
Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles

Russia and Croatia Resurrect Druzhba-Adria Oil Transport Scheme
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin of Russia and Jadranka Kosor of Croatia discussed the oil transportation scheme known as Druzhba-Adria integration during Kosor’s recent visit to Moscow. The trip marked Croatia’s accession to Gazprom’s South Stream project and opened the way for Russian energy companies’ expansion... MORE
Russia’s President Visits North Caucasus Offering No Real Solution to its Main Problem
In the eleventh year of conflict in the North Caucasus, the Russian leadership intends (yet again) to radically change the situation to its advantage. With this intent, on February 27, President Dmitry Medvedev unexpectedly arrived in Nalchik (the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria) (www.rian.ru, February 27).Perhaps the... MORE
Said Buryatsky Reported to be Among Six Militants Killed in Ingushetia
Russian news agencies reported today (March 5) that Aleksandr Tikhomirov, aka, Sheik Said Buryatsky, the Muslim convert from eastern Siberia’s Buryat republic who became the main ideologist of the North Caucasus insurgency, was among six rebels killed in a special operation in the village of... MORE
Croatia Joins Gazprom’s South Stream Project
On March 2, in Moscow, Prime Ministers Vladimir Putin of Russia and Jadranka Kosor of Croatia opened the way for Russian state companies’ expansion into that country and to the Adriatic coast. The Moscow talks covered oil, natural gas, and shipbuilding. Croatia’s energy sector was... MORE
Russia’s Tactical Nuclear Weapons and Eurasian Security
Presidents Barrack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev have pledged to accelerate the negotiation of the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). The new agreement would replace the treaty that lapsed on December 5, 2009. Progress in the US-Russian negotiations has been significant with the working numbers... MORE
Tajik Opposition Disputes Election Results
While the outcome of Tajikistan’s parliamentary elections on February 28 were largely predictable, the opposition’s efforts to challenge its results are rather unusual. Within days of the vote, the country’s major opposition Islamic Renaissance Party (IRP) announced that it would contest the election results, indirectly... MORE
Brussels Ready to Work with Yanukovych for Ukraine
Ukraine’s newly elected President, Viktor Yanukovych, chose Brussels as his first destination for a working visit abroad. Inaugurated on February 25, Yanukovych held talks with European Union leaders on March 1, ahead of a March 5 visit to Moscow. This chosen sequence, as well as... MORE
France Fears the Loss of Mistral Sale
President Dmitry Medvedev’s state visit to Paris was dominated by talks on Iran and Russian aspirations to purchase up to four French Mistral-class advanced amphibious helicopter-carrier warships. French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, was upbeat on both issues after his talks with Medvedev, directly connecting Iran and... MORE
Yanukovych Inaugurated: a Pseudo Kuchma Era?
Viktor Yanukovych was inaugurated as Ukraine’s new president on February 25. His first steps and statements have proved reminiscent of President Leonid Kuchma’s (1994-2004) first term. Yanukovych selected Kuchma’s former secretary as the head of his administration and demonstrated that in foreign policy he will... MORE
The North Caucasus Receives Unprecedented Attention from Russian Leaders
On March 1, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made an unannounced brisk visit to the North Caucasus. In the North Ossetian town of Beslan, Putin met the head of North Ossetia, Taimuraz Mamsurov, and in the capital of Ingushetia, Magas, he held a longer meeting with... MORE