Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES TRY TO PREVENT REBEL ATTACKS IN DAGESTAN
Security concerns in the North Caucasus traditionally peak in the summer. Warm weather and green leaves on trees help the Caucasian rebels intensify their attacks on Russian army units and local police forces. Every summer and fall Russian security officials try to guess where the... MORE
SOLUTION IN MOLDOVA — “KEY TO RUSSIA-WEST DISPUTE” AT CFE TREATY CONFERENCE
As anticipated (see EDM, May 25), the unlawful presence of Russian troops in Moldova became the decisive issue at the emergency conference of state parties to the Treaty on Conventional forces in Europe (CFE), underway in Vienna June 11-15. That issue is not only the... MORE
SEVERIN ATTACKS BELARUS ON HUMAN RIGHTS
A speech by Adrian Severin, special rapporteur, to the 5th session of the Human Rights Council (HRC) of the UN General Assembly in Geneva on the worsening human rights situation in Belarus in 2006 has caused fury in Minsk. Belarus's permanent representative at the UN,... MORE
AS SCO SUMMIT APPROACHES, KYRGYZ GOVERNMENT CAUGHT BETWEEN RUSSIA, U.S.
With two months left before the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) annual summit in Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital, the Kyrgyz government is experiencing increasing pressure from Russia and the United States regarding the U.S. military base at Manas airport. In the past 10 days U.S. Secretary... MORE
OFFER TO SHARE GABALA POLITICALLY ASTUTE, PRACTICALLY INADEQUATE
During the June 6-8 G-8 summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, Russian President Vladimir Putin apparently surprised President George W. Bush and other U.S. officials by offering joint use of a powerful early warning radar in Gabala, Azerbaijan (see EDM, June 11). Putin insisted that a missile-defense... MORE
TRANSNEFT ON A ROLL
In a wide-ranging news conference during the Economic Forum just held in St. Petersburg (Interfax, June 10), Transneft president Semyon Vainshtok outlined the state pipeline monopoly’s ambitious plans for internal and external expansion. Transneft, monopolist for crude oil pipelines, is swallowing up the smaller Transnefteprodukt,... MORE
RUSSIA WANTS A WHOLLY DIFFERENT TREATY ON CONVENTIONAL FORCES IN EUROPE
The “Extraordinary Conference of States Parties to the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe” (CFE), under way in Vienna since June 11 at Russia’s initiative, is developing in a wholly different way than had been expected. Russia is proposing what amounts to an almost total... MORE
BOUCHER EXPLORES DEPTH OF KAZAKHSTAN’S SECURITY TIES WITH U.S.
Kazakhstan has praised its bilateral relationship with the United States as having achieved a great deal in recent years. Estimating the depth and potential for strategic partnership, Kazakh State Secretary Kanat Saudabayev explained, following his meeting in Astana with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard... MORE
WILL UKRAINE, RUSSIA SOLVE PROBLEM OF PERSONAE NON GRATAE?
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko found time in their schedules to meet on the fringes of the St. Petersburg economic forum on June 10. They discussed measures to settle Moldova’s Transnistria issue, which they agreed not to make public, and said... MORE
ARMENIAN PM FORMS NEW CABINET AFTER ELECTION TRIUMPH
Armenia’s President Robert Kocharian and his top political allies have cut a new power-sharing deal resulting from their landslide victory in the May 12 parliamentary elections. In a decree made public on June 8, Kocharian formally approved the composition of a coalition government headed by... MORE