Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
WAYS TO TRANSFORM RUSSIA’S “PEACEKEEPING” OPERATION IN MOLDOVA
The United States, NATO, and European Union are prepared to negotiate with Russia at an international conference next week about transforming Russia’s “peacekeeping” operation in Moldova into a genuinely multilateral operation with Russian participation. They are offering to Russia the “carrot” of ratifying the 1999-adapted... MORE
TURKMENISTAN BACK IN FORMER USSR’S ORBIT
With the unexpected death of Turkmen-President-for-Life Saparmurat Niyazov on December 21, 2006, many Western governments believed that a new era of openness and access to the country’s natural gas deposits, the fifth largest in the world, was about to begin. Six months later, it appears... MORE
TNK-BP KEEPS KOVYKTA LICENSE, FOR NOW
Throughout this year, Russian regulators have targeted the Kovykta gas development project, officially for failing to fulfill production quotas. However, the regulatory pressure was understood to be aimed at putting the giant Kovykta gas field, which is estimated to hold up to 3 trillion cubic... MORE
PLAYING CATCH-UP WITH RUSSIA ON CASPIAN ENERGY TRANSIT
U.S. government officials are fanning out to the Caspian region after the signing of Russia’s monopolistic agreements on energy transit with three Central Asian countries and Austria in May (see EDM, May 14, 16, 17, 29, 31). Those agreements, mostly of intent, would kill the... MORE
GATES VISITS BISHKEK, BUT PRO-MOSCOW MOOD PREVAILS IN KYRGYZSTAN
On June 5 U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates visited Kyrgyzstan to discuss the status of the U.S. military base in Bishkek with Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev and Kyrgyz Minister of Defense Ismail Isakov. In the past, treating the Kyrgyz-U.S. military cooperation as an important... MORE
KREMLIN, ABKHAZ, SOUTH OSSETIAN LEADERS DELIBERATELY AMBIVALENT ABOUT KOSOVO
Moscow is redoubling its rhetorical support for Serbia over Kosovo, ostensibly on the basis of the territorial-integrity principle, while backing its Abkhaz and South Ossetian protégés on the basis of the self-determination principle (as Moscow construes it). Russian President Vladimir Putin leads the charge on... MORE
RUSSIA STILL SEES WEST AS PRIMARY ENEMY
During an extended interview with Western and Russian journalists before this week’s G-8 summit in Germany, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that if U.S. missile defense elements are deployed in Europe, "We will be forced to take adequate steps in response." Putin elaborated: "New targets... MORE
IS UKRAINIAN INTERIOR MINISTER SICK OR HIDING?
Interior Minister Vasyl Tsushko has left Ukraine for medical treatment in Germany. President Viktor Yushchenko had accused him of breaking the law when Tsushko ordered riot police to storm the Prosecutor-General’s Office (PGO) on May 24, at the height of a political crisis caused by... MORE
RUSSIAN OIL PIPELINE SHUTOFF TO LITHUANIA: WIDER RAMIFICATIONS
Moscow’s closure of the oil pipeline to Lithuania in July 2006 “looked, sounded, and felt” (see EDM, August 3, 18, 2006) like political and economic retaliation against the privatization of Lithuania’s Mazeikiai refinery by Poland’s PKN Orlen, which had prevented a Russian takeover The Russian... MORE
CASPIAN ENERGY PROJECTS: “TIME TO ADVANCE FROM TALKING TO ACTING”
Russia’s monopolistic agreements on energy transit, signed in rapid succession with three Central Asian countries and Austria (see EDM, May 14, 16, 17, 29, 31) sent yet another wake-up call in Washington, sending U.S. officials urgently to assess the situation in the Caspian region. The... MORE