Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
KREMLIN REVISES COSTS FOR EXPENSIVE SOUTH STREAM PROJECT
On July 29, the Russian government made public a hefty increase in its cost estimate of Gazprom’s South Stream pipeline project. Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko reevaluated the cost at $20 billion, and stated that even this figure is an interim one, pending another financial... MORE
RUSSIAN RAILROAD TROOPS COMPLETE MISSION IN ABKHAZIA
On July 30, it was announced that Russian Railroad Troops have completed their mission in breakaway Abkhazia and are withdrawing. A battalion of some 400 men of reportedly unarmed Railroad Troops was sent to Abkhazia to repair the railroad on May 31 without warning or... MORE
RELIEF BUT NO VICTORY FOR AKP IN CLOSURE CASE
On July 30, Turkey’s Constitutional Court narrowly voted to allow the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to remain open in the case filed for its closure by Public Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya on March 14 on the grounds that the party had become a focus... MORE
RUSSIAN OFFICIALS AND MEDIA HAIL DEAL CEDING ISLANDS TO CHINA
Russia moved to finalize its border arrangements with China in an apparent bid to prop up its bilateral “strategic partnership.” On July 21, Russia and China signed an agreement that finally settled the demarcation of their 4,300-kilometer (2,672-mile) border, the longest land frontier in the... MORE
FORMER YUSHCHENKO ALLY CALLS PRESIDENT’S POISONING CLAIMS A MYTH
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has made it clear that he holds Davyd Zhvania, the sponsor of the populist People’s Self-Defense bloc (NS), responsible for his mysterious poisoning at the height of the presidential election race in 2004—Zhvania denies this. Zhvania also insists that Yushchenko’s was... MORE
RUSSIAN CORRUPTION: AN EVIL TO ERADICATE OR A NECESSARY “LUBRICANT”?
Russia’s political class is continuing to debate the issue of corruption, with some observers again expressing doubts that President Dmitry Medvedev’s anti-corruption drive will succeed where past efforts failed (see EDM, June 11 and 25). A veteran crime fighter has even suggested that corruption has... MORE
DROUGHT FORCES CYPRUS TO CONSIDER TURKISH AND GREEK AID
The issue of Cyprus and its reunification has bedeviled Turkish-Greek relations since 1974 and cast a persistent pall over Turkish efforts to join the European Union, especially since the Republic of Cyprus joined the EU on May 1, 2004. Now the Mediterranean’s third-largest island—after this... MORE
ECONOMIC FUNDAMENTALS ARE WORRISOME FOR THE MEDVEDEV-PUTIN “TANDEMOCRACY”
The experimental power-sharing construct in Russia with authoritative Vladimir Putin as prime minister and very active Dmitri Medvedev as president has been working remarkably smooth so far, as the two leaders have been extra careful to avoid any incoherence in their performance. The presidential administration... MORE
CZECH REPUBLIC OFFSETTING RUSSIAN OIL SUPPLY CUTS FROM ALTERNATIVE SOURCES
The Czech Republic is successfully weathering, thus far, the deep cut in Russian oil deliveries for the month of July. Despite the suddenness of the cut—Moscow announced it only after the fact—the Czech Republic was able to switch almost instantly to an alternative source of... MORE
IS UKRAINE ON THE BRINK OF AN ENERGY CRISIS?
Come January 2009 Ukraine will, in all likelihood, begin paying Russia’s Gazprom in the range of $400 per 1,000 cubic meters for natural gas or $22 billion per year. Presently the country pays $179 per 1,000 cubic meters, or $9.9 billion per year. Will it... MORE