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Marine archeologists of the Khortytsia National Reserve in Zaporizhia have raised an ancient Cossack warship, a Cossack oak vessel, which had been lying beneath the waters of the reserve for some three centuries. Director of the Pivdenhidroarkheolohia State Enterprise Valeriy Nefedov told Interfax-Ukraine that the 18-meter long Cossack "oak"-type vessel is a "veteran" of the Russian-Turkish war of 1735-1739. "The ancient vessel was discovered in waters near Khortytsia Island in 1999. But it was impossible to lift it due to the lack of assets. Over this time the unique archeological find, which remained lying at a depth of six meters...

One minute we were driving past a column of Russian armour that, according to Moscow, wasn't supposed to be there. The next we were being held up at gunpoint and plunged into that moment when it flashes in your mind that your life is in real danger. A Lada car had suddenly cut us off and three militia brandishing Kalashnikov rifles were dragging us out of our car. Actually our Georgian driver was dragged from the car; I was in the passenger seat and was shoved out by the butt of a rifle in the arms of a wild-eyed bandit...

Hundreds, possibly thousands, of volunteer fighters from Russia were mobilising to enter the war in Georgia's breakaway republic of South Ossetia last night. Units of armed Cossacks from across the North Caucasus region which borders Georgia were poised to join the battle for the separatists' capital, Tskhinvali. In North Ossetia, the region of Russia which shares cultural links and a border with South Ossetia, lists of men willing to fight against Georgian forces were drawn up. Vitaly Khubayev, 35, from the capital, Vladikavkaz, told the Guardian: "There are already two busloads of fighters leaving for Tskhinvali every day. They give...

MIL-IRAQ-MNF-OPERATIONS MNF fighter jets raid Al-Qaeda hideout BAGHDAD, Jan 9 (KUNA) -- US warplanes destroyed one of Al-Qaeda hideouts and Kazakh forces found a weapons depot in separate operations in Iraq. US F-16 fighter jets dropped two 500-pound bombs, destroying a house used by al-Qaeda to make and store improvised explosive devices in Busayefi, near the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, the MNF said in a statement on Wednesday. According to the statement, the operation, conducted on Sunday, was executed by the MNF Center soldiers. The house-turned-hideout was destroyed and explosive making materials were found and confiscated. Another MNF statement said members...

In the first of a series from southern Russia, the BBC's Steven Eke reports on the Cossacks, who have emerged as an influential political group in the region, strongly supportive of Vladimir Putin and his idea of Russia's "greatness". Village leaders like "Ataman" Viktor Vasilyevich are greatly respected The Cossacks play an increasingly important role in Russia. Their disciplined way of life, patriotism, large families and commitment to work, are seen by many politicians as a model that could help resolve many of Russia's problems. For this, they receive support from the very top. The village of Varennikovskoye is home...

KIEV, Ukraine – Chief Rabbi of Ukraine Azriel Chaikin and the Israeli Ambassador to Ukraine Naomi Ben-Ami met with the leader of the Ukrainian Cossacks Anatoliy Schevchenko and the General Judge of Cossacks Igor Kozlovsky. At this meeting, the Cossack leaders assured the Chief Rabbi of Ukraine and the Israeli Ambassador of their support of Israel as it combats terrorism. As a dean of a local higher-education institution, Mr. Schevchenko said his teaching staff was doing everything possible to explain to their students the importance of supporting Israel as well as the need to fight against anti-Semitism and national and...

COSSACKS WAGING HISTORICAL BATTLE; Two aging and dwindling enclaves fight over fate of priceless relics They were Cossacks. For more than half a century, almost nobody paid attention to New Kuban, a refuge for a people with nowhere else to go. Following World War II, some 300 displaced Cossacks - targeted for extinction by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin - created the 814-acre village in western Atlantic County. There, they laid low and remembered what was. They became guardians of precious artifacts sent from other Cossacks-in-hiding from as far as Australia and China. They preserved the past. Now Russia wants it...

