Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
SHELL FORCED TO CAPITULATE TO PUTIN
A two-part deal -- one publicized on December 21 and thereafter, the other confidential but leaked by Moscow on December 28 -- has sealed Gazprom’s seizure of the majority stake in the Royal Dutch Shell-led oil and gas project Sakhalin-2. Shell, hitherto the project operator,... MORE
THE RUSSIA-BELARUS GAS DEAL: LUKASHENKA SUFFERS A DEFEAT
Two minutes before midnight on December 31, Russia's Gazprom and the Belarusian government signed a contract to supply Russian gas to Belarus for the next five years. Had the agreement not been signed, Gazprom had threatened to cut off gas supplies to its smaller neighbor,... MORE
ARE EARLY ELECTIONS AN OPTION FOR YUSHCHENKO?
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko may opt for an early parliamentary election in order to reverse the 2004-2006 constitutional reforms. Reversing the amendments, which diminished presidential authority and made it possible for Yushchenko's rivals to quickly return to power, is probably impossible without controlling two-thirds of... MORE
TURKMENISTAN TILTS TOWARD RUSSIA
Turkmenistan’s foreign policy discernibly tilted toward Russia in the days following the death of the country’s president on December 21, 2006. Russia sees the continuation and improvement of commercial and diplomatic relations with Turkmenistan as vital for a number of reasons. Russia has become dependent... MORE
NEUTRAL TURKMENISTAN PRESENTS SECURITY DILEMMA IN THE CASPIAN
On December 26 Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov, Turkmenistan’s acting president, was shown on national television conducting meetings of the State Security Council and Cabinet of Ministers. These images showed Agagelgy Mametgeldiyev, Turkmenistan’s defense minister, seated next to Berdimukhamedov at the meeting. Although there was nothing unusual about... MORE
GEORGIA’S HARD-EARNED CHRISTMAS PRESENT: RUSSIAN MILITARY OUT OF TBILISI
On December 25, 2006, the last personnel of Russia’s garrison in Tbilisi and the rump Headquarters of the Group of Russian Forces in the Transcaucasus (GRVZ) pulled out of Georgia’s capital and of the country altogether. Their unwilling, though ultimately precipitate, withdrawal crowns 15 years... MORE
TWELVE MONTHS: THE SHORT LIFE OF COMFORTABLE ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT RUSSIA’S ENERGY POLICY IN 2006
The Kremlin’s confiscatory assault on Royal Dutch Shell and threats to other Western energy majors in Russia on Black Tuesday, December 12 (see EDM, December 13) is the latest in a series of moves disproving Western wishful thinking about Russia’s energy policy. That wishful thinking... MORE
RUSSIA’S SAKHALIN-2 PROJECT REMAINS UNDER PRESSURE
Russian officials have made little secret of their unhappiness over the terms of existing production sharing agreements, notably Sakhalin-2. Russia refuses to foot the Sakhalin-2 cost overruns, according to Russian Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko. He argued that doubling the project's spending estimate would... MORE
KYRGYZ PROTEST GROWING WESTERN INFLUENCE AT HOME
Following the December 6 fatal shooting of a Kyrgyz truck driver at the U.S. military base in Kyrgyzstan, anti-U.S. sentiments have been mounting in the country. That incident has moved beyond a mere diplomatic spat between the Kyrgyz government and the U.S. embassy and has... MORE
RUSSIAN MEDIA SPLIT ON IRAQ STUDY GROUP REPORT
Surprisingly, the official Russian media reaction to the publication of the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group report has been very restrained -- even difficult to find (Rossiya TV, NTV, December 6). This restraint may be because official Russian commentators and the government well understand that total... MORE