Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles

POORER, LESS EDUCATED VOTERS PREFER TURKEY’S AK PARTY

A close look at voting patterns in the July 22 Turkish general election suggests that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) has broadened its electoral base while retaining its grassroots support among lower-income groups and the more conservative sections of society. Yesterday, July... MORE

POST-SOVIET RAILWAYS LACK FUNDS FOR AMBITIOUS PROJECTS

Post-Soviet railway problems made headlines when Ukraine announced a hazardous materials emergency after a train carrying toxic chemicals crashed on July 16 in the country's Western Lviv region (see EDM, July 23). Fifteen tankers carrying liquid yellow phosphorous derailed, and six caught fire. The train... MORE

DONETSK PROSECUTORS, COURTS STRIKE BACK

Several prosecutors and courts recently decided high-profile cases in favor of individuals who were prosecuted when President Viktor Yushchenko came to power in 2005. At the same time, the Donetsk Regional Prosecutor’s Office and the Prosecutor-General’s Office, which is controlled by individuals hailing from Donetsk,... MORE

SCO PREPARES LIST OF BANNED RADICAL GROUPS

Radical groups operating within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization member states will be placed on a new, common list of banned organizations. On July 24 Toygonbek Kalmatov, from the Kyrgyz government agency for religious, confirmed that SCO representatives recently held a closed meeting in order to... MORE

UKRAINE’S ELITES REMAIN ABOVE THE LAW

Ukraine’s orange elites are facing a growing scandal surrounding Yuriy Lutsenko, head of the pro-presidential Our Ukraine-People’s Self Defense bloc (NUNS). Lutsenko allegedly lobbied on behalf of Ukrainian New Telecommunications (UNTC) when he was interior minister. Lutsenko’s wife is UNTC’s financial director, and the company... MORE

TRANSNISTRIA SETTLEMENT AND POLITICAL POWER IN MOLDOVA

In his marathon-length speeches on July 20 and 25, defending his non-transparent negotiations with Russia on Transnistria (see EDM, July 27), Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin assailed all of Moldova’s non-communist parties indiscriminately. He accused them in prosecutorial terms of obstructing any solution on Transnistria and... MORE

IN PUTIN WE TRUST: MOLDOVAN PRESIDENT GOES FOR BROKE IN DEAL WITH RUSSIA

In a marathon-length televised interview on July 20, Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin admitted to negotiating a “plan” for conflict-settlement in Transnistria with the Kremlin. Broadcast live in Russian on the presidentially controlled private channel NIT, Voronin’s emotional interview was kept out of the official Moldovan... MORE