KRASNODAR, Russia -- Thousands of Muslims from a small ethnic group known as the Meskhetian Turks are fleeing this Black Sea region for the United States. The exodus is caused by what human rights groups call a campaign of persecution sanctioned by local authorities and spearheaded by the Cossacks, a Russian militia that fought for the czars and is being revived. In the past year, just more than 5,000 Meskhetian Turks have resettled in the United States as refugees, and 4,400 have approval to immigrate, according to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. Another 7,000 have filed applications that U.S. officials...

KIEV, Ukraine – Chief Rabbi of Ukraine Azriel Chaikin held a meeting with the Getman of the Cossacks in Ukraine, Anatoly Shevchenko, as well as other leaders of that organization. The Jewish leader held the meeting in order to promote inter-ethnic dialogue and to strengthen tolerance and mutual understanding with other ethnic groups in Ukraine. During their conversation, the Cossack leader expressed his deep concern about the recent growth of manifestations of anti-Semitism and xenophobia in Ukraine. He assured Rabbi Chaikin that Ukraine’s Cossacks condemn anti-Semitism and consider any form of xenophobia to be unacceptable, as well as stating that...

(Have at it,gang!)

Cossacks return to state service MOSCOW (RIA Novosti political commentator Vladimir Simonov) - The Saiga hunting rifle beloved of Russia's Cossack community may soon be experiencing a boom in sales if a bill currently going through parliament becomes law. The Duma recently approved in first reading a draft law submitted by President Vladimir Putin on state service by Russian Cossacks. If the bill is passed, Cossacks will be able to return to one of their traditional public roles for the first time in decades. Although the draft does not specify Cossack uniform and military equipment, should it become law some...

VESHENSKAYA, Rostov Region, May 25 (RIA Novosti) - Cossacks asked President Putin on Wednesday to help return Russians to North Caucasian republics. They met with Vladimir Putin in the Veshenskaya Cossack village, where the president arrived at to mark the 100th anniversary since the famous writer and Nobel prize winner Mikhail Sholokhov was born. Chieftain of the Tersky military unit Vasily Bondarev said that the Russian population had reduced from 23% to 3.7% in Chechnya and from 23% to 1.2% in Ingushetia (a republic bordering on Chechnya) in recent decades. "The exodus of Russians from Chechnya and Ingushetia has reached...

Prague, 5 May 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Are you big, strong, moderately educated, and of distinctly Slavic appearance? Say "yes" and you could be in line for a job. These are just some of the key requirements demanded of the Russian president's newly created elite equestrian guard. One more is that you have to be a fully registered Cossack. Not that there has been any shortage of applicants. Twenty-five new recruits to the guard have just taken up residence in their Kremlin quarters -- all of them drawn from the Kuban region of southern Russia, one of the traditional strongholds of...

Putin Enlists Russian Cossacks to Fight Terrorism Created: 13.04.2005 14:15 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 14:15 MSK, 20 hours 23 minutes ago MosNews Russian President Vladimir Putin has submitted to the parliament a draft law on Cossacks, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported on Wednesday. The bill for the first time in modern Russian history allows Cossacks a state role — military, law enforcement and other tasks, including counter-terrorist operations. Cossacks, a separate class within Tsarist Russia, enjoyed numerous freedoms in exchange for the military and border guard services they provided. Being strong supporters of the monarchy, Cossacks suffered from severe repressions...

2005-03-16 21:48 * RUSSIA * FAR EAST * COSSACKS * AMUR COSSACKS TO RE-CREATE ARMY VLADIVOSTOK, March 16 (RIA Novosti) - The Amur Cossack Army will be re-established in the Russian Far East. The decision came up as the Council for Cossack Affairs under the presidential envoy plenipotentiary to federal district Far East gathered for session in Khabarovsk today. The United Cossack Army will bring together the now dispersed Cossack communities in the Khabarovsk Territory, the Amur Region, and the Jewish Autonomous Region. Attending the session were Cossack troops atamans (commanders) from all parts of the Russian Far East, and...

