Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
AUSTRIA’S OMV GIVES UP HOSTILE TAKEOVER BATTLE AGAINST HUNGARY’S MOL
On August 6 the board of directors of Austria’s OMV energy conglomerate decided to abandon its hostile takeover attempt against the Hungarian counterpart MOL (OMV press release, August 6; Der Standard, August 7). The European Commission’s negative assessment of a possible takeover, as well as... MORE
KYRGYZ GOVERNMENT CONFISCATES WEAPONS FROM U.S. CITIZENS, FUELS SCANDAL
On August 4 Kyrgyz police confiscated a weapons cache from U.S. citizens living in a rented house on the outskirts of Bishkek. The U.S. Embassy in Bishkek immediately responded, confirming that the weapons were sanctioned by the Kyrgyz government as part of the anti-terrorism training... MORE
TURKEY COOPERATES WITH KOREA TO DEVELOP A NATIONAL MAIN BATTLE TANK
Turkey continues to announce new armament programs that involve the development and production of a “Turkish brand” of major weapons systems. On July 29, under a technology cooperation deal signed between Turkey and South Korea (ROK), Turkey initiated a $500 million project for the design,... MORE
PRIME MINISTER DOMINATES ECONOMIC, FOREIGN AND SECURITY POLICY
The recent controversy surrounding the coal and steel producer Mechel has sparked speculation about a rift between President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. In a meeting with metals tycoons in Nizhny Novgorod on July 24, Putin accused Mechel of selling coking coal, one... MORE
UKRAINIAN GOVERNMENT OFFERS OUT-OF-COURT SETTLEMENT TO VANCO
There is a new turn in the dispute over the right of the U.S. company Vanco to explore the oil and gas fields in the Ukrainian part of the Black Sea. The government of Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has indicated its readiness to back down... MORE
KYRGYZ NGOS REJECT GOVERNMENT’S CRITICISM
Following the Tulip Revolution on March 24, 2005, and amid continuous political instability in the country, Kyrgyz political leaders habitually accuse local non-government organizations for their dependence on foreign financing. Some politicians see local civil society groups cooperating with foreign donors as an encroachment on... MORE
LUKOIL AND TURKEY
As Europe frets over the political implications of Gazprom’s increasing presence in the EU market, another Russian energy company has quietly made an inroad into hydrocarbon-starved Turkey. On July LUKoil’s president Vagit Alekperov announced in Istanbul that his firm had agreed to purchase Turkey’s Akpet,... MORE
GAZPROM’S EUROPEAN EXPANSION DILEMMA
Gazprom’s web in Europe continued to expand when the Russian state-owned gas monopoly announced that it would begin supplying gas to Ireland through its subsidiary Gazprom Marketing and Trading. Precise terms of the deal, however, have not been revealed. (Moscow Times, July 5). Gazprom plans... MORE
LITTLE CHANCE FOR THE DISORGANIZED OPPOSITION IN BELARUS PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS
Elections to the House of Representatives, the lower house of the two-chamber parliament, are to be held on September 28 in Belarus. As with previous election campaigns, there is intense international interest in the nature of the campaign, how democratically it will be conducted, and... MORE
TRANS-ASIA GAS PIPELINE PROJECT LAUNCHED IN KAZAKHSTAN
The volume reserved for Kazakhstan is intended to supply the southern and south-central parts of the country. To that end, under a separate project, KazTransGaz will lay a 1,510 kilometer pipeline, Beyneu-Akbulak, with a first-phase capacity of 5 billion cubic meters annually by mid-2011 and... MORE