Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
RUSSIA WANTS TO SELL GREECE WEAPONS AS WELL AS GAS
Following the defeat of German General Erwin Rommel’s vaunted Afrika Corps in North Africa in 1943, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill pressed for a subsequent Allied invasion of either Italy, the Balkans, or Greece, arguing that the regions represented the “soft underbelly of Europe” to... MORE
SECURITY CONCERNS AND LOCAL INDUSTRIALIZATION BOOST TURKISH MILITARY BUDGET
Although Ankara reduced its defense budget in recent years due to economic restraints, on December 11 Turkey’s parliament approved a 1.7% increase for the Ministry of Defense (MD) budget for fiscal year 2008. The budget, which includes the land, air, and naval commands, as well... MORE
MEDVEDEV-PUTIN: DREAM TEAM OR UNWORKABLE DIARCHY?
With President Vladimir Putin having now accepted Dmitry Medvedev’s invitation to serve as prime minister if, as is virtually certain, Medvedev is elected president next March, observers are now focused on the question of how this “diarchy” will work in practice, particularly given that Putin,... MORE
BALUYEVSKY ESCALATES WAR OF WORDS OVER U.S. MISSILE DEFENSE
Last Saturday, December 15, at a press conference in Moscow, First Deputy Minister of Defense and Chief of the Russian General Staff General Yuri Baluyevsky, together with Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak, expressed frustration over U.S. plans to build missile-defense bases in the Czech Republic... MORE
HUNGARY’S MOL STAYS WITH NABUCCO, BUT PRIME MINISTER WEIGHS SOUTH STREAM ALSO
Gazprom-controlled Kommersant claimed on December 13 that Hungary's MOL energy company has invited Gazprom to join the New Europe Transmission System (NETS), a proposal just launched by MOL to interconnect the gas transmission networks of at least seven Central and South-East European countries within an... MORE
SMOOTHER TIMES AHEAD FOR TROUBLED ALLIES U.S. AND TURKEY
On the night of December 16-17, Turkish F-16 warplanes, using U.S.-provided intelligence, bombed the headquarters of the rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), deep inside northern Iraq, in the first large-scale cross-border offensive on the rebel hideouts (Today's Zaman, December 17). Turkey's military hailed the night... MORE
RUSSIA’S FAR EASTERN WORKERS WARY OF CHINESE MIGRANTS
The Russian government has urged accelerated development of the country's Far East and pledged sizable investments for regions bordering China and the Pacific. However, some executives of Russia's state-controlled enterprises apparently prefer to rely on imported labor in their Far Eastern projects, prompting loud complaints... MORE
BADRI PATARKATSISHVILI’S PROGRAM: BUYING THE ELECTION TO BUY GEORGIA
Today (December 18) the tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili publicized his socioeconomic program as a presidential candidate via his fully owned media holding, Imedi. Addressing Georgia’s voters from his temporary London domicile in the run-up to the January 5 presidential election, Patarkatsishvili pledged to: Cover the expenses... MORE
RIGGED ELECTIONS DRAW FIRE FROM KYRGYZ OPPOSITION
On Sunday, December 16, Kyrgyzstan held snap parliamentary elections, following the constitutional referendum of October 21. Twelve political parties competed for 90 seats, to be distributed on the basis of proportional representation. As expected, President Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s Ak Zhol political party won the elections with... MORE
TURKEY TRUMPETS ATTACK ON PKK, TURNS TO “ENEMY WITHIN”
As the Turkish media continues to bask in the military strike against bases in northern Iraq belonging to the illegal Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the Turkish authorities have stepped up their pressure on the legal pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP). Yesterday (December 17), Turkish police... MORE