President-elect Viktor Yushchenko, wearing a fur riding cloak, participated Saturday in a traditional Ukrainian Cossack ceremony, accepting a golden mace as a symbol of leadership on the eve of his official inauguration as president of this ex-Soviet state. The ceremony could add to worries among Ukraine's large ethnic Russian population, who fear Yushchenko will cultivate intense nationalism that will lead to discrimination against them. "I am convinced that ... our forefathers were also dreaming of seeing a democratic Ukraine with free people, with free Cossacks," said Yushchenko at the Kiev ceremony, attended by more than 300 Cossacks from Ukraine's south....

The Atlantic Monthly | January/February 2005 Russia's Holy Warriors Fervently Orthodox, anti-Islamic, and proudly militaristic, the Cossacks are on the rise in Vladimir Putin's new Russia by Jeffrey Tayler ..... Last year I joined Russian police officers and Cossack militiamen as they carried out a joint patrol in the Cossack capital of Novocherkassk, on the Don River, in southern Russia. In a clunky gray Interior Ministry van with tinted windows and oversize tires, we made our way through the center of town, bouncing and roaring through thick fog and along cratered blacktop. Probing the murk ahead of us, our headlights...

Ukraine: Crimea's Tatars -- Clearing The Way For Islamic Extremism? (Part 4) By Askold Krushelnycky Crimean Tatars traditionally practice a moderate form of Islam. But there are fears that ethnic tensions between Tatars and Russians in Crimea could provide fertile ground for fundamentalism to take root. RFE/RL looks at how the Crimean Tatars have tried to stop that from happening. Sinferopol, Ukraine; 26 August 2004 (RFE/RL) -- The Crimean Tatars' main mosque on the peninsula is right in the heart of the old part of the Crimean capital, Simferopol. It is the poorest section of the city. The houses are...

Russian Cossacks ride for country againOnce called the last knights in Europe, ethnic group aims to keep the peace in turbulent Caucasus region, MARK MacKINNON writes By MARK MacKINNON Saturday, August 21, 2004 - Page A11 STAVROPOL, RUSSIA -- Once they were the outriders of the Russian empire, feared and fearless warriors who extended the Czar's authority as far as their horses would carry them. Now, modern-day Cossacks are doing the same for President Vladimir Putin, except the horses have been replaced with battered Lada sedans. Suppressed for decades during the Soviet era, Russia's Cossacks are staging a cultural comeback....

As a wave of terror attacks sweeps the country, Russia's warrior caste, the Cossacks, are reviving their role as guardians of the south, reports Tom Parfitt in Moscow Eyes ablaze, Oleg Tishenko runs a finger down the pitted blade of a 19th-century sabre. "We are ready to fulfil our historic duty," he says, making a slash through the air. "We have never been afraid of anyone. It is genetically impossible for a Cossack to experience fear. We must protect the borders of the motherland." Here on Russia's fringe in the Caucasus, a rebirth is taking place. Under threat from Chechen...

"Either Senator Miller has conveniently forgotten a frightening period of American history, or he is willfully demeaning all those African-Americans who were hung from trees throughout the period of racial segregation in the South," said Wade Henderson, the director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. This was in retort to a statement Miller made equating his party's opposition to the nomination of a conservative African-American judge to a lynching. But the question should be raised, what if Zell Miller didn't forget and instead remembers all too well? Perhaps Senator Miller does remember "all those African-Americans who were hung from...

Nov. 3, 2003 Cossack leaders in Belarus accused of anti-Semitism By ASSOCIATED PRESS MINSK, Belarus A U.S.-based Jewish organization on Monday accused Cossacks and Russian Orthodox Church leaders in Belarus of inciting anti-Semitism, and asked the chief prosecutor in the former Soviet republic to open a criminal investigation based on the allegations. Anti-Semitic literature was distributed at a meeting of Cossacks in the capital, Minsk, late last month, said Yakov Basin, the director of the Belarusian office of the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews. Basin said the Russian Orthodox Church leader in Belarus, Metropolitan Filaret, had given his blessing...