Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
REPUTED RUSSIAN CRIME BOSSES DISMISSED MEDVEDEV AS PUTIN’S “PUPPET”
While analysts and other observers continue to discuss Russia’s new ruling diarchy, in particular, the current relative balance of power between President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and how likely that balance of power will remain static, an unusual group of observers has... MORE
MEDVEDEV’S BUSINESS-TOUR YIELDS MORE PROMISES THAN FRUIT
President Dmitri Medvedev is apparently building strong momentum in his foreign policy activities, exploiting one success to achieve another. The remarkably cordial Russia-EU summit in Khanty-Mansiisk two weeks ago paved the way for his friendly visits to Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan last week; and this... MORE
GUAM SUMMIT HELD AMID ADVERSE TRENDS ON ENERGY AND THE FROZEN CONFLICTS
Leaders of the GUAM group of countries--Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Moldova--and of GUAM Partner countries (Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Czech Republic) held the annual GUAM summit on July 1 in Batumi, Georgia. Under the motto, “GUAM: Integrating Europe’s East,” a signal that the European Union... MORE
PRO-AKP MEDIA STEPS UP DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN OVER ERGENEKON
In the wake of the detentions on July 1 of outspoken opponents of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) on suspicion of links to a shadowy ultranationalist organization known as Ergenekon, the pro-AKP media have stepped up their disinformation campaign in an attempt to... MORE
NEW CHARGES AGAINST KHODORKOVSKY: ARE THE SILOVIKI DRAWING A LINE?
The Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor General’s Office has filed new charges against former Yukos chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who, like his former business partner Platon Lebedev, is currently serving an eight-year sentence for fraud and tax evasion. The new charges could add 15 years to... MORE
CHOOSING AN ENEMY, CHOOSING A STRATEGY, CHOOSING A DOCTRINE
Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov announced that the number of servicemen in the armed forces would be decreased from the present 1.13 million to one million by 2013. According to Serdyukov, "The previously approved concept scheduled a decrease in numbers to 1.1 million by 2011 and... MORE
CIS DEFENSE MINISTERS AGREE TO BOOST COOPERATION IN AIR DEFENSE
On July 2, 10 members of the Council of Defense Ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) convened in Bishkek to discuss issues of further cooperation, integration processes in the military sector and increasing "mutual understanding." In particular, they discussed the strengthening of cooperation... MORE
BASBUG ISSUES CALL FOR CALM AMID DEEPENING POLITICAL CRISIS
On July 2 General Ilker Basbug, the commander of the Turkish Land Forces, issued a public statement calling for calm in the wake of the unprecedented wave of detentions of hard-line secularists on July 1, in which a number of high-ranking retired military personnel were... MORE
EU-RUSSIA SUMMIT TARGETS NEW PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT
The European Union-Russia summit on June 26 and 27 in Khanty-Mansiisk set the stage for negotiations toward a new basic document on EU-Russia relations. Concluding such an agreement is almost certainly a higher priority for Russia than for the EU. The EU might have used... MORE
…WHILE GLOSSING OVER POST-SOVIET CONFLICTS
The unresolved conflicts, conducted or underwritten by Russia in ex-Soviet territories, were glossed over in Khanty-Mansiisk. EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana had informally assured Georgian leaders ahead of the summit that he would “forcefully” take issue with Russia’s... MORE