Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
WILL PRIME MINISTER PUTIN SERVE AT THE PLEASURE OF PRESIDENT MEDVEDEV?
As of 10 am, Moscow time, on March 3, Russia’s Central Election Commission was reporting that with more than 99% of the votes in the March 2 presidential election counted, President Vladimir Putin’s handpicked successor, Dmitry Medvedev, won 70.23% of the vote. That means 51,938,974... MORE
PUTIN’S PLAN PROGRESSES, BUT THE MEANING OF MEDVEDEV REMAINS OBSCURE
Elections are supposed to focus on the question of who wins, but Russia makes an exception: President Vladimir Putin’s re-election in early 2004 had no suspense at all. But with the electoral exercise that took place yesterday, March 2, the question was not about “Who?”... MORE
NAZARBAYEV WATCHES FOR SIGNS OF MEDVEDEV’S LEADERSHIP STYLE
Speaking in Moscow at the informal February Commonwealth of Independent States summit, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev praised his country’s relations with Russia, pointing to bilateral action plans signed in 2006-07 that prioritized shared concerns. He highlighted how closely both countries cooperate across a wide range... MORE
PKK TRIUMPHANT AS ANKARA RETREATS FROM NORTHERN IRAQ
After only eight days, Turkey abruptly ended its military incursion into Iraqi Kurdistan on Friday February 29. The withdrawal of Turkish troops caught many observers, as well as the Turkish public, by surprise. Only one day earlier, Turkish Chief of Staff General Yasar Buyukanit refused... MORE
HUNGARY’S SOCIALIST GOVERNMENT JOINS GAZPROM’S SOUTH STREAM PROJECT
On February 28 Hungary’s Socialist Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany joined Russia’s outgoing and incoming presidents, Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, in Moscow to seal an intergovernmental agreement on Gazprom’s further expansion into European Union territory via Hungary. Hungary’s privately owned energy company MOL is staying... MORE
RUSSIAN SOFT-POWER INCREASING IN AZERBAIJAN
Following Ukraine’s Orange Revolution in 2004, political analysts predicted that the Kremlin would step up its efforts to conquer the hearts and minds of people living in the post-Soviet region. This “soft diplomacy” has long been a powerful tool for Western democracies, and it is... MORE
PAN-TURKISM TAKES STEP FORWARD IN EURASIA
Since the 1991 collapse of the USSR, the former Soviet republics, now independent nations, have regrouped in a variety of political and economic configurations. These include the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), and GUAM... MORE
TURKEY DIVIDING AGAINST ITSELF, BUT STILL STANDING FIRM ON NORTHERN IRAQ
Almost exactly 150 years ago, in June 1858, Abraham Lincoln famously declared that a house divided against itself could not stand. Yet in recent days, despite deepening internal divisions over the government’s attempts to lift the headscarf ban in Turkish universities, officials and politicians from... MORE
NABUCCO GAS PROJECT FACING A CASCADE OF DEFECTIONS
Romania seems to be the one remaining loyal participant in the Nabucco pipeline project, which is planned to carry Caspian gas via Turkey and the Balkans to Central Europe. Defections are now cascading from this U.S.-backed, top-priority project of the European Union. The project can... MORE
KAZULIN PERMITTED TO ATTEND WIFE’S FUNERAL IN MINSK
On February 23, Iryna Kazulina, the 48-year-old wife of imprisoned Belarusian opposition leader Alyaksandr Kazulin, died of breast cancer, an illness she had suffered for the past decade. Following a mass gathering in the center of Minsk and appeals from various countries for clemency, President... MORE