Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
MOSCOW’S “HEALTHY FORCES” SET BACK IN ESTONIA’S PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS
Pro-Western, pro-market parties won a convincing victory in Estonia’s March 4 parliamentary elections, despite Moscow’s efforts to prevent such an outcome. This election’s political ramifications -- like those of Estonia’s elections in the early and mid-1990s -- transcend the country’s confines. A decade ago, election... MORE
MOLDOVA REFUSES MASS CONFERRAL OF ROMANIAN CITIZENSHIP
In a series of statements on March 3 through 7, Moldova reacted furiously to Romania’s ongoing attempts to confer Romanian citizenship to Moldova’s residents en masse. With Romania’s accession to the European Union effective January 1, Bucharest believes that a large part of Moldova’s population... MORE
MORE SETBACKS FOR RULE OF LAW IN UKRAINE
On March 4, 2005, former Ukrainian interior minister Yuriy Kravchenko was found dead with two bullet wounds to the head. The official verdict was suicide. Two years on, Kravchenko’s family has launched a private investigation claiming that two self-inflicted gunshots to the head would be... MORE
LUKOIL AT THE CROSSROADS
The destruction of Yukos by the Russian state left Lukoil as Russia’s largest oil company not controlled by the Kremlin, though of necessity loyal to it and often in its graces. Lukoil’s nominal independence from the state is about to end, however. This privately owned... MORE
RUSSIAN ECONOMIC TIES WITH UZBEKISTAN HIT TURBULENCE
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov traveled to Tashkent on March 7 in a bid to prop up the Russia-Uzbek economic partnership, but the trip also served to highlight unresolved economic issues between the two countries. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov's March 7 visit to Uzbekistan... MORE
KYRGYZSTAN PREPARES TO HOLD SCO SUMMIT THIS SUMMER
This summer Kyrgyzstan plans to host the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s (SCO) annual summit and assume its presidency. SCO members include China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan; while India, Iran, Mongolia, and Pakistan hold observer status. While this is a unique chance for Kyrgyzstan to... MORE
KOMMERSANT DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT FALLS TO HIS DEATH
Last Friday, March 2, Ivan Safronov, a defense correspondent for Kommersant newspaper, fell to his death from a fourth-story window in his apartment block in central Moscow. The Moscow police are treating the death as suicide, but they still opened a criminal investigation to look... MORE
CORRUPTION PROBES IN UKRAINE: TABLES TURNED
As leadership has changed at Ukraine’s Interior Ministry, many former officials who fled Ukraine amid accusations of corruption after the Orange Revolution have nothing to fear. Criminal cases against them are being closed one by one. The Orange leaders cry foul, saying that this means... MORE
TURNING THE BALTIC SEA INTO A SECOND BOSPORUS?
The Russian government recently declared its intention to turn the Baltic Sea into an oil-shipping corridor to Western Europe, carrying up to 150 million tons of Russian oil annually aboard tankers. This intention constitutes only the most recent threat to maritime safety and ecology in... MORE
BELGIUM – GAZPROM’S NEXT “HUB” IN EUROPE?
European Union host country Belgium traditionally has been an advocate of EU integration. But its latest actions illustrate the absence of an EU energy policy and the member countries’ growing tendency to strike bilateral energy deals with Russia. Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, along with... MORE