Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
RUSSIA DECIDES TO ABANDON UKRAINIAN STRATEGIC RADARS
In the wake of its request to NATO for a Membership Action Plan (see EDM, January 18), Ukraine is offering its two anti-missile early warning and space monitoring radars for possible use by a European missile-defense system under Western auspices (Interfax-Ukraine, February 1, 2). Located... MORE
ALEKSANYAN’S PLIGHT: A CASE OF THE “LEGAL NIHILISM” MEDVEDEV HAS VOWED TO FIGHT?
On February 1 Moscow’s Simonovsky District Court ordered former Yukos executive Vasily Aleksanyan, who claims to have been denied treatment for AIDS while in prison, to remain jailed while being tried on charges of embezzlement and money laundering. Aleksanyan is incarcerated in Matrosskaya Tishina, the... MORE
PRESIDENTIAL TRANSPLANTATION IN RUSSIA ENTERS FINAL PHASE
In less than a month 109 million Russian voters are going to elect a new president. But while the Russian political class has been anxiously anticipating the March 2 vote for the last four years, there are strikingly few overt signs of the impending event.... MORE
TURKISH FM REINFORCES DOUBTS ABOUT AKP’S UNDERSTANDING OF EU ACCESSION PROCESS
A recent statement by Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan has once again raised doubts about the government’s understanding of the requirements of Turkey’s EU accession process. On February 2, with the domestic agenda still dominated by the reactions of hard-line secularists to the attempts by... MORE
TRANS-BLACK SEA PIPELINE: ANOTHER CHANCE FOR GEORGIA AND EUROPE
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has proposed that the European Union and Ukraine join a project for a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan via the Caspian Sea, South Caucasus, and Black Sea to Ukraine and EU territory. Tymoshenko termed this concept “White Stream” when presenting it... MORE
GAZPROM MIGHT BUY KYRGYZGAZ IN COMING MONTHS
Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev recently announced his intention to privatize the last remaining state enterprises, including major hydropower facilities, Kyrgyzgaz, and Kyrgyz Telecom. All of these enterprises serve nation-wide needs and contain considerable economic potential. However, given that Bakiyev’s new government is comprised mainly of... MORE
ASTANA SHIFTS ACCENT FROM POLITICAL REFORM TO ECONOMIC STABILITY
On January 23, addressing members of the Political Council of the ruling Nur Otan party, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev announced several key personnel changes. Bakhitzhan Zhumagulov, the deputy chairman of the party, would be replaced by Adilbek Zhaksybekov, head of the presidential administration. Kairat Kelimbetov,... MORE
TAYYIP ERDOGAN: ONE MAN PARTY IN A ONE PARTY STATE?
In recent weeks, Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has been heavily criticized for focusing almost exclusively on trying to lift the ban preventing women wearing headscarves from attending university and ignoring the growing number of problems facing the country – including a cooling... MORE
RUSSIA REINFORCES RESTRICTIONS ON OSCE/ODIHR AHEAD OF PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
Vladimir Putin’s handpicked successor, Dmitry Medvedev, is set to become president of Russia without a properly monitored election. Although the March 2 election’s landslide denouement cannot be doubted, Russia is set to demonstrate conclusively that it can force the OSCE out of the election-observation business.... MORE
ROGOZIN TAKES UP NEW PORTFOLIO IN BRUSSELS
This week the outspoken anti-Western nationalist politician Dmitry Rogozin, 44, arrived in Brussels as Russia’s permanent representative to NATO. Rogozin replaces former Border Guard chief General Konstantin Totsky (see EDM, October 31, 2007). In December 2003, Rogozin was elected to the State Duma as leader... MORE