Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
MOSCOW CONDEMNS HIPC INITIATIVE IN KYRGYZSTAN
The possibility of Kyrgyzstan joining the World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative has sparked heated debates among state institutions and civil society groups. Recently, Andrei Grozin, representing the Moscow Institute of the Commonwealth of Independent States, commented that Kyrgyzstan’s... MORE
TURKMEN POLITICAL PRISONERS DEMAND RELEASE AFTER NIYAZOV’S DEATH
Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov’s unexpected death on December 21, 2006, triggered a wave of uncertainty both inside Turkmenistan and internationally. The “light of the Turkmen” had established an extravagant personality cult that many compared to Stalin’s. Oddly enough, Niyazov died on Stalin’s birthday. In a... MORE
WESTERN MAJORS SIGN AGREEMENT OF INTENT ON TRANS-CASPIAN OIL TRANSPORT SYSTEM
As anticipated some time ago (see EDM, August 17, 2005, March 16, 2006), Moscow’s extortion of Western companies in the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) on Russian territory has finally persuaded the companies to choose a trans-Caspian solution for the export of their rapidly growing oil... MORE
TANGERINE CRISIS IN SOUTH OSSETIA PROMPTS KREMLIN TO BACK AWAY FROM DEADLOCK WITH GEORGIA
On January 18, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that he would allow the Russian ambassador to return to Georgia, after recalling him last October. At that time relations between Russia and Georgia had seriously deteriorated, and Moscow also imposed economic sanctions and cut all transportation... MORE
YUSHCHENKO, YANUKOVYCH BATTLE FOR CONTROL OF SECURITY SERVICES
Last week the head of Ukraine’s parliamentary committee on national security and defense, Anatoliy Kinakh, accused the general prosecutor’s office, the Security Service (SBU), and law enforcement of beginning to act on the basis of political orders (Ukrayinska pravda, January 19). Kinakh’s concern was related... MORE
BELARUS WARNS IT MAY CANCEL ITS SUBSIDIES TO RUSSIA
Contrary to the widespread impression, Russian economic subsidies to Belarus have been only one side of a two-way process. Belarus has in effect also been subsidizing Russia for the last decade. The mutual-subsidies system has been the only real dimension to the otherwise virtual “Russia-Belarus... MORE
U.S. PROPOSAL TO BASE MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEMS IN POLAND, CZECH REPUBLIC, RAISES ALARM IN MOSCOW
Last year was a disaster in terms of Russia’s relations with the West. In December 2006 Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov summed up this “not easy” year by insisting that the “legacy of the Cold War has not been removed” and scolded the Western press... MORE
UKRAINIAN FOREIGN MINISTER IN LIMBO
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry has become hostage to a constitutional reform that failed to clearly define the boundaries between the remits of the legislature and the executive. President Viktor Yushchenko insists that parliament’s December 1 motion to dismiss pro-Western Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk was illegal, so... MORE
KREMLIN STRATEGY TARGETS WESTERN ENERGY ASSETS IN RUSSIA, WESTERN SUPPLY SOURCES IN THIRD COUNTRIES
On January 21 in Sochi, Russian President Vladimir Putin assured a skeptical Angela Merkel -- visiting in a triple capacity as German Chancellor, holder of the European Union presidency, and incoming G-8 chair -- about Russia’s purported reliability as an energy partner to the West.... MORE
U.S. UNABLE TO NAME NEW ARMENIA ENVOY AMID GENOCIDE ROW
For months the Bush administration has been unable to appoint a new U.S. ambassador to Armenia due to a dispute with the influential Armenian community in the United States over the mass killings and deportations of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey. The row broke out last... MORE