Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
ESTONIA: WHY NOT THE BEST?
Estonia’s presidential election tomorrow, September 23, involves more than just a choice between Arnold Ruutel and Toomas Hendrik Ilves. In a more profound sense, this election can decide whether or not a third man, Center Party leader Edgar Savisaar, becomes Estonia’s political and business king-maker... MORE
RUSSIAN PUNDITS WARY OF ANKARA’S REVIVED GEOPOLITICAL AMBITIONS IN EURASIA
The suggestion to form a Turkish commonwealth among Turkic-speaking countries voiced at the recent gathering of leaders of Turkic states in Turkey’s seaside resort city of Antalya appears to reflect Ankara’s desire to strengthen its economic and political positions in Eurasia. Moscow should not treat... MORE
INDIAN STEEL TYCOON FACES NEW WAVE OF PROTESTS IN KAZAKHSTAN
Initial reports say at least 32 miners were killed by a methane gas explosion in the Lenin coal mine, near the town of Shakhtinsk in Central Kazakhstan’s Qaraghandy region. The incident, the latest in a long string of mining accidents in coal mines owned by... MORE
PUTIN-GYURCSANY MEETING STEERS HUNGARY’S GOVERNMENT ON THE “THIRD PATH”
Hungary’s crisis-plagued government under Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany seems to have embarked on a “third-path” course between the institutional West, where Hungary belongs, and Russia toward which Gyurcsany and his closest associates seem increasingly to gravitate. The concept of a “Third Path” (Harmadik Ut) between... MORE
CORRUPTION IN PUTIN’S SYSTEM BECOMES MURDEROUS
The first week after the September 13 murder of Andrei Kozlov, first deputy chairman of the Russian Central Bank, saw no breaks in the case. Investigators are still examining a range of possible options and do not have a single suspect. The 41-year old official... MORE
TRADE BETWEEN RUSSIA AND CHINA SLOWS DOWN
The Kremlin has repeatedly pledged to boost Russia’s economic ties with China. Recent statistics indicate that bilateral trade is rising, but at a rate slower than previously expected. In the first eight months of 2006, bilateral trade between Russia and China was up 20% year-on-year,... MORE
KIRIYENKO INSISTS BUSHEHR PLANT WILL BE OPERATIONAL BY SEPTEMBER 2007
On Monday September 18, the chief of the Federal Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom), Sergei Kiriyenko, told reporters in Vienna that Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power reactor will be operational by September 2007 and is scheduled to begin producing commercial electric power in November 2007. Kiriyenko also... MORE
OPPOSITION FRAGMENTS AHEAD OF GEORGIAN LOCAL ELECTIONS
On October 5, Georgians will vote to fill 1,683 seats in 69 local municipal councils. Unlike the 2002 local elections, where voters directly elected the mayors except in Tbilisi and Poti, the October ballot will chose city councils, which will later elect mayors. In Tbilisi... MORE
UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT, ALLIES ON THE DEFENSIVE OVER NATO POLICY
Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych clearly exceeded the powers of his office, breached internal governmental procedures, and undoubtedly usurped the presidency’s constitutional authority by announcing in Brussels that Ukraine is opting out of NATO’s Membership Action Plan. Shocked, President Viktor Yushchenko and his supporters in... MORE
YANUKOVYCH’S NYET TO NATO MEMBERSHIP: PAINFUL, BUT NOT THE FINAL WORD
Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych’s September 13-14 announcement in Brussels, removing Ukraine from consideration for a NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP), was entirely predictable (see EDM, August 7, September 12). In all its aspects, including its technical breach of Ukraine’s constitution, which empowers the president... MORE