Lingering in the Caucasus…

With Bush next door in Georgia, look at what is being said in an Armenian newspaper.

“Hayots Ashkhar” is furious with the high-profile participation of officials from the U.S. National Democratic Institute (NDI) at opposition leader Artashes Geghamian meeting last week with his young supporters. This fact leads the pro-Kocharian daily to conclude that the NDI as well as the U.S. Agency for International Development and other U.S. organizations active in Armenia as “lairs of CIA agents.” “They overtly meddle in the country’s internal affairs and try to sweep local agents connected with them to power,” it says.

Now it wouldn’t be fair for me to draw many conclusions from this since Armenia’s not really my area of expertise. So, let me turn it over to Tim Russo, who actually used to work for NDI in Armenia, for what this might mean.

This post was written by...

Nathan Hamm – author of 2040 posts on Registan.net.

Nathan founded Registan.net in 2003. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Uzbekistan 2000-2001 and received his MA in Central Asian Studies from the University of Washington in 2007. Since 2007, he has worked full-time as an analyst, consulting with clients on Central Asian affairs, specializing in how socio-cultural factors shape risks and opportunities. Follow him on Twitter or drop him a line.