Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
THE GEORGIAN-RUSSIAN CONFLICT THROUGH THE EYES OF BAKU
The escalating conflict in Georgia--with its unexpected military developments and great humanitarian losses--seems to have caught Azerbaijani officials and the public off guard. Azerbaijanis are not new to the world of Russian political games in the Caucasus. Baku itself suffered greatly from Russian intervention in... MORE
RUSSIAN “TANDEMOCRACY” STUMBLES INTO A WAR
Moscow was disconcertingly taken by surprise with the sharp escalation of hostilities in South Ossetia last Friday. The most apparent part of the problem was the lack of leadership, as President Dmitry Medvedev departed to a Volga resort and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin went to... MORE
SOME ANALYSTS SAY RUSSIA’S SILOVIKI BENEFIT FROM A WAR WITH GEORGIA
Not surprisingly, criticism in the Russian media of Russia’s military actions in South Ossetia and the rest of Georgia, to the degree that there has been any criticism at all, has been muted. Clearly, this is partly due to the fact that the lion’s share... MORE
UKRAINE AND THE CONFLICT IN SOUTH OSSETIA
In the morning of August 10, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed its Russian counterpart that in order to prevent Ukraine from being drawn into an armed conflict, Ukraine might take measures to prevent the Russian Black Sea Fleet (RBSF) vessels from returning to... MORE
TURKEY CAUGHT IN A DILEMMA OVER SOUTH OSSETIA
The outbreak of fighting between Georgia and Russia over South Ossetia has demonstrated the cost of Ankara’s often confused attempt at achieving a balance between becoming a regional player in the Caucasus and the need to maintain a working relationship with Moscow. Many modern Turks... MORE
THE GOALS BEHIND MOSCOW’S PROXY OFFENSIVE IN SOUTH OSSETIA
As anticipated (see EDM, July 11, August 4) Moscow has initiated an offensive military operation by proxy against Georgia in South Ossetia. Although the blow had been expected in upper Abkhazia and may yet materialize there, Russia shifted the direction of attack to the South... MORE
KAZAKHSTAN LIMITS FREEDOM OF SPEECH ON THE INTERNET
In an unprecedented move, on July 1 Kazakh law enforcement authorities suspended the operation of the independent www.posit.kz website for three months. Confirming the harsh measure, Kazakh Deputy Prosecutor General Askhat Daulbayev said that the legal action had been taken after the website operators published... MORE
MONGOLIA AND SOUTH KOREA EXPAND COMMERCIAL AND DEFENSE RELATIONS
During the 20th century, Mongolia’s fate was inextricably bound to that of its giant neighbors Russia and China, but since the collapse of Communism there in 1990, Ulaan Baatar has been cautiously reaching out to the outside world for new security arrangements with nations as... MORE
EXPLOSION RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT THE SECURITY OF THE BTC PIPELINE
On August 5 there was an explosion and subsequent fire on a section of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline running through eastern Turkey, resulting in the flow of oil through the pipeline being halted. By August 7 the fire was reported to be under control,... MORE
OSSETIAN SEPARATISTS ARE PROVOKING A MAJOR RUSSIAN INTERVENTION
Military tension in Georgia's separatist region of South Ossetia has been building up for several months. In June the head of the OSCE Mission to Georgia Teri Hakala told me in Tbilisi that military clashes were happening on an almost daily basis, that OSCE monitors... MORE