Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
UKRAINE’S CONSTITUTIONAL COURT UNDER PRESSURE
On May 21, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine (CC) closed proceedings related to President Viktor Yushchenko’s April 2 decree to disband parliament. This was a pure formality, as Yushchenko had on April 26 invalidated his own decree by issuing another decree disbanding parliament and rescheduling... MORE
“POLITICAL TOURISM” AND MANAGED CIVIL SOCIETY IN UKRAINE
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe’s experts on Ukraine have pointed out that the ongoing “blue Maidan” demonstrations in downtown Kyiv’s Independence Square are incompatible with democracy. Although the Maidan-2007 demonstrations are taking place in the same location as those staged by the... MORE
RUSSIA-EU SUMMIT BRINGS MORE MISUNDERSTANDING AND MISTRUST
The only undisputable fact about the Russia-EU summit in Samara on May 18 was that it actually took place; whether that constitutes a positive result is open to interpretation. Even Russia’s demonstratively self-confident President Vladimir Putin hardly finds much satisfaction in the mutual understanding that... MORE
NAZARBAYEV GETS PARLIAMENTARY BACKING TO PERPETUATE HIS RULE
In a typical display of loyalty to President Nursultan Nazarbayev, on May 18 Kazakhstan’s parliament almost unanimously approved constitutional amendments proposed by the head of the state at a joint session of parliament only a day earlier. Addressing legislators on May 17, Nazarbayev had offered... MORE
GAZPROM TAKING OVER THE PIPELINES IN BELARUS
On May 18 in Minsk, Russia’s Gazprom and the Belarus government’s State Property Committee signed agreements to turn the Belarus state-owned gas pipeline company Beltransgaz into a Russia-Belarus joint company. Betransgaz handles both the transit of Russian gas to European Union countries and the internal... MORE
BERDIMUKHAMEDOV MOVES TO ELIMINATE RIVALS AFTER FOREIGN POLICY VICTORIES
Central Asia watchers were surprised by the May 16 announcement from Ashgabat that the chairman of Turkmenistan’s National Security Council, General Akmurad Redzhepov, was being transferred to “other,” unspecified duties. Redzhepov had been one of the late president Saparmurat Niyazov’s closest advisors, and many analysts... MORE
KAZAKHSTAN BALANCES RUSSIAN GAS DEAL WITH HOMEGROWN PROJECTS
As Kazakhstan agreed on a joint venture with Russia to process gas from the Karachaganak field at Gazprom's Orenburg gas-processing plant, the deal will allow Astana to avoid spending billions of dollars to build its own gas-processing facility. Nonetheless, in the immediate aftermath of the... MORE
LOYALIST ADMINISTRATIVE UNIT CONSOLIDATING IN SOUTH OSSETIA
A series of incidents staged in recent days by South Ossetian secessionist forces seeks to provoke the Georgian government into retaliating, so as to derail a political process that Moscow and Tskhinvali cannot control. That political process involves the consolidation of Tbilisi-backed alternative authorities under... MORE
ADYGEI LEADER PURSUES DE FACTO INCORPORATION INTO KRASNODAR KRAI
Adygeya, a small ethnic republic in the western North Caucasus, attracted attention in late 2004, when some regional and federal officials suggested merging it with Krasnodar Krai, an ethnic Russian-dominated neighbor (see EDM, April 6, 29, 2005). The proposal has been strongly resisted in Adygeya.... MORE
KAZAKHSTAN’S GROWING GAS EXPORTS TO GO RUSSIA’S WAY
The rival energy summits, just held by pro-Western countries in Krakow and Russia-led countries in Astana and Turkmenbashi (see EDM, May 14-16), illustrated Kazakhstan’s accelerated drift into Russian-controlled, Eurasia-wide energy transport systems. This drift risks turning Kazakhstan into a component of Russia’s strategy to gain... MORE