Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
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
BASBUG APPOINTED CHIEF OF THE TGS
On August 4 Turkish President Abdullah Gul formally approved the appointment of Land Forces Commander General Ilker Basbug as the chief of the Turkish General Staff (TGS) to replace the outgoing General Yasar Buyukanit, who will step down on August 30 after reaching the compulsory... MORE
MOSCOW ORCHESTRATES WAR SCARE IN SOUTH OSSETIA
Since July 31, Russian state television channels have been airing inflammatory stories about Georgian forces firing on South Ossetia’s administrative center Tskhinvali, inflicting civilian casualties and causing a refugee exodus to North Ossetia (Russian TV Channel One, Rossiya TV, NTV, Itar-Tass, July 31-August 3). The... MORE
SOLZHENITSYN PRAISED BY POLITICIANS ACROSS RUSSIA’S POLITICAL SPECTRUM
Russians have been reacting to the death of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and paying tribute to the Nobel Prize winning writer and dissident, who died on August 3 at the age of 89. Interfax quoted former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev as saying, “Until the end of his... MORE
DUUMVIRATE IS TESTED AS MEDVEDEV SPEAKS UP AGAINST PUTIN
On a routine trip to Smolensk Oblast last week, President Dmitry Medvedev rather uncharacteristically took a firm stance: “In our country it is very important what signals get sent. The signal has now been sent.” The essence of the message was unmistakable: There should be... MORE
ISLAMISTS AND SECULARISTS VYING FOR TURKEY’S PAST AS WELL AS ITS FUTURE
On July 31 Turkish President Abdullah Gul formally ratified the appointment of Professor Ali Birinci (born in 1947) as head of the state-run Turkish Historical Association (TTK) to replace the incumbent Professor Yusuf Halacoglu (born 1949), who had held the position from 1993 until his... MORE
BERLIN CONSULTATIONS ON ABKHAZIA DERAILED
Moscow and Sukhumi have thwarted the proposed consultations in Berlin that could have launched a negotiating process toward resolution of the conflict in Abkhazia. The German government had offered to host the consultations on July 30-31, acting informally as mediator between Tbilisi and Sukhumi. The... MORE
RUSSIA PURSUES ENERGY PARTNERSHIP WITH CHINA
The Kremlin has dispatched Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin to China in order to boost bilateral energy ties. Sechin reportedly reassured Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao that Russia was ready to work with China to fulfill bilateral agreements, and develop energy cooperation. Sechin also delivered a... MORE
CENTRAL ASIA’S WATER PROBLEMS SOAR DURING LONG SUMMER
One of Eurasia’s most intractable legacies dating from the 1991 implosion of Communism is how Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan transited their economies to national sovereignty after being constituent Soviet republics of the USSR. Of all the economic readjustments that the “Stans” have had... MORE
VERDICT IN CLOSURE CASE TO INCREASE PRESSURE ON AKP TO IMPLEMENT EU REFORMS
On July 31, one day after Turkey’s Constitutional Court narrowly ruled to allow the Justice and Development Party (AKP) to remain open (see EDM, July 31), the country’s parliament finally went into recess for the summer. It is not expected to reconvene until October 1... MORE