Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
AGREEMENT TO INTEGRATE BULGARIA INTO RUSSIA’S GAS NETWORK
The agreements signed on January 18 in Sofia in President Vladimir Putin’s presence pave the way for Bulgaria’s inclusion in Russia’s expanding energy networks. From President Giorgi Parvanov and Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev on down, Bulgarian officials are hailing this set of agreements as the... MORE
TAJIKISTAN EXPERIENCES ROLLING BLACKOUTS AMID FREEZING WINTER TEMPERATURES
It has been an unusually cold winter in Central Asia, with temperatures hovering between –15C and –25C since late December. As a result of the protracted freezing temperatures, Central Asian states have been experiencing severe energy shortages. Among them, Tajikistan was perhaps the most vulnerable... MORE
SPELLING SEPARATISM WITH A “W”: TURKEY STILL STRUGGLING WITH FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
On the evening of January 23, a court in Ankara decided to reverse a previous ruling and allow the population of Turkey to visit YouTube. For the previous four days all access to the popular video-sharing site had been blocked by a previous court ruling... MORE
PUTIN’S SUCCESSOR LAYS OUT AMBITIOUS PLANS, BUT CAN HE DELIVER?
On January 22 Dmitry Medvedev laid out what are apparently the main planks of his presidential election campaign platform in an address to the Civic Forum, a gathering of representatives from some Russian non-governmental organizations and other groups sponsored by the Public Chamber, a Kremlin-appointed... MORE
TWO SETBACKS FOR THE KREMLIN AT THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE
On January 21 the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) protected its reputation by eschewing the election of Mikhail Margelov as PACE president. Apparently, many members realized that PACE could have discredited itself irreparably by electing a Kremlin-affiliated figure as president of Europe’s leading democracy-promoting... MORE
AZERBAIJANI PUBLIC ONCE AGAIN DEBATING FATE OF RUSSIAN LANGUAGE
On the first week of the new year, residents of Azerbaijan were shocked to discover that the popular weekly TV program “Chto? Gde? Kogda?” (What? Where? When?) was missing from TV schedules. The National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting had finally realized its long-planned... MORE
TURKEY EMERGES AS MEDIATOR IN TURKMENISTAN-AZERBAIJAN DISPUTE
Turkey’s assiduous efforts to turn itself into a regional energy transport hub and to secure its own energy supplies have led it to attempt to mediate a diplomatic dispute between two post-Soviet energy giants, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. At issue is the legal status of the... MORE
PUTIN AND MEDVEDEV OPEN THE BULGARIAN GATE FOR GAZPROM
Last week’s official visit to Bulgaria granted Russian President Vladimir Putin an opportunity to show that his power-transfer scheme worked impeccably, as the person standing next to him was Dmitry Medvedev, who had no business in Sofia in his official capacity as first deputy prime... MORE
YUSHCHENKO STRIVES TO DOMINATE TYMOSHENKO GOVERNMENT
The political honeymoon between Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko appears to be over. Yushchenko has thwarted Tymoshenko’s planned visit to Moscow, torpedoed planned appointments to her government, disagreed with her privatization plan, and come up with a package of bills aimed... MORE
KAZAKHSTAN: THE CHALLENGES OF THE OSCE
Perhaps hoping to burnish Kazakhstan’s international image, President Nursultan Nazarbayev has called upon members of his Nur Otan party to fight corruption more actively. “Regional branches of the party must step up the purposeful fight against corruption in the localities,” he declared. “Special councils under... MORE