Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
KYRGYZ NGOS REJECT GOVERNMENT’S CRITICISM
Following the Tulip Revolution on March 24, 2005, and amid continuous political instability in the country, Kyrgyz political leaders habitually accuse local non-government organizations for their dependence on foreign financing. Some politicians see local civil society groups cooperating with foreign donors as an encroachment on... MORE
LUKOIL AND TURKEY
As Europe frets over the political implications of Gazprom’s increasing presence in the EU market, another Russian energy company has quietly made an inroad into hydrocarbon-starved Turkey. On July LUKoil’s president Vagit Alekperov announced in Istanbul that his firm had agreed to purchase Turkey’s Akpet,... MORE
GAZPROM’S EUROPEAN EXPANSION DILEMMA
Gazprom’s web in Europe continued to expand when the Russian state-owned gas monopoly announced that it would begin supplying gas to Ireland through its subsidiary Gazprom Marketing and Trading. Precise terms of the deal, however, have not been revealed. (Moscow Times, July 5). Gazprom plans... MORE
LITTLE CHANCE FOR THE DISORGANIZED OPPOSITION IN BELARUS PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS
Elections to the House of Representatives, the lower house of the two-chamber parliament, are to be held on September 28 in Belarus. As with previous election campaigns, there is intense international interest in the nature of the campaign, how democratically it will be conducted, and... MORE
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