Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
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
TURKEY SEARCHES FOR A PLAN B AFTER PKK ATTACK
The large death toll in the recent attack by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on a Turkish military outpost close to the border with Iraq has dealt a major psychological blow to the Turkish government and severely damaged the prestige of the Turkish military, which... MORE
MEDVEDEV’S PLANS FOR MILITARY REARMAMENT
At the end of August President Dmitry Medvedev announced five foreign policy priorities. The first and third points are benign: Russia will "recognize the fundamental principles of international law" and "does not want confrontation with any other country" nor does it intend to isolate itself.... MORE
ARE KAZAKHSTAN’S ECONOMIC BONDS WITH GEORGIA THE PRICE OF STRONGER TIES WITH RUSSIA?
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev used the annual meeting of border regions of Kazakhstan and Russia in Aktobe (western Kazakhstan) on September 22 to confer with Kazak President Nursultan Nazarbayev, one of the Kremlin’s few remaining allies in its tense relations with the West. Both sides... MORE
REFORM OF THE MINING LAW COULD BE A BOON TO THE MONGOLIAN ECONOMY
While Western companies, particularly energy ones, have taken a pummeling recently in the former Soviet space, one country remains a possible el Dorado for foreign investment. Mining companies eyeing Mongolia as one of the world's last largely untapped frontiers have watched for years as the... MORE
TURKISH AUTHORITIES STEP UP CENSORSHIP OF INTERNET WEBSITES
In the early hours of October 4, 2005, Turkey officially began accession negotiations with the EU. Over the previous four years, in order to secure a date for the opening of negotiations, successive Turkish governments had eased many of the restrictions on freedom of expression... MORE