certainly have positive consequences for our relations with Pristina and with the EU," he said.

afp

Ruling party set for landslide win as Georgia votes

Georgians have voted in a second round of national elections that might give the ruling party a constitutional majority

News Desk

Georgia votes in the second round of contested parliamentary polls Sunday, with the ruling Georgian Dream poised for a landslide victory after opposition parties alleged fraud in the first round.

Led from behind the scenes by billionaire ex-Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgian Dream is running against the main opposition United National Movement (UNM), founded by exiled former president Mikheil Saakashvili.

Sunday's vote, which works on a first-past-the-post basis, will decide the fate of a third of the mandates in the 150-seat legislature.

In the first round, which was held on October 8, Georgian Dream won 48.68 percent of the vote in a proportional ballot, while UNM came second with 27.11 percent.

For the first time in Georgia's post-Soviet history, the first round also saw a small anti-Western party, the Alliance of Patriots, clearing the five-percent threshold needed to enter parliament.

According to the first round result, Georgian Dream will take 67 seats, UNM 27 seats, and Alliance of Patriots six seats in the new parliament.

With the remaining 50 seats up for grabs in Sunday's runoff, Georgian Dream was expected to win almost all of them.

Should the party win at least 113 seats, as expected, it would be able to form a new cabinet and pass constitutional amendments.

By 1300 GMT, nine hours into voting, turnout was nearly 31 percent, the Central Election Commission said.

Electoral violations 

 Georgia's Western allies are watching closely to see if the strategic nation -- praised as a rare example of democracy in the former Soviet region -- can cement gains after its first transfer of power at the ballot box four years ago.

Following the first round ballot earlier this month, almost all opposition parties cried foul, accusing the government of massive vote rigging -- a claim flatly rejected by the authorities.

Western monitors said the ballot was competitive, while noting isolated instances of violations and procedural problems.

The vote, which will end at 1600 GMT, is being monitored by international observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the European Parliament and NATO.

Politics is still dominated by Saakashvili and Ivanishvili even though neither holds an official position.

Ahead of the vote, tensions rose in the ex-Soviet republic -- which fought a brief war with Russia in 2008 and seeks EU and NATO membership -- after several violent incidents targeting candidates.

On October 5, a UNM lawmaker's car exploded in central Tbilisi, injuring four passers-by, prompting the party to accuse the authorities of "creating a climate of hatred in which opposition politicians are being attacked".

A few days earlier, two men were injured when unknown assailants fired shots during a campaign rally by an independent candidate in the central city of Gori.

Backsliding concerns 

The poisonous atmosphere around the polarised vote follows years of what the opposition sees as political witchhunts and retribution against Saakashvili and his team.

Saakashvili, a charismatic reformer who took over in the Rose Revolution of 2003, was forced out of the country in 2013 after prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for abuse of power. 

He now works as a regional governor in pro-Western Ukraine. 

The crackdown on his allies has prompted concerns among Georgia's Western allies that the country could backslide after its sole orderly transfer of power in 2012.