Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
RUSSIA AND ITS ALLIES CONDUCT EURASIAN AIR DEFENSE DRILL
NATO’s eastwards expansion plan, articulated earlier this month at a summit in Bucharest, has firmed up Kremlin opposition to the alliance’s interest in former Soviet republics, particularly Georgia and the Ukraine, which over the last year has taken the form of military power projections beyond... MORE
CHERNOBYL DISASTER IS OFFICIALLY OVER
Approaching the 22nd anniversary of the nuclear accident at the Chernobyl plant in northern Ukraine, which will be commemorated in Belarus by the opposition with a march through Minsk on Sunday, two Belarusian scientists have firmly reiterated the official government position that irradiated territories no... MORE
KARIMOV, BAKIYEV REACT DIFFERENTLY TO NAZARBAYEV’S CENTRAL ASIA UNION
On April 22 Uzbek President Islam Karimov visited Astana to meet with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Both leaders agreed to boost bilateral economic cooperation by creating a common trade area at the borders. Karimov's harsh criticism of Nazarbayev's Central Asia Union (CAU), however, raised eyebrows... MORE
TURKEY LOOKS TO ENGAGEMENT RATHER THAN CONFRONTATION WITH IRAQI KURDS
On 24 April the Turkish National Security Council (NSC) implicitly confirmed recent indications of a shift in Turkish policy towards the Kurds of northern Iraq, in which confrontation and isolation will be replaced by engagement and dialogue. Since it relaunched its insurgency in June 2004,... MORE
RUSSIA OFFERS GEORGIA A STICK AND A CARROT
On Sunday, April 20, an unarmed Georgian reconnaissance drone was shot down over the territory Abkhazia. The Georgian authorities alleged that a Russian Air Force MiG-29 fighter had downed the drone. The jet, according to Georgian radar data, took off from an airbase near Gudauta... MORE
THE FUTURE OF THE ORANGE COALITION WILL BE DECIDED IN MAY
Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s April 14 speech to the Parliamentary Council of Europe (PACE), where she outlined her support for constitutional reforms that would transform Ukraine into a parliamentary republic modeled on Germany, is both a sign of the growing frustration inside the orange coalition... MORE
MOSCOW SEEKS TO ENGAGE MONGOLIA ECONOMICALLY
Moscow has renewed efforts to prop up economic ties with its closest Cold War era ally, Mongolia. The two neighboring nations appear, however, to remain divided by a variety of irritants. At a meeting in Moscow with Mongolian Prime Minister Sanjaa Bayar earlier in April,... MORE
TURKISH BANKS MAKE HUGE LOANS TO FRIEND OF ERDOGAN
On April 22, it was announced that two Turkish state-owned banks had stepped in to provide $750 million in loans to Calik Holding, which is owned by a close friend of Prime Minister RecepTayyip Erdogan, in order to enable it to purchase the second largest... MORE
ILLARIONOV SAYS PUTIN BROUGHT ABOUT ECONOMIC GROWTH AND AUTOCRACY
Andrei Illarionov has always been something of an anomaly: an economist of a libertarian bent who always stressed the negative impact of state intervention while working as an adviser to several top officials associated with a corporatist or even authoritarian outlook. From 1993 to 1994... MORE
TYMOSHENKO CHOOSES PARLIAMENTARY REPUBLIC
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has suffered a crashing defeat over his plan to change the constitution. Not only has it become clear that Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko will not support his plan to boost presidential powers, but she has sided with his eternal opponents, the... MORE