Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
GAZPROM DETERMINED TO CONTROL MAJOR SHELF PROJECTS
On Thursday, January 25, Russian Natural Resources Minister Yuri Trutnev urged the government to make it tougher for foreign investors to access the mineral resources of the Russian continental shelf. “As these are strategic interests,” he said, “a tougher procedure will be introduced to grant... MORE
LUKASHENKA REDOUBLES OVERTURES TO THE WEST
Addressing a Minsk academic forum on January 26, President Alexander Lukashenka in fact had the European Union in mind for much of his speech, clearly signaling a turnabout from his hitherto exclusive Russian orientation. Lukashenka also made the same points in accompanying remarks to the... MORE
MOSCOW STUNG BY ESTONIAN BAN ON TOTALITARIANISM’S SYMBOLS
Russia’s government, parliament, and state-controlled media are redoubling the anti-Estonian campaign in the wake of the Estonian parliament’s adoption of the “Law on the Protection of War Burial Sites” (January 10) and the first-reading passage of legislation against public display of totalitarian symbols (January 24).... MORE
MOSCOW CONDEMNS HIPC INITIATIVE IN KYRGYZSTAN
The possibility of Kyrgyzstan joining the World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative has sparked heated debates among state institutions and civil society groups. Recently, Andrei Grozin, representing the Moscow Institute of the Commonwealth of Independent States, commented that Kyrgyzstan’s... MORE
TURKMEN POLITICAL PRISONERS DEMAND RELEASE AFTER NIYAZOV’S DEATH
Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov’s unexpected death on December 21, 2006, triggered a wave of uncertainty both inside Turkmenistan and internationally. The “light of the Turkmen” had established an extravagant personality cult that many compared to Stalin’s. Oddly enough, Niyazov died on Stalin’s birthday. In a... MORE
WESTERN MAJORS SIGN AGREEMENT OF INTENT ON TRANS-CASPIAN OIL TRANSPORT SYSTEM
As anticipated some time ago (see EDM, August 17, 2005, March 16, 2006), Moscow’s extortion of Western companies in the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) on Russian territory has finally persuaded the companies to choose a trans-Caspian solution for the export of their rapidly growing oil... MORE
TANGERINE CRISIS IN SOUTH OSSETIA PROMPTS KREMLIN TO BACK AWAY FROM DEADLOCK WITH GEORGIA
On January 18, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that he would allow the Russian ambassador to return to Georgia, after recalling him last October. At that time relations between Russia and Georgia had seriously deteriorated, and Moscow also imposed economic sanctions and cut all transportation... MORE
YUSHCHENKO, YANUKOVYCH BATTLE FOR CONTROL OF SECURITY SERVICES
Last week the head of Ukraine’s parliamentary committee on national security and defense, Anatoliy Kinakh, accused the general prosecutor’s office, the Security Service (SBU), and law enforcement of beginning to act on the basis of political orders (Ukrayinska pravda, January 19). Kinakh’s concern was related... MORE
BELARUS WARNS IT MAY CANCEL ITS SUBSIDIES TO RUSSIA
Contrary to the widespread impression, Russian economic subsidies to Belarus have been only one side of a two-way process. Belarus has in effect also been subsidizing Russia for the last decade. The mutual-subsidies system has been the only real dimension to the otherwise virtual “Russia-Belarus... MORE
U.S. PROPOSAL TO BASE MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEMS IN POLAND, CZECH REPUBLIC, RAISES ALARM IN MOSCOW
Last year was a disaster in terms of Russia’s relations with the West. In December 2006 Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov summed up this “not easy” year by insisting that the “legacy of the Cold War has not been removed” and scolded the Western press... MORE