Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
NEW REPORTS UNDERSCORE DOUBTS ABOUT MEDVEDEV’S ANTI-CORRUPTION PLAN
Transparency International has assessed corruption in Russia as being at its highest level in eight years. The Berlin-based international watchdog group ranked Russia in 147th place out of 180 countries in its annual Corruption Perception Index, which is based on polls taken among experts and... MORE
FIERCE COMPETITION OVER LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTIONS IN KYRGYZSTAN
The Kyrgyz government has become involved in a number of intrigues ahead of local elections scheduled for October 5. Among the most scandalous is the arrest of Ishenbay Kadyrbekov, a member of the Ata Meken opposition party. Several other cases suggest that President Kurmanbek Bakiyev... MORE
TURKEY COURTS AFRICA
As American, European, and Asian governments and markets nervously contemplate the economic chaos of the past month, Turkey is quietly pressing forward with plans to increase its presence in the world's most distressed continent—Africa. On September 22 while attending the 63rd session of the UN... MORE
AZERBAIJAN’S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN KICKS OFF
Azerbaijan’s presidential election campaign opened officially on September 17 and will run until October 14, the day before the balloting. President Ilham Aliyev, in office since 2003, is set to win a second term of five years, on the strength of economic growth at world-record... MORE
AZERBAIJAN LEAPS FORWARD IN MAKING ITS ECONOMY ATTRACTIVE TO BUSINESS
As presidential elections approach in Azerbaijan, President Ilham Aliyev scored a major winning point in domestic politics. It was announced by the World Bank that Azerbaijan has set a world record in reforming its economic and business regulations. In the annual “Doing Business 2009” report,... MORE
BRITISH PETROLEUM AND ITS WOES WITH THE CPC
To paraphrase Queen Elizabeth, BP has had an "annus horribilis" in Eurasia. Its joint venture in Russia, BP-TNK, has been under attack by its Russian partners; and last month an explosion in Turkey damaged the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, forcing BP to declare force majeure and... MORE
AKP PUSHES AHEAD WITH NUCLEAR POWER TENDER
Despite calls for a delay, Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is pushing ahead to award the tender for building the country’s first nuclear power plant. On September 24 the state-owned Turkish Electricity Trading and Contracting, Inc., (TETAS) will open the bids for building... MORE
NEW CSTO MILITARY FORCE PLANNED
The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), long regarded by Western military experts as something of a “paper tiger,” will become increasingly active in Central Asia as Russia’s President Medvedev presses for the militarization of the organization. CSTO General Secretary Nikolay Bordyuzha has referred to the... MORE
POLL SHOWS ELITE SUPPORT THE RULE OF LAW AND HONEST COMPETITION
A poll conducted earlier this year found that the country’s professional classes are less than fully supportive of its current ruling political-economic system and want the system democratized and opened up. The man in charge of the research, Mikhail Afanasyev, director for strategies and analysis... MORE
FACT, FANTASY, AND FARCE AS MORE ARE DETAINED IN ERGENEKON PROBE
On September 18 the Turkish security forces detained 19 more people as part of the continuing judicial investigations into a shadowy ultranationalist group known to the Turkish media as Ergenekon (see Terrorism Focus, January 29). The Ergenekon investigation was launched following the discovery of a... MORE