Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
WESTERN INERTIA FUELS RUSSIAN DRIVE IN CENTRAL ASIA
On a visit to Astana on October 5, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced to the press in a conspicuously diplomatic tone that the United States had no intention of undermining Russian interests in Central Asia or drawing Kazakhstan into the American sphere of... MORE
CONSTITUTIONAL COURT RULING ON HEADSCARF DEEPENS THE DEMOCRACY CRISIS IN TURKEY
In February the Justice and Development Party (AKP) teamed up with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and amended Articles 10 and 42 of the Constitution to lift the ban on headscarves on university campuses. The Republican Peoples Party CHP appealed to the Constitutional Court to... MORE
OFFICIALS WARN OF A POSSIBLE RUSSIA-GEORGIA WAR IN THE FUTURE
The withdrawal of Russian soldiers two weeks ago from the so-called "buffer security zones" around Georgia’s breakaway territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia did not stabilize the situation. The buffer zone around South Ossetia, occupied by Russian troops during the war with Georgia last August,... MORE
MOSCOW SEEKS MORE EXCUSES FOR PROLONGING NAVAL PRESENCE IN SEVASTOPOL
For the first time since the Soviet era, Russia’s Black Sea Fleet undertook an offensive operation in August of this year when it attacked Georgia, landing Russian ground forces in Abkhazia. The Russian Fleet, mainly based in Sevastopol, misused Ukraine’s territory and abused Ukraine’s neutrality... MORE
PROTESTS AGAINST U.S. MILITARY PRESENCE HELD IN BISHKEK
According to the results of opinion poll conducted by 24.kg news agency in Kyrgyzstan, majority of respondents (46 percent) see Russia as a genuine ally, while the United States scored less than 4 percent (www.24.kg , October 8). The United State earned the most (37... MORE
PROTESTS CONTINUE IN KURDISH CITIES IN TURKEY
On October 17 lawyers for imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan claimed that prison personnel had physically attacked Ocalan and threatened him by saying that when the time came he would be killed (Firat News Agency, October 17). Immediately after the statement was released, the Kurdistan... MORE
RUSSIA SEES EASTERN PIPELINE AS A “MAJOR VICTORY”
The Kremlin has moved to expedite construction of the Eastern Siberia Pacific Oil Pipeline (ESPO), as a project considered of the utmost importance in terms of the domestic economy and foreign policy considerations. Russia's pipeline monopoly Transneft inaugurated the 660- mile (1,100-kilometer) completed section of... MORE
KAZAKHSTAN AND RUSSIA PLAN AIR DEFENSE EXERCISE
Kazakhstan and Russia are in the final stages of planning large-scale training of their air defense forces. Shield-2008 will be held in western Kazakhstan as a joint air defense exercise, intended to deter “air raids and missile attacks” on either country. According to Abay Tasbulatov,... MORE
UKRAINIAN CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONS COME UNDER STRAIN
Like the political crisis in the spring of 2007, the crisis unfolding since September has placed great strains on law enforcement agencies (see EDM, June 1, 2007). On April 2, 2007, and now again on October 8, the president disbanded parliament. In the spring of... MORE
WILL RUSSIA’S FINANCIAL CRISIS UNDERMINE POLITICAL STABILITY?
First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov has said that while the Russian state could end up owning a significant share of private companies as the result of bail-out measures currently being implemented, the government had no plans to “nationalize” their stakes and would put them... MORE