Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
MEDVEDEV DARES NOT VENTURE INTO INTERNATIONAL ARENA
European leaders have been quick to check the attitude and indeed the authority of the Russian President-Elect Dmitry Medvedev. French President Nicolas Sarkozy was the first to call with congratulations on the victory, dubious as it was. German Chancellor Angela Merkel rushed to Moscow last... MORE
FUTURE PRIME MINISTER PUTIN INSISTS ON STILL BEING HEARD ON NATO
During a March 8 press conference with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russia's outgoing President Vladimir Putin expressed his acute annoyance with Western policies over Kosovar independence, NATO expansion, Afghanistan, and Western criticism of internal Russian policies. Merkel sounded a positive note, emphasizing cooperation and... MORE
GERMANY TORPEDOES UKRAINIAN, GEORGIAN MEMBERSHIP ACTION PLANS AHEAD OF NATO SUMMIT
With only three weeks remaining for necessary damage repair prior to the NATO summit, the German government has perhaps irreparably damaged the Membership Action Plan (MAP) goals of Ukraine and Georgia. Chancellor Angela Merkel has turned down those two countries’ MAP candidacies, thereby following the... MORE
NEW YORK TIMES TOUTS OLD KURDISH INVESTMENT PLAN AS NEW INITIATIVE
Recent reports quoting Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as announcing $12 billion in new investments in the predominantly Kurdish southeast of Turkey have been greeted with considerable skepticism inside the country. Erdogan is currently provisionally scheduled to visit southeastern Turkey on April 6. On... MORE
RUSSIA 2007: FREE EXPRESSION FURTHER RESTRICTED WHILE PUNITIVE PSYCHIATRY RETURNED
The U.S. State Department has released its annual report on human rights practices worldwide, “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2007.” While State’s annual human rights reports of recent years have generally been critical of the Russian government, this latest report is perhaps the... MORE
INVESTORS REACH TENTATIVE AGREEMENT ON NEW SEVSIB RAILWAY
Russian officials have disclosed plans for yet another ambitious railway scheme, the North Siberian Railway or SevSib, apparently patterned after the Trans-Siberian Railway (TransSib). But the announcement provided yet another reminder that Russia's sizable railway projects in the East often hemorrhage red ink and take... MORE
UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT UNBLOCKED, NATO DISPUTE OFF AGENDA
The opposition Party of Regions (PRU) of former prime minister Viktor Yanukovych has finally backed off its brinksmanship games over Ukraine’s application for a NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP). The PRU and their allies, the Communists, had blocked the parliamentary rostrum since the end of... MORE
TURKISH MILITARY, GOVERNMENT PRESENT COMMON FRONT ON IRAQ INCURSIONS
Perhaps the most significant, if overlooked, component of the recent Turkish military incursion into northern Iraq was the common goal of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) high command and Ankara to explain their concerns, motivations, and intentions to the international community. Given the limited objectives... MORE
U.S., NEW MEMBERS BACKING NATO MEMBERSHIP ACTION PLANS FOR GEORGIA AND UKRAINE
NATO debates on Membership Action Plans (MAPs) for Georgia and Ukraine have entered the final stage in the run-up to the alliance’s April 2-4 summit in Bucharest. With NATO’s approval rating in Ukraine at merely 20-25% in the fourth year of the Yushchenko presidency, political... MORE
HARD DEBATES AT NATO ON GEORGIAN MEMBERSHIP ACTION PLAN
Several West European governments cold-shouldered Georgia’s and Ukraine’s applications for NATO Membership Action Plans (MAPs) during the meeting of NATO countries’ ministers of foreign affairs on March 6 in Brussels. Intended to prepare for the NATO Summit due in early April in Bucharest, the Brussels... MORE