Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
PRO-OSSETIAN AUTHORITIES EMERGING IN SOUTH OSSETIA
The Tbilisi-backed Union for National Salvation of Ossetians (UNSO) conducted its own referendum and presidential election in South Ossetia on November 12, as an alternative to the referendum and election conducted that day by the Moscow-installed authorities (see EDM, November 15). Residents of villages with... MORE
STRENGTHENING THE “EASTERN VECTOR”: ANKARA HOSTS TURKIC SUMMIT
Leaders of Turkic nations are meeting today, November 17, in Turkey’s Mediterranean resort city of Antalya. This first summit of Turkish-speaking peoples in five years appears to reflect Ankara’s ongoing rethinking about its international identity. Increasingly frustrated with the mounting hurdles on the path of... MORE
KAZAKH, UZBEK PRESIDENTS CONFER OVER LATEST DEVELOPMENTS IN KYRGYZSTAN
On November 3 Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev paid an informal visit to Uzbekistan. The trip came as a complete surprise inside Kazakhstan, as it had not been announced in advance and looked like a spontaneous decision. Nazarbayev had been touring South Kazakhstan and he arrived... MORE
KYRGYZSTAN’S NEW CONSTITUTION PROMISES SUBSTANTIAL, LONG-TERM CHANGES
Kyrgyzstan has become the first Central Asian country to endorse a constitution that proclaims a parliamentary state system and significantly trims the president’s powers. This achievement is the result of popular demand, voiced through almost week-long demonstrations organized by the “For Reforms” opposition bloc. According... MORE
HUNGER STRIKE DISTRACTS AZERBAIJANI ACTIVISTS FROM FOCUSING ON UPCOMING ELECTIONS
Azerbaijani opposition activists and journalists have launched a hunger strike to protest the recent pressure on the media and opposition parties from the State Committee for the Management of State Properties. The Committee is demanding that a building located in the heart of Baku, at... MORE
KYIV CHANGING IDEAS, MIXING SIGNALS ON ODESSA-BRODY OIL PIPELINE
Yesterday, November 15, Prime Ministers Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine and Jaroslaw Kaczynski of Poland announced that they would support building an extension of the Odessa-Brody oil pipeline westward, to the Kralupy refinery in the Czech Republic. The announcement implicitly changes the original intention to extend... MORE
U.S. GREEN LIGHTS RUSSIAN WTO MEMBERSHIP, SEEKS AGREEMENT ON IRAN
Last July, just before the G-8 summit in St. Petersburg, Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin told reporters that Washington and Moscow had reached a deal on Russian membership in the World Trade Organization and that a final bilateral agreement would be signed during the summit... MORE
YUSHCHENKO LOSING HIS PARTY
The People’s Union-Our Ukraine (NSNU) political party has ignored President Viktor Yushchenko’s call for change. The second stage of the NSNU’s third congress on November 11 failed to replace the party’s leadership, although Yushchenko -- the party’s honorary chair -- had urged this at the... MORE
MOSCOW’S FINGERPRINTS ALL OVER SOUTH OSSETIA’S REFERENDUM
On November 12 the Russian-installed authorities in South Ossetia held a referendum and “presidential” election in the portions of territory under their control. The balloting returned the de facto president, Eduard Kokoiti, to office for another term and produced a “yes” answer to the question:... MORE
PUTIN-LUKASHENKA MEETING SHATTERS
As anticipated (see EDM, November 8), Belarus President Alexander Lukashenka’s meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow on November 10 ended in disagreement on the full range of issues discussed. In a highly unusual move, the Kremlin kept the publicity down to near-zero... MORE