Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
HIGH-LEVEL NATO DELEGATION IN OUTREACH VISIT TO UKRAINE
NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer headed a delegation of the North Atlantic Council (NAC), the alliance’s standing decision-making body in Brussels, comprising the 26 member countries’ ambassadors, on a visit to Ukraine on June 16 and 17. The visit was the first high-level... MORE
GAZPROM’S MOVE ON ABKHAZIA: MORE REASONS FOR GEORGIA TO BLOCK RUSSIA’S WTO ACCESSION
Russia’s Gazprom has announced its intention to launch exploration for oil and gas in Abkhazia on July 1, apparently offshore in the Black Sea. According to a notice just circulated by Gazprom’s board, the June 27 shareholders’ meeting will discuss plans by Gazprom, its subsidiary... MORE
PARTY CLOSURES AND MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS MAY ALL OCCUR IN FALL
On June 20 the Democratic Society Party (DTP) requested and received extra time to prepare its defense in the closure case it faces. The closure case against the DTP was launched by Chief Public Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya in November 2007. The DTP stands accused of... MORE
BELARUS-RUSSIA SUMMIT: PERSPECTIVES
The press services of the presidencies of Russia and Belarus have announced that the leaders of these countries, Dmitry Medvedev and Alyaksandr Lukashenka, will meet in Brest on June 22. It will be the first bilateral meeting of the two presidents. Reportedly, the meeting is... MORE
KHOROG RESIDENTS PROTEST AGAINST CENTRAL GOVERNMENT
On June 18, residents of Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) staged protests in Khorog, the oblast's administrative center. Some 300 people demanded that the government withdraw troops that were dispatched to the oblast a few days ago to capture field commanders from the 1992 to... MORE
TRADE AND TRANSIT COOPERATION INCREASING BETWEEN UZBEKISTAN AND IRAN
In the midst of the evolving new “Great Game” between the U.S. and Russia for control of Central Asia and its energy and mineralogical riches, an interesting but largely overlooked collateral development is the deepening parallel bilateral relations between regional states. One of the most... MORE
GOING FOR A SONG: TURKISH COURT ACQUITS CHILDREN OF TERRORIST PROPAGANDA
On June 19 a court in the city of Diyarbakir in the predominantly Kurdish southeast of Turkey acquitted three young boys of charges of terrorist propaganda after a choir of which they were members sang a song in Kurdish at a World Music Festival in... MORE
MOSCOW READY FOR MAJOR CONFRONTATIONS WITH PRO-WESTERN GEORGIA AND UKRAINE
In the past Russia strongly protested the expansion of NATO to include Central European states that were Soviet clients and former Warsaw Pact members during the Cold War, as well as the Baltic republics that were part of the Soviet Union. In the end, however,... MORE
GEORGIAN OPPOSITION RIVEN BY MULTIPLE SPLITS AS NEW PARLIAMENT OPENS
As anticipated on the eve of Georgia's parliamentary elections (see EDM, May 19), the composition of the new parliament should guarantee the stability and continuity of the incumbent leadership's liberal economic policies and security alignment with the West. The governing National Movement won 119 out... MORE
MODUS VIVENDI AGREED WITH MODERATE OPPOSITION IN THE GEORGIAN PARLIAMENT
The upstart Christian-Democrat Movement follows its own game plan, positioning itself as the main parliamentary opposition party and emphasizing moderation in contrast to the irreconcilable opposition leaders. Party leader Giorgi Targamadze created this organization from scratch, shortly before the electoral campaign. Targamadze capitalized on his... MORE