Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
SOUTH STREAM: GAZPROM’S NEW MEGA PROJECT
On June 23 in Rome, ENI Chief Executive Paolo Scaroni and Gazprom Vice-Chairman Alexander Medvedev signed a memorandum of understanding to build a gas pipeline from Russia to Italy -- South Stream. Energy Ministers Pierluigi Bersani of Italy and Viktor Khristenko of Russia joined the... MORE
PUTIN TAKES THE CASPIAN ROAD TO KENNEBUNKPORT
Russia-U.S. relations show few signs of improvement in the last days before the eye-to-eye meeting between Presidents Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush in the informal atmosphere of the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine. Greeting the delegates at a conference of social sciences teachers... MORE
RIVAL CASPIAN CANAL PROJECTS COMPETE FOR INVESTORS
Azerbaijan, one of the rising Caspian energy exporters, has dismissed a Russian proposition to renovate the Volga-Don Canal (Itar-Tass, June 19). Baku apparently favors a Kazakh proposal for a “Eurasia Canal,” calling Russia’s plans a simple upgrade of the existing canal. Speaking in Rostov-on-Don on... MORE
NEO-COMINTERN MEETING IN TIRASPOL
Meeting in Tiraspol on June 17, “foreign ministers” Valery Litskay of Transnistria, Sergei Shamba of Abkhazia, and Murat Jioyev of South Ossetia, as well as Karabakh “presidential” foreign policy adviser Arman Melikian issued a “Declaration on the Principles of Peaceful and Just Settlement of the... MORE
DESPITE CORRUPTION CONCERNS, KYRGYZSTAN’S ENERGY SECTOR WILL BE PRIVATIZED
On June 19 the Kyrgyz parliament voted to privatize the 1,900 MW Kambarata-1 and 240 MW Kambarata-2 hydropower plants on the Naryn River. The two plants have annual generation capacities of 5,100 million kWh and 1,100 million kWh, respectively. The country’s largest Thermal Power Plant-1... MORE
PUTIN’S GABALA OFFER GETS MIXED REACTION IN AZERBAIJAN
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proposal to jointly use the Gabala radar station with the United States caused debates and split opinions in Azerbaijan. Putin made the offer on the sidelines of the June 6-8 G-8 summit in Germany. The Gabala station is the only Russian... MORE
POLICE BARRACKS ATTACKED IN INGUSHETIA
At midnight on Tuesday, June 19, a group of militants attacked a police special-task force facility in Karabulak, Ingushetia. The garrison actually had members of two special-task police units inside: an Ingush one, and another consisting of assorted Russian officers sent to the republic from... MORE
THE QUEST FOR “STABILITY” IN BELARUS
On June 19, Belarusian Prime Minister Syarhey Sidorski summarized the economic results for the first five months of 2007, maintaining that the country had attained “macroeconomic stability.” GDP rose by 9% compared with the same period last year, with notable increases in output in both... MORE
UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT IN LIMBO
The majority of Ukraine’s parliament has defied the accords between President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych to disband parliament and hold an early parliamentary election. Yushchenko has not recognized parliament’s powers since June 5, when he issued a decree scheduling the election for... MORE
THE STRANGE STORY OF MIG-31 JETS FOR SYRIA
Yesterday, June 19, Moscow's respected business daily Kommersant reported that Russia's arms trading monopoly Rosoboronexport has begun to fulfill an arms deal it secretly signed with Syria earlier this year to sell five MiG-31E (Foxhound) jet fighters, considered one of the best in the world,... MORE