Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
SOUTH OSSETIAN LEADER CHOOSES EUROPE
Dmitry Sanakoyev, leader of the Tbilisi-backed provisional administrative unit in South Ossetia, visited Brussels on June 24-26 for informal introductory talks with representatives of European institutions, diplomatic missions, and think tanks and a speech in the European Parliament. Invited to Brussels by the European Union-Georgia... MORE
KREMLIN REJECTS “FOREIGN” APPROACH TO RUSSIAN HISTORY
Last week President Vladimir Putin met with a selected group of delegates attending a Kremlin-organized conference, “Timely Issues in Teaching Modern History and Social Science.” Putin told the teachers: “Many school books are written by people who work to get foreign grants. They dance to... MORE
GABALA PLAN SHOT DOWN BY TEHRAN, MOSCOW’S STRATEGIC PARTNER
Although several Russian press commentaries have claimed that President Vladimir Putin’s proposal that the United States and Russia jointly establish a radar base at Gabala, Azerbaijan, has somehow shaken up Washington and NATO, this appears to be wishful thinking (RIA-Novosti, June 14; Kommersant, June 9).... MORE
VORONIN-PUTIN NEGOTIATIONS IN END GAME AHEAD OF PUTIN-BUSH SUMMIT
Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Vladimir Voronin of Moldova held a non-transparent meeting on June 22 in Moscow and are scheduled to meet again on June 30 (Moldpres, Basapres, June 22, 23). Voronin and his entourage are hoping for an imminent breakthrough on resolving... MORE
U.S.-BORN POLITICIAN RESHAPES ARMENIAN OPPOSITION CAMP
The May 12 parliamentary elections in Armenia, swept by political allies of President Robert Kocharian and Prime Minister Serge Sarkisian, were a massive blow to the country’s fragmented opposition. Most of its top leaders, including the two men who had nearly unseated Kocharian in the... MORE
TURKMENISTAN AND IRAN STRENGTHEN RELATIONS
Bilateral relations between Iran and Turkmenistan appear on the verge of a breakthrough. At the end of Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov’s official visit to Tehran on June 15-16, the presidents of the two countries committed themselves to closer joint efforts across a broad range of... MORE
SOUTH STREAM: GAZPROM’S NEW MEGA PROJECT
On June 23 in Rome, ENI Chief Executive Paolo Scaroni and Gazprom Vice-Chairman Alexander Medvedev signed a memorandum of understanding to build a gas pipeline from Russia to Italy -- South Stream. Energy Ministers Pierluigi Bersani of Italy and Viktor Khristenko of Russia joined the... MORE
PUTIN TAKES THE CASPIAN ROAD TO KENNEBUNKPORT
Russia-U.S. relations show few signs of improvement in the last days before the eye-to-eye meeting between Presidents Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush in the informal atmosphere of the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine. Greeting the delegates at a conference of social sciences teachers... MORE
RIVAL CASPIAN CANAL PROJECTS COMPETE FOR INVESTORS
Azerbaijan, one of the rising Caspian energy exporters, has dismissed a Russian proposition to renovate the Volga-Don Canal (Itar-Tass, June 19). Baku apparently favors a Kazakh proposal for a “Eurasia Canal,” calling Russia’s plans a simple upgrade of the existing canal. Speaking in Rostov-on-Don on... MORE
NEO-COMINTERN MEETING IN TIRASPOL
Meeting in Tiraspol on June 17, “foreign ministers” Valery Litskay of Transnistria, Sergei Shamba of Abkhazia, and Murat Jioyev of South Ossetia, as well as Karabakh “presidential” foreign policy adviser Arman Melikian issued a “Declaration on the Principles of Peaceful and Just Settlement of the... MORE