Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
Armored Trains Return to the Russian North Caucasus
A weapon thought by many to belong to military museums is making a return to active anti-insurgency operations in the North Caucasus: the armored train. First used for such purposes in the American Civil War, armored trains and the tactics associated with their use were... MORE
Russian Military Doctrine Looks East
Statements by senior Russian defense officials raise many questions concerning Moscow’s defense posture. The Chief of the General Staff Army-General Nikolai Makarov and the First Deputy Defense Minister Army-General Nikolai Pankov recently chaired a roundtable with Russian journalists in Moscow, devoted to military reform. Noting... MORE
Central Asia’s Energy Wars
Since the winter energy crisis two years ago, when freezing temperatures lasted for several weeks, cooperation dynamics within Central Asia have witnessed rapid change. Upstream Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, which rely on electricity imports during winter, were hit particularly badly as they were unable to supply... MORE
British Delegation Notes “Progress” and “Climate of Fear” in Chechnya
On February 16-17, a delegation of the British parliament’s committee on human rights visited Chechnya. A member of the delegation, Lord Frank Judd, who was formerly the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) rapporteur for Chechnya, stated that he was impressed by the... MORE
Russia’s Military Doctrine: New Dangers Appear
In the immediate aftermath of President Dmitry Medvedev signing the new Russian military doctrine most attention focused on the fact that a first preemptive nuclear strike was not mentioned in the document and on the attention given to NATO as the chief source of “danger”... MORE
Russian Authorities Threaten BP Assets at Kovykta Project
Russia’s Natural Environment Inspectorate (RosPrirodNadzor) has recommended that BP’s joint venture in Russia, TNK-BP, be stripped of the giant Kovykta natural gas project in eastern Siberia (Interfax, February 19).Located in eastern Siberia’s Irkutsk oblast, the Kovykta field holds an estimated 2 trillion cubic meters of... MORE
Yevkurov’s Bloody Ramsons
A special operation in the vicinity of settlements of Arshty and Dattykh ended along the lines of a classic phrase authored by former Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin: “We wanted the best, but it turned out as it always does.” This broadly advertised operation implemented... MORE
Moscow Struggles to Control and Modernize the North Caucasus
On February 16, President Dmitry Medvedev met the President of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick. The World Bank’s possible involvement in the development of the North Caucasus became one of the three main topics of their discussion. This may signify a major retreat from the... MORE
Belarus Targets the Union of Poles
On February 8, around midday, about twenty Belarusian police and officials from the Valozhyn district court descended on the Polish House in Ivyanets (Iweniec), 40 miles west of Minsk, ordered all personnel to leave, and then changed the locks. The Belarusian authorities claimed that the... MORE
Gazprom Playing With Poor Options on South Stream in the Black Sea
On February 17 in Bucharest, Gazprom Vice-President Aleksandr Medvedev conferred with Romanian officials on a range of bilateral projects. Medvedev hinted at possible Romanian participation in Gazprom’s South Stream pipeline project, from Russia to Europe via the Black Sea. On the previous day in Sofia,... MORE