Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
UPCOMING PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS WILL TEST POLITICAL PARTIES IN KYRGYZSTAN
Following the national referendum in Kyrgyzstan on October 21, the Kyrgyz constitution and electoral law have been amended, leading to the dissolution of the parliament and government. Although the legitimacy of the referendum has been contested due to allegations of widespread electoral fraud, Kyrgyz President... MORE
VLADIMIR MILOV: PUTIN TRAPPED IN A FOROS OF HIS OWN MAKING
Russian political analysts and other observers are watching the power struggle inside Russia’s security and law-enforcement establishment. The conflict broke out into the open in early October with the arrest of the head of the operational department of the Federal Narcotics Control Service (FSKN), Lieutenant-General... MORE
EU REPORT TO PRESS TURKEY ON MINORITY RIGHTS
The European Commission’s annual Progress Report on Turkey’s candidacy for EU membership, which will be published tomorrow, November 6, will press Ankara to grant greater rights to the country’s ethnic and religious minorities, including its sizeable Kurdish community. The report will be made public amid... MORE
DAYS OF REMEMBRANCE IN MINSK
Today, November 2, members of the European diplomatic corps, including ambassadors and their families, will visit the mass burial site of Kurapaty, recalling the 70th anniversary of executions conducted by the Stalin regime in Belarus. This event follows closely upon the commemoration on October 28—the... MORE
ST. PETERSBURG POISONINGS: PART OF SILOVIKI FACTIONAL FIGHT?
An officer with the Federal Narcotics Control Service (FSKN) and a former colleague of his were recently found dead in St. Petersburg, the apparent victims of poisoning. If deliberate poisoning is confirmed, it would suggest that an under-the-carpet battle between rival Russian special services may... MORE
FROM SOVIET “PEACE” FRONTS TO RUSSIAN “HUMAN RIGHTS” ORGANIZATIONS IN EUROPE
Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced plans to create an “Institute for Freedom and Democracy in Europe,” with Russian funding. Putin revealed this project during the European Union-Russia summit just held in Mafra, near Lisbon. The Institute is supposed to defend and promote “human rights... MORE
THREAT OF MILITARY ACTION IN IRAQ STRAINING TURKEY’S TIES WITH ITS MUSLIM ALLIES
There are increasing signs that Turkey’s threat to stage a military incursion into northern Iraq against camps of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is straining the country’s ties with its Muslim allies. Since it came to power in November 2002, the moderate Islamist Justice Development... MORE
CHECHENS AMONG RUSSIAN “PEACEKEEPERS” DURING INCIDENT IN GEORGIA
On October 30 an APC-borne Russian “peacekeeping” unit attempted to take control of the Ganmukhuri youth camp, situated within Georgian-controlled territory near the Georgian-Abkhaz demarcation line. Firing warning shots the Russian soldiers disarmed, bound, and beat bloody the three Georgian policemen who guarded the youth... MORE
BEIJING RAISES STAKES IN TURKMEN GAS GAME
On October 31, oil trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange soared to a record-high $95.08 a barrel for December delivery before settling to $94.53. As the Western energy market has become increasingly jittery, China, now the world’s second-largest oil import market, has made its... MORE
RUSSIA STRUGGLES TO FINALIZE CASPIAN GAS PIPELINE DEAL WITH TURKMENISTAN
On October 26, Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov and Gazprom deputy CEO Valery Golubev were reportedly in discussions about what the Turkmen presidential press service described as “issues of drafting inter-governmental agreements on the expansion of the existing gas transportation system in Central Asia and the... MORE