Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles

OPPOSITION LEADERS WARN THAT RUSSIA FACES INTERNATIONAL ISOLATION

Leading members of Russia’s marginalized liberal opposition have issued a statement criticizing the Russian government’s recognition of the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The statement, which was published by the Internet newspaper Yezhednevny zhurnal, was signed by, among others, Garry Kasparov, chairman... MORE

THE POST-WAR TRAJECTORY OF RUSSIA-EU NON-PARTNERSHIP

Very few features of the “five-day war” between Russia and Georgia testify to the proposition that common political sense prevailed over military opportunism: Russian tanks stopped outside Tbilisi; the Russian Navy did not try to blockade Batumi; and the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline was left undamaged. The... MORE

MONTREUX CONVENTION HAMPERS HUMANITARIAN AID TO GEORGIA

Last month's confrontation between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia has cast a media spotlight on a previously obscure 72-year-old treaty, earlier the purview of historians and specialists, the Montreux Convention. On August 27 Russian Deputy Chief of General Staff Colonel General Anatoly Nogovitsyn said... MORE

BELARUS RESPONDS CAUTIOUSLY TO GEORGIAN CRISIS

One of the interesting features of the Russia-Georgia conflict has been the sluggish support Russia has received from its allies. Perhaps most notable has been the reaction in Minsk, where the government of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has acted ambivalently and still appears to be vacillating... MORE

NAZARBAYEV PLAYS DOUBLE GAME ON SOUTH OSSETIA

As leaders of Shanghai Cooperation Organization member states, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, China, and Russia, gathered in Dushanbe on August 29, the least thing that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev could count on was unanimous support for his recognition of the independence of the breakaway Georgian... MORE

PARTY OF REGIONS SPLITS OVER GEORGIA AND NATO

The Party of Regions expelled National Security and Defense Council (NRBO) Secretary Raisa Bohatyryova from the party’s senior decision-making body, the Political Council, and from the party itself on September 1. Until being appointed NRBO secretary in December 2007, Bohatyryova had been the leader of... MORE

TALKS FOR THE CAUCASUS PACT UNDERWAY

Turkey’s shuttle diplomacy to manage the aftermath of the conflict in Georgia has kept Turkish foreign policy in the spotlight. During a series of visits to Tbilisi, Moscow, and Baku in the first half of August, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan revealed Ankara’s proposal for... MORE