Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
Russia’s Eastern Siberian Oil Pipeline Becomes More Expensive
Russian officials have insisted that the construction of the Eastern Siberia Pacific Oil Pipeline (ESPO) remains on track despite growing costs, crisis-related concerns, and doubts about the project's economic viability amid falling crude prices. Russia's pipeline monopoly Transneft conceded that the ESPO project faced significant... MORE
Russia’s Sinking Economy and Wandering Politics
The high-intensity but low-yield gas war with Ukraine allowed the Russian leadership to engage in the bargaining and blackmailing that it thrives on. Now that Prime Ministers Vladimir Putin and Yulia Tymoshenko have struck a deal, which has left most observers puzzled about what the... MORE
Israeli-Turkish Relations Put to the Test
How much Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan damaged Israeli-Turkish relations with his harsh criticism of Israel for its three-week assault Gaza will probably become apparent in the coming weeks or months. Erdogan’s foreign policy advisor, Ahmet Davutoglu, told a group of journalists in Istanbul... MORE
Turkey Retracts Warning to Nabucco and the EU
On January 19 in Brussels, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to “reconsider” his country’s participation in the Nabucco gas transit pipeline project unless the European Union promptly opened negotiations on the energy chapter in Turkey’s EU accession process (see EDM, January 20). The... MORE
Kazakhstan’s Peacekeepers Penciled in for Afghanistan?
On January 14 Commander of United States Central Command (CENTCOM) General David Petraeus, visited Kazakhstan. Among the key senior Kazakh military officers he met with was Lieutenant-General Bolat Sembinov, the deputy defense minister responsible for cooperation with the West. Ostensibly they discussed progress in implementing... MORE
Bakiyev Strengthens Control over Armed Forces Ahead of Opposition Revolts
Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s recent personnel reshuffles have shown that he is concerned about a potentially unstable spring as well as presidential elections tentatively scheduled for 2010. Bakiyev has replaced all heads of security structures and revamped cadres in his administration. Furthermore, in December he... MORE
The Media Discuss the Idea of Turkish Troop Deployment in Gaza
Whenever a crisis occurs on the Gaza Strip, the possibility of Turkish troops being deployed on the border between Egypt and Gaza is brought up. In 2007 Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas asked for Turkish troop deployment in Gaza, but Hamas rejected it (Zaman, July 3,... MORE
Recent Initiatives to Advance the Nabucco Project
While the Nabucco pipeline remains clearly the centerpiece of the Southern Corridor project, Nabucco alone—even in its second, full-capacity phase—would be far from sufficient to cover the rise in European demand for non-Russian gas in the next decade. A fully-developed Southern Corridor could achieve the... MORE
Hungary to Host Nabucco Summit in a Reshaped Strategic Context
Hungary is hosting a high-level meeting of active and potential participants in the Nabucco gas transport project on January 26 and 27. Top officials of supplier, transit, and consumer countries; international financial institutions; the European Union; and the United States are expected to participate (MTI,... MORE
The Russian Security Services—The Prime Murder Suspect
On Monday, January 19, at around 3:00 P.M., a Novaya Gazeta reporter Anastasiya Baburova, 25, and a prominent human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov, 34, were shot in the head in a Moscow street some half a mile from the Kremlin by a masked gunman with... MORE