Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
CRIMEAN TATARS CLASH WITH POLICE OVER LAND
Ethnic tension has increased in Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula as the authorities move to tackle the problem of Crimean Tatar squatters occupying local plots of land. In early November, Tatars were forcibly evicted from two construction sites that, according to the Crimean authorities and the local... MORE
ARMENIAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION SCHEDULED FOR FEBRUARY
Armenia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) has set the date for the upcoming presidential election, which will seal the end of President Robert Kocharian’s ten-year rule. The vote, scheduled for February 19, is increasingly shaping up as a two-horse race between Kocharian’s long-time chief lieutenant, Prime... MORE
GUL PAYS SYMBOLIC VISIT TO BAKU, BUT PRAGMATISM REMAINS
On November 5 the newly elected president of Turkey, Abdullah Gul, paid a three-day visit to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. It was his first visit to a foreign country as president, and the choice of Baku for such a symbolic trip is likely an... MORE
IMEDI TELEVISION: USE AND MISUSE OF A GEORGIAN TELEVISION CHANNEL
The anti-government Imedi TV was taken off Georgia’s airwaves, along with the pro-government Rustavi-2 TV and other television channels, on November 7 when Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili declared a 15-day state of emergency. The move helped end the rallies and disturbances in downtown Tbilisi, instigated... MORE
GEORGIA AND UKRAINE: SIMILAR REVOLUTIONS, DIFFERENT TRAJECTORIES
The ongoing political crisis in Georgia shares similar roots with the September 2005 crisis in Ukraine (see EDM, September 8, 14, 16, 2005). The Georgian crisis began when former defense minister Irakli Okruashvili accused President Mikheil Saakashvili of money laundering, misuse of power, and instigating... MORE
A STEPPE TOO FAR: KAZAKHSTAN’S GANGLAND POWER
Officially, Kazakhstan’s Ministry of the Interior (MVD) claims to have crushed the power of organized crime in the country. This assertion appears partly supported by the considerable reduction in the number of gangland killings since the 1990s. Nevertheless, Karavan newspaper reported on November 2 not... MORE
PERES VISIT HIGHLIGHTS POLICY DIFFERENCES OVER IRAN AND HAMAS
Turkish hopes that the official visit to Ankara by Israeli President Shimon Peres would strengthen Ankara’s recently strained relationship with Israel received a setback, following a very public disagreement over the two countries’ attitudes toward Iran and Hamas. The 1996 agreements between Turkey and Israel... MORE
BADRI PATARKATSISHVILI’S GEORGIA OPERATION
Georgia reckons with the possibility of Russian hostile operations between November 2007 and April 2008 in connection with four major political deadlines: First and second, Russia’s parliamentary and presidential elections (December and April), which might again be accompanied by some military operation of choice, as... MORE
PUTIN, POST-MARCH 2008: DE FACTO “NATIONAL LEADER,” OR BACK IN THE KREMLIN?
Vedomosti on November 12 quoted State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov, head of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, as saying that President Vladimir Putin will be presented with his official Central Election Commission (CEC) card identifying him as a candidate in the December 2 State Duma... MORE
HIGH INFLATION REVEALS PUTIN’S MISTAKES
Russia may appear to be an island of tranquility in the sea of troubles that engulfed the world economy last week. Its stock market continues to rise, its banks are not exposed to the U.S. sub-prime mortgage fears, and $100/barrel oil prices only mean a... MORE