Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
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
YEREVAN MOVES TO DEPOLITICIZE LAW-ENFORCEMENT, JUDICIARY
Armenia is embarking on a sweeping structural reform of its law-enforcement system that is supposed to bring it into greater conformity with European standards. Under a government bill approved by parliament on February 26, Armenian prosecutors will be stripped of their most significant authority: to... MORE
RUSSIA USING CSTO TO COUNTERBALANCE NATO
On February 28 Nikolai Bordyuzha, secretary-general of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), addressed a meeting of students from the Russian-Tajik (Slavonic) University in Dushanbe. Ostensibly he promoted the CSTO as an organization that seeks to create an integrated security system dealing with military and... MORE
ENERGY EXPLORATION ISSUES THREATEN TURKEY’S EU PROSPECTS
Tensions in Cyprus flared last week following a February 28 announcement of formal invitations to apply for licenses to prospect for oil and natural gas in 11 offshore blocs, totaling nearly 27,000 square miles of southern Cypriot Mediterranean waters. Reportedly U.S., Chinese, and Russian energy... MORE
MILINKEVICH: A CONSOLIDATOR NOT A DICTATOR
As the proposed date for the Second Congress of the United Democratic Forces (UDF) of Belarus approaches (March 17), leaders of the Belarusian opposition are engaged in an animated debate on the future of the organization and whether its leadership should be elected on a... MORE
RUSSIA WEIGHS AMBITIOUS PLANS TO DEVELOP FAR EAST
Moscow may spend trillions of rubles to develop the Russian Far East. While visiting Vladivostok on March 1, Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov said it was too early to announce more concrete estimates, but he pledged to monitor the disbursement of federal funds. Fradkov also stated... MORE