EVENT

US believes Russia can join NATO

Ivo Daalder, the US Ambassador to NATO, announced this after the Russia-NATO Council’s meeting scheduled for September 22, 2010, in New York. He said the North Atlantic Treaty makes it perfectly clear that any European country has the right to join NATO. Russia, being a European country, also has this right, but that choice should be made not by NATO but by the Russian political leadership. There is also the matter of admission procedures. Russia’s NATO membership is a possibility, but it has to be in Russia’s interests, and Russia has to make this decision. BBC reports that Daalder stressed that the US will actively support NATO’s desire to collaborate with Russia regarding the missile defense system. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier declared that Moscow is expecting a clearer attitude from NATO, adding that NATO’s “dual existence between the past and the future has lasted too long.”

Georgians are issued driver’s licenses in five minutes

Georgian police reform has been one of the most successful examples in the entire post-Soviet space. Close to half of policemen were fired in 2004, while the force itself, according to officials, has become more “client-oriented”. All certificates from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia are issued through the dedicated Service Agency. In addition, documents were converted to electronic form. As a result, one may register firearms, get car documents, a driver’s license or certificate of no criminal record in a few minutes. The agency is financially independent. One of the sources of income is the assignment of “attractive” numbers for cars. For example, a number plate with two identical numbers costs 60 Euros, while a plate with seven identical digits or reading as a woman’s name sells for 6,000 Euros. One can, using a terminal, check whether a number is unassigned and learn how much it would cost. According to the Service Agency’s visitors, this new approach to work considerably facilitates the police-civilian interaction and really reduces to several minutes the time required to complete all formalities.

Ukrainian experts call for adequate migration policy

The current state of migration policy in Ukraine, the prospects of creating relevant agencies, as well as areas of further improvement of the migration legislation of Ukraine were discussed by experts on migration issues. Director of the Ukrainian Institute of Public Policy Viktor Chumak said that illegal immigration was discussed for ten years in various formats. “Lately, the Institute of Strategic Studies has joined this discussion. We have no such policy. No doubt, you can live without a state, without any migration policy, in the conditions of anarchy and lawlessness. But the point is that there are serious challenges facing the country. And they must be solved in the framework of clear, adequate public policy. Depopulation is among these challenges, too,” the expert emphasized. He believes that migration policy has never been a priority for the Ukrainian authorities, and the mass emigration of Ukrainian citizens reduces the political burden for the government. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Natalia Ivanova believes that in this case only some social burdens are removed, while others remain. Director of the Institute of Demography and Social Research of NAS of Ukraine Ella Libanova’s conclusions on the Ukrainian migration problems were disappointing, too: “Our actions notwithstanding, people will still go to Poland and Germany...” But nevertheless, the roundtable itself shows that Ukrainian researchers and analysts are concerned with the problem. By Ihor SAMOKYSH, The Day.