Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
THE FINANCIAL CRISIS MAY CURTAIL KREMLIN PLANS FOR MODERNIZING ARMED FORCES
On September 15 President Dmitry Medvedev announced ambitious plans to rearm and modernize Russia’s armed forces. Medvedev announced that by 2020 Russia had to guarantee continued nuclear deterrence as well as precision attack capability on land and sea (See EDM, October 3). Indeed, by 2020... MORE
RUSSIA STILL SEEKING A UN CAMOUFLAGE IN ABKHAZIA
The United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) and the UN itself are collateral casualties of Russia’s invasion of Georgia and “recognition of Abkhazia’s independence.” The diplomatic negotiating process, which is scheduled to open on October 15 in Geneva, may well see UNOMIG’s demise and,... MORE
KYRGYZ LOCAL ELECTIONS HELD AMID CONTROVERSY
On October 5 Kyrgyzstan held local government elections in which 491 seats were contested. The competition was most fierce, with the Chair of the Central Election Commission (CEC) Klara Kabilova scandalously resigning just days before the vote (see EDM, October 1). Both local and international... MORE
PKK ATTACK IN DIYARBAKIR DEEPENS PUBLIC DOUBTS ABOUT TURKEY’S COUNTERTERRORISM STRATEGY
At around 5:30 P.M. on October 8, six people were killed and 21 wounded when militants from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) ambushed a bus carrying police personnel in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir. Eye-witnesses reported that the assailants hurled hand grenades and sprayed the... MORE
DMITRY MURATOV: POLITKOVSKAYA MURDER CASE HAS BEEN DELIBERATELY UNDERMINED
October 7 marked the second anniversary of the murder of Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya. According to The Moscow Times, several hundred people, including Politkovskaya’s colleagues and children, human rights activists, and political opposition leaders, gathered on central Moscow’s Pushkin Square to remember her. In... MORE
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