Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
Moldova on Automatic Pilot After the Presidential Election Fails Again
On December 7 Moldova failed in its fifth attempt this year to elect a head of state in parliament. The Communist Party, which governed from 2001 to September 2009 and retains 48 seats in this parliament, blocked the election of Marian Lupu, presidential candidate of... MORE
Kadyrov Requests Additional Funding From Moscow Amid Accusations of Rights Abuses
On December 7 the independent Chechen magazine Dosh (Word) reported that its website was attacked by hackers, who destroyed its news section and part of its archive (www.doshdu.ru, December 7). The attack came days after the magazine received a prestigious award from the Reporters Without... MORE
Russian Combat Training Prioritizes the Individual
As the new combat training year in the Russian armed forces began on December 1, senior officials outlined the priorities for the year ahead, while reflecting soberly on annual training results in 2009. The main change envisages concentrating on the individual skills of officers and... MORE
Mistral Procurement Divides Russian Defense Leadership
Those favoring the purchase of the Mistral-class amphibious assault ship from France had placed high hopes on events in late November moving the sale forward. Mistral arrived in St. Petersburg on November 23 to much fanfare. The French sailors proved excellent guests and Russian experts... MORE
Customs Union with Russia and Belarus Raises Doubts in Kazakhstan
Fielding questions from viewers on state-controlled television channels on November 13 Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev announced that on November 27 the leaders of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan would gather in Minsk to sign final agreements on a Customs Union. On November 17, at a cabinet... MORE
Putin Reassures his Audience and Reduces Medvedev to Irrelevance
Vladimir Putin’s annual talk-show has set a new record as he kept answering questions from carefully selected “common” Russians for more than four hours last Thursday, habitually demonstrating a perfect grasp of innumerable social problems and generously delivering gifts. Direct coverage continued non-stop on both... MORE
Russian President Medvedev Submits Draft Treaty on European Security Architecture
Article 4 of Medvedev’s draft treaty (full text on Russia’s presidential website, www.kremlin.ru, November 30) would create mechanisms to “examine differences and disputes that may arise over this treaty’s interpretation and implementation.” The proposed mechanisms would operate on three levels: first, consultations in variable formats... MORE
Islamic Terrorist Threat in the Crimea
The head of the Crimean Interior Ministry, Gennadiy Moskal, has drafted new legislation to ban extremist groups in Ukraine (Ukrayinska Pravda, October 27). Moskal is also a Kyiv parliamentary deputy from the Our Ukraine-Peoples Self Defense faction (NUNS) and a member of the Peoples Self... MORE
The Security Situation in Dagestan Continues to Deteriorate
The situation in Dagestan, one of the largest republics in North Caucasus, has remained markedly tense. Along with the problem of armed resistance, there are several other burning issues, inter-ethnic tensions being one of them. This issue becomes especially sensitive for the people of Dagestan... MORE
Local Court Rules Against United Russia Electoral Victory in Dagestani City
On December 3, the Derbent city court in Dagestan annulled the mayoral elections that took place on October 11. The decision was astonishing news, given that Felix Kaziahmedov the incumbent mayor of Derbent and a member of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, had been announced... MORE