
Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles

Presidential Election Campaign Paralyzes Ukrainian Parliament
Ukrainian lawmaking has fallen victim to the presidential election campaign. Parliament has failed to resume its work after the summer vacation as the opposition Party of Regions (PRU) physically blocks the rostrum making it impossible to vote. The party is protesting against the refusal by... MORE

Moscow Reduces Aid to the North Caucasus: Jeopardizing the Precarious Security Environment
On September 11, the Russian minister for regional development, Dmitry Kozak, announced that because of the ongoing economic crisis, Moscow will have to divert some of the financial aid earmarked for the North Caucasus republics to other regions of Russia (www.kavkaz-uzel.ru, September 12). The move... MORE

Gazprom Targets Larger Share of the U.S. Energy Market
On July 31 the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin formally launched the construction of the new strategic 1,800 kilometer Sakhalin-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok natural gas pipe-line, which is designed to ensure exports to the Asian Pacific Region (APR) from a new Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant to be... MORE

Russian Military Digs in for the Long Haul in Georgian Territories
On September 15 in Moscow, the Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov signed agreements on military cooperation with the "defense ministers" (Russian citizens Kishmaria and Tanayev) of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. On the same occasion Russia's Border Guard Service command, subordinated to the Federal Security Service... MORE

Cyprus Peace Talks Intensify
The troubled peace talks have resumed in Cyprus after Greek Cypriot officials boycotted them in the first week of September. As the second part of the negotiations began, the Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat and his Greek Cypriot counterpart Dimitris Christofias met for their... MORE

NATO Supply Routes Through the South Caucasus
As the situation in the Khyber Pass deteriorates the region of the South Caucasus is becoming an increasingly viable option for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) non-military supply routes to Afghanistan. In March 9-11, transportation and logistics experts from Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan met... MORE

Corruption in Kazakhstan’s Airmobile Forces
Kazakhstan's defense ministry is actively preparing to host the final stage of the Collective Operational Response Force (CORF) exercise in October. On September 7 Army-General Mukhtar Altynbayev, the Chairman of Kazakhstan's Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed that the planning phase of the exercise in the... MORE

Turkmenistan Still Taking “Time-Out From Gazprom”
Presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov met on September 13 in the city of Turkmenbashi to discuss a possible resumption of Turkmen gas deliveries to Russia. The Russian side stopped taking deliveries through the Central Asia-Center pipeline in early April this year, exploiting its monopsony... MORE

Davutoglu’s Visit to Iran Highlights Ankara’s Regional Diplomacy
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu paid an official visit to Iran on September 12-13. He met the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, Parliamentary Speaker Ali Larijani and the Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council and Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili.... MORE

The Ukrainian Coal Mining Industry: Problem Child or Savior?
Coal mining, and especially coking coal, has been a very problematic industry in Ukraine -it is highly inefficient due to outdated machinery and the depth of its mines. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), "The average mine depth is more than 700 meters; in... MORE