Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
Can Egemen Bagis Revive Turkey’s Stalled EU Accession Process?
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan selected Istanbul parliamentary deputy Egemen Bagis as the new chief negotiator for Turkey’s membership negotiations with the European Union. Erdogan also moved the Secretariat General for EU Affairs (ABGS) from the Foreign Ministry to the Prime Minister’s office under Bagis,... MORE
Belarus Devalues Its Currency
On January 2 residents of Belarus learned that the national currency—the Belarusian ruble (known locally as the zaichik or hare)—had been devalued by 20.5 percent against the US dollar, falling from around 2,200 to 2,650. In November and December the administration of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka... MORE
U.S. and Georgia Sign Strategic Partnership Charter
On January 9 in Washington, barely a week before the change of administrations there, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Minister of Foreign Affairs Grigol Vashadze signed the U.S.-Georgia Charter on Strategic Partnership. The document and the overall guiding concept primarily involve issues of hard... MORE
A War Like No Other: Putin Mishandles Another Gas Conflict
Two weeks after the traditional turn of the valve in the first minute of the new year, the disagreement between Russia and Ukraine over the trade and transit of natural gas is still not resolved, and it is not only the duration that makes this... MORE
Ergenekon Investigation Has Potential to Harm Civilian-Military Relations
On January 7 the investigation into Ergenekon, a clandestine neo-nationalist criminal network that allegedly plotted to stage a military coup, resulted in a new wave of high-profile arrests in Sivas, Ankara, and Istanbul. The network reportedly has members from many segments of society, including military... MORE
Uncertain German Perspectives on Energy Relations with Russia
Beyond the energy sector itself, natural gas induces structural dependency at the macroeconomic level. The pipeline mode of delivery is based on long-term contracts, locking in the predominant share of the German market for Russia. The spot market for natural gas, which could provide an... MORE
Germany Vulnerable to Russian Energy Supply Manipulations
Russia’s halt of gas deliveries via Ukraine to Europe in mid-winter underscores Germany’s dilemmas on energy security and policy. Those dilemmas are largely unnecessary and even self-inflicted. The country has allowed itself to drift—and to some extent be maneuvered—into a situation of overdependence on Russian... MORE
The Kremlin Reacts to Systemic Crisis with Plans to Beat Up the People and Arrest Dissidents
"A Happy New 1937 [the peak of Stalin's Great Terror] to you," Moscow wits quipped on January 1, 2009, while the Putin regime, frightened and incompetent in the face of a mounting systemic crisis, prepared to lock up protesters and squash mass protests with crude... MORE
“We Will Not Let Our People Go Cold,” Says Turkish Energy Minister
The dispute between Russia and Ukraine over natural gas prices continues to threaten the energy supply to Europe in the midst of plunging temperatures (EDM, January 5). The disruptions caused by the row between the Russian gas company Gazprom and Ukraine’s Naftohaz has already led... MORE
Kyrgyz Opposition Plans Spring Revolt
During a visit to the United States from December 10 to 19, the leader the Kyrgyz Ata Meken opposition party, Omurbek Tekebayev, his colleagues, and representative of the For Justice movement repeatedly mentioned a plan to challenge President Kurmanbek Bakiyev this March by organizing crowds... MORE