Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
MOSCOW PLEDGES PROACTIVE KOREAN POLICY
Russia and South Korea pledged to upgrade their relationship to a strategic partnership and to strengthen energy ties, but the latest spate of optimistic official pronouncements came as a reminder of similar earlier pledges. Following summit talks in the Kremlin, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and... MORE
UKRAINE BRACES ITSELF FOR THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS
The global financial crisis has not affected Ukraine directly as its stock market is underdeveloped, and mortgage loans do not play a major role in the local economy. But the consequences of the crisis should have a significant impact on the local economy, which depends... MORE
ERDOGAN GOES TO TURKMENISTAN
The military confrontation between Georgia and Russia in August highlighted the West's misconception that the Caspian energy transit through the Caucasian nation is a totally secure means of bypassing Russia and Iran, a key tenet of the U.S. administration’s policy. In the aftermath of the... MORE
EUROPEAN UNION MISSION DEPLOYS TO GEORGIA WHILE QUESTIONS PERSIST ABOUT GENEVA TALKS
The European Union launched the EU Monitoring Mission (EUMM) in Georgia on October 1, in a series of tightly sequenced moves to implement the French-mediated armistice in the Russia-Georgia war. The next scheduled move is Russia’s withdrawal from the unilaterally declared “security zones” outside Abkhazia... MORE
YUSHCHENKO FATIGUE IN WASHINGTON?
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko’s working visit to Washington in late September left many observers wondering what, if anything, the visit had accomplished. The apparent purpose of the trip was to seek greater security assurances for Ukraine from the United States and gauge the level of... MORE
RUSSIAN GENERALS RAISE QUESTIONS ABOUT THE GENERAL STAFF AT START OF THE WAR WITH GEORGIA
On October 1 an article appeared in the Russian newspaper Moskovskiy Komsomolets, which appeared to delineate a controversy within Russia’s General Staff about forthcoming cuts planned to reduce its overall size. Yet, for those with an understanding of the huge importance of the General Staff... MORE
PKK ATTACK FUELS FEARS OF A RETURN TO THE PAST
In the early hours of October 7, Turkish warplanes struck at suspected positions of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq for the third day in row as Turkey continued to reel from the October 3 PKK attack on a military outpost in the... MORE
RUSSIAN VERSUS INTERNATIONAL AGENDAS AT GENEVA DISCUSSIONS ON GEORGIA
Preparations are advancing for discussions to open in Geneva on October 15, ostensibly based on the French-mediated armistice in the Russia-Georgia conflict. Russia, Georgia, the United States, the European Union, the United Nations, and the OSCE are to participate in these discussions at the level... MORE
JAILED YUKOS FOUNDER REJECTS POLICY OF NON-COOPERATION WITH POWERS THAT BE
With Russia’s sole major center-right liberal party, the Union of Right Forces (SPS), having announced that it will disband and merge with two pro-Kremlin parties, the man whose imprisonment has been a cause célèbre of Russia’s opposition liberals, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, has given an interview in... MORE
RUSSIA AND GERMANY RESTART THEIR SPECIAL PARTNERSHIP
The two-headed Russian leadership is seeking to demonstrate that the “issues” in their relations with key European countries caused by the Georgian “episode” have come to an end in less than a month. Precisely that was achieved in the Russian-German summit in St. Petersburg last... MORE