Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
AZERBAIJAN KEEPS SOLIDARITY WITH GEORGIA DESPITE RUSSIAN ENERGY SUPPLY CUTS
On Wednesday, December 6, Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupryanov confirmed recent press reports that Gazprom will abruptly slash gas supplies to Azerbaijan to 1.5 billion cubic meters in 2007, down from 4.5 billion cubic meters in 2006, and that it would raise the price as of... MORE
OSCE’S YEAR-END CONFERENCE: A FAILURE THAT HELPS CLARITY
Even in its failure, the OSCE year-end conference on December 4-5 in Brussels managed to highlight the fact that Russia’s conflict undertakings in Georgia and Moldova constitute the main problem of European security at present. This fact had been implicitly understood for some time, but... MORE
TRANS-BLACK SEA PIPELINE CAN BRING CASPIAN GAS TO EUROPE
A New York-based consortium of several independent parties is completing the pre-feasibility study for a Georgia-Ukraine-European Union (GUEU) gas pipeline project. Led by the London-based Pipeline Systems Engineering (PSE) and the New-York-based Radon-Ishizumi consulting and engineering firms, the project envisages bringing Caspian gas to EU... MORE
KAZAKHSTAN AND TURKEY SPEARHEAD INTEGRATION OF TURKIC NATIONS
At least three people died and dozens of Turkish and Kazakh workers were badly injured when a fight erupted at a construction firm in Atyrau (West Kazakhstan) on October 20. The firm holds a contract with Chevron, and the incident has re-ignited public anger against... MORE
RUSSIAN MASS MEDIA SHAPE PUBLIC OPINION IN KYRGYZSTAN
Last week Murat Zhurayev, a Kyrgyz parliamentarian from Batken, supported the idea of Kyrgyzstan entering the ruble zone. He thus joined the ranks of Kyrgyz politicians who advocate moving deeper into Russia’s orbit (24.kg, December 2). Given the ongoing economic crisis and political instability in... MORE
THE POLONIUM TRAIL LEADS TO MOSCOW
Officials investigating the lethal poisoning of former Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officer Alexander Litvinenko in London have widened their inquiry to Moscow. U.K. Home Secretary John Reid told reporters, "British police will be going to Russia to continue their inquiries," and he vowed that... MORE
LUKASHENKA OPTS FOR NUCLEAR POWER
Belarus, the Soviet republic most heavily affected by fallout from the 1986 nuclear accident at Chernobyl, has decided to develop its own nuclear power industry. On December 1, Mikhail Myasnikovich, chairman of the National Academy of Sciences, made the announcement at a meeting concerning the... MORE
YUSHCHENKO LOSING KEY MINISTERS
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has lost at least two of the four ministers who remained loyal to him while working in Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych's cabinet. Parliament, which is dominated by the Anti-Crisis Coalition (AKK) -- consisting of Yanukovych's Party of Regions (PRU), the Communists,... MORE
OSCE: END OF YEAR BRINGS END OF ROAD AS SECURITY ACTOR
The OSCE’s year-end conference, which opened on December 4 in Brussels, foundered again as it has every year since 2001 on the main unresolved European security problem: Russian forces in Georgia and Moldova and the related status of the treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe... MORE
RUSSIA SEES SCO AS POTENTIAL ENERGY CARTEL
Facing mounting Western accusations of aggressive behavior in the energy sector, Moscow is turning eastward in search of more friendly energy partners. One potential source is the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Alexander Lukin, director of the Center of East Asian and SCO Studies of the... MORE