Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
A Military Reform That Does Not Seem to Satisfy Anyone
Last October Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov revealed drastic plans to reform and cut the Russian military (see EDM, October 16). Since then, defense experts, the public, and thousands of officers in active service who maybe forcibly retired at short notice have been seeking clarification of... MORE
U.S.-Georgia Strategic Partnership to Address Georgia’s Vulnerability
U.S.-Georgian bilateral security and military arrangements could come not a moment too soon. This strategic partnership should remedy the security vacuum that the United States, NATO, and the European Union had, each in its own way, allowed to develop in the Black Sea-South Caucasus region... MORE
U.S.–Georgia Security and Military Agreement in the Works
Discussions are advancing on a framework agreement between the United States and Georgia, covering various aspects of relations including security and military cooperation. U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matt Bryza, in Tbilisi on December 16 and 17 for consultations, was tight-lipped when journalists asked... MORE
Turkey Confronts a Disputed Period in Its History
A group of Turkish intellectuals have taken a bold step to open a public debate on the disputed events of 1915, when the Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were forced to relocate, leading to the death of scores of people and the beginning of... MORE
Hard Times for Ukrainian Banks, Central Bank Chairman Under Fire
Ukraine’s banking system is teetering on the brink of disaster. The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) $16.4-billion loan (see EDM, November 12) has probably come too late either to restore trust in banks or to prevent the national currency, the hryvnya, from a free fall. Most... MORE
The Price of Gas and Russian Democracy
Russia’s state-owned gas giant Gazprom is preparing for a major financial hit in 2009. The world-wide economic slowdown has diminished gas consumption for Gazprom’s European industrial customers. The price of gas, which is indexed to the price of oil, has been dropping from the current... MORE
Iraqi Journalist’s Shoes Make Turkish Media Happy
Muntader al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President Bush during a joint press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on December 14, has suddenly become a “poster boy” for Turkish newspapers. Almost all newspapers, from center-left to Islamist, underline the symbolic... MORE
Russia or the South Caucasus: Options for NATO and the United States to Supply Forces in Afghanistan
The incoming U.S. Administration and (less credibly) NATO declare their intention to augment forces and escalate combat in Afghanistan. At the same time, however, security risks have reached unacceptable levels on the route for military and civilian supplies into Afghanistan via Pakistan. The Pakistan route... MORE
Russian Dezyinformatsia Campaign against the Orange Coalition
On December 9 it was announced that a larger orange coalition had been agreed upon in Ukraine. It was formally registered on December 16. The news came as a surprise, as it had been widely assumed that Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s bloc (BYuT) was close... MORE
Russia’s “Strategic Partnership” with China Set to Grow in 2009
On December 10 Chief of the General Staff Nikolay Makarov repeated Russia’s threat to deploy short-range Iskander (SS-26) missile systems as one of the promised countermeasures against planned U.S. positioning of several interceptors in Poland as part of the Ballistic Missile Shield (BMD). Makarov said:... MORE