Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
WILL PUTIN ACCEPT MEDVEDEV’S INVITATION?
The United Russia party is holding a congress today, December 17, during which it will likely officially nominate First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev as its presidential candidate, thereby formalizing a move that the party made jointly with three other pro-Kremlin parties a week ago... MORE
RUSSIA MULLS BAIKAL-AMUR RAILWAY UPGRADE, IN LIGHT OF ECONOMIC, ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES
Russia has unveiled a sizable investment program to improve the Baikal-Amur Railway line (BAM), which was originally designed to become an alternative route to the Trans-Siberian Railway. However, after years of operation, BAM is yet to prove its economic viability, and the railway may eventually... MORE
RUSSIA, UKRAINE TRADE HARSH WORDS OVER HISTORICAL MEMORY
On December 14 Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) issued a strongly worded statement complaining of “open nationalist, anti-Russian, and Russphobic feelings and developments in Ukraine.” Attempts are being made, it claimed, to “use difficult periods in our joint history to receive brief political rewards... MORE
TURKEY SPEAKS VOLUMES WITH A MUTED RESPONSE TO EU SNUB
Turkey’s muted response to the EU’s refusal to include an explicit reference to the country’s accession in its recent statement on enlargement is yet another indication of the waning enthusiasm in Turkey for what was once the country’s overriding foreign policy goal. At the conclusion... MORE
WILL KREMLIN USE 1990s PRIVATIZATIONS TO STRENGTHEN ITS GRIP ON BUSINESS?
Analysts and observers both inside and outside Russia have pointed to President Vladimir Putin’s apparent choice of First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to be his designated successor as a sign that Kremlin policy, at least in the realm of economics, may be moving toward... MORE
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS PERSIST ABOUT IMEDI TELEVISION IN GEORGIA
Imedi Television’s reopening on December 12 (see EDM, December 13) leaves key questions about the channel’s ownership and management unanswered. The issue of responsibility for possible violations of the law remains equally blurred. Imedi TV had been forced temporarily off the air by the authorities... MORE
TURKMENISTAN, NATURAL GAS, AND THE WEST
What a difference a year makes. One of the final diplomatic triumphs of Turkmen leader Saparmurat Niyazov before his death last December was to renegotiate Turkmenistan's exclusive natural gas contracts with the Russian energy giant Gazprom from a bargain rate of $65 per thousand cubic... MORE
REACTIONS TO CHIEF OF STAFF’S COMMENTS UNDERSCORE RIFT BETWEEN TURKISH MILITARY AND NATIONALIST MHP
Recent remarks by General Yasar Buyukanit, the chief of the Turkish General Staff (TGS), that the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) had become both politicized and legalized have triggered a furious reaction from some of the leading members of the ultranationalist Nationalist Action Party (MHP) and... MORE
TYMOSHENKO VOTE SHOWS COALITION’S LIMITATIONS
The coalition of President Viktor Yushchenko's Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defense bloc (NUNS) and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc (BYuT) has failed to ensure Tymoshenko's return to the post of prime minister, from which Yushchenko fired her in fall 2005. This time it is not disagreements within the... MORE
IMEDI TELEVISION REOPENS AMID GEORGIA’S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN
Georgia’s pro-opposition Imedi Television resumed broadcasting its political programs on Wednesday, December 12. The authorities had temporarily closed Imedi TV on November 7 as part of a state of emergency. The channel had instigated unlawful actions against state authorities during the November 2-7 opposition rallies... MORE