Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
SUMMIT PRESCRIBES CIS LITE; PUTIN BLINKS BEFORE SAAKASHVILI; VORONIN STANDS UP TO PUTIN
Devalued by an unusually low attendance -- only eight out of twelve presidents -- the CIS informal summit in Moscow on July 21-22 marks the official transition of this organization to a “lite” version of its former self. With Russian President Vladimir Putin’s acquiescence, Kazakh... MORE
MOSCOW’S ANTI-GEORGIAN AGITPROP TARGETS WASHINGTON
Responding to Georgia’s call for the replacement of Russian “peacekeeping” troops by international police (see EDM, July 20), Moscow now accuses Georgia of a premeditated intent to launch military operations in South Ossetia and/or Abkhazia. Moreover, Russia threatens to intervene with its troops on the... MORE
CIS SUMMIT: GATHERING WILL LIKELY FLOP BUT MOSCOW IS INTENT TO CONTINUE THROWING ITS WEIGHT AROUND
The Kremlin appears determined to prove that Russia is back as a world-class superpower. Immediately after the pomp and fanfare of the St. Petersburg G-8 summit on July 15-17 -- the event that has allegedly seen Russia’s return to the first league of global heavyweights... MORE
VERDICT HANDED DOWN ON BELARUSIAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE
On July 13 a Minsk court sentenced former presidential candidate Alexander Kazulin to five and one-half years of confinement. The verdict, while unwarranted and harsh, also raises some questions about the outlook of the Lukashenka regime. Why was Kazulin singled out for such treatment at... MORE
BAKU’S CHAOTIC CONSTRUCTION BOOM DRAWS INCREASING CRITICISM
In recent weeks, more and more political parties, members of the intelligentsia, and media outlets have begun to criticize the haphazard, chaotic construction boom in Azerbaijan’s capital city, Baku. Increasing oil revenues and the growing demand for new apartments have turned the city into a... MORE
GEORGIAN PARLIAMENT CALLS FOR REPLACING RUSSIAN PEACEKEEPERS WITH INTERNATIONAL POLICE CONTINGENT
Georgia’s parliament approved on July 18 a resolution calling for the withdrawal of Russia’s “peacekeeping” troops from Georgian territory in Abkhazia and South Ossetia and the deployment of internationally mandated police forces in the two areas. The resolution’s preamble notes that Russia’s actions in blocking... MORE
KREMLIN MOVES TO STRENGTHEN CONTROL OVER DAGESTAN
On Monday, July 17, Imam Yaraliev, prosecutor-general for Dagestan, announced his resignation. His deputy, Murad Kekhlerov, will take the post until the Russian prosecutor-general appoints a replacement. Yaraliev had been regarded as a highly corrupt official. According to information from the Dagestani prosecutor’s office, Yaraliev... MORE
PUTIN EMBRACES DOUBLE STANDARD IN MID-EAST CRISIS
Although the Russian press regularly rebukes the West for double standards regarding terrorism, such as supporting the insurgents in Chechnya, media outlets have not pointed out that Moscow is taking a similar stance regarding the current Middle East crisis. Western reports clearly indicate that Hezbollah,... MORE
TABLES TURNED IN UKRAINE
Long-time opponents of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko allied with defectors from his camp to outplay him in a bid to secure control over the government. The Orange coalition, which was announced on June 20, barely survived two weeks; instead a coalition built around the Party... MORE
DEZINFORMATSIYA ALIVE BUT TRANSPARENT
Two forgeries now circulating in Europe and North America bear the classic imprint of Soviet disinformation, presented, however, in modern-looking packaging developed by Modest Kolerov’s department of the presidential administration in the Kremlin. One of these forgeries attempts to portray Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili as... MORE