Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTER SIGNALS PRESIDENTIAL AMBITIONS
Vartan Oskanian, a former U.S. citizen who has served as Armenia’s foreign minister since 1998, is increasingly signaling his intention to contest the presidential election of 2008. There is mounting speculation in Yerevan that it is he, rather than the powerful Defense Minister Serge Sarkisian,... MORE
PUTIN TAKES “LIFE-IS-GOOD” APPROACH WITH RUSSIAN PUBLIC
Last Wednesday, October 25, Russian President Vladimir Putin held his annual live call-in television show. For three hours he answered questions from 10 specially arranged locations, from Nakhodka, near Vladivostok in the Far East, to Baltiisk, near Kaliningrad. Public attention to this PR exercise was... MORE
HOW PUTIN MIGHT WIELD “INFLUENCE” AFTER 2008
The most-talked about part of President Vladimir Putin’s recent nationally televised call-in program was his answer to a question concerning his plans after his second term ends in 2008. “I have said: even though I like my work, the Constitution does not allow me to... MORE
PUTIN OFFERS UKRAINE “PROTECTION” FOR EXTENDING RUSSIAN BLACK SEA FLEET’S PRESENCE
In his annual phone-in dialogue with Russian citizens, televised live on October 25, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed extending the stationing of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in Ukraine’s Crimea beyond the 2017 legal deadline. Moreover, Putin obliquely cast doubt on Ukrainian sovereignty and security in... MORE
UKRAINE’S GEOPOLITICAL PREDICAMENT: WHILE LONGING FOR PLACE IN UNITED EUROPE IT CANNOT IGNORE RUSSIA’S CONCERNS
This week’s events confirmed that Ukraine is being pulled in two directions as it faces a strategic dilemma. On the one hand, Kyiv is pushing for associated membership with the European Union and a free-trade deal with the rich bloc. On the other hand, the... MORE
MOSCOW RAISES GAS PRICE TO UKRAINE
Meeting in Kyiv on October 24, Prime Ministers Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine and Mikhail Fradkov of Russia authorized the signing of agreements whereby 55 billion cubic meters of “Central Asian” gas would be delivered to Ukraine in 2007 at a price of $130 per 1,000... MORE
RUSSIA AMBIVALENT ABOUT SAKHALIN PRODUCTION SHARING DEALS
Russian energy projects governed by production sharing agreements are now facing environmental scrutiny, possibly indicating Moscow's unhappiness over the terms of deals made almost a decade ago. Russian officials went as far as threatening to shut down the country's largest production sharing agreement (PSA) project,... MORE
OSCE BELGIAN CHAIRMANSHIP’S VISION FOR TRANSNISTRIA’S STATUS
As is the case every year since 2002, the unresolved conflict in Transnistria will almost certainly figure at or near the top of the agenda of the OSCE’s year-end conference on December 3-4 in Brussels. Hoping to show at least some movement toward settling at... MORE
WILL THE OPPOSITION BOYCOTT LOCAL ELECTIONS IN BELARUS?
On January 14, 2007, voters in Belarus will again go to the polls to elect local governments. The opposition, including the United Democratic Forces (UDF) movement, is debating the wisdom of participating in another election that is little more than a façade. A majority, encouraged... MORE
RUSSIAN GENERALS LOSING HOPE FOR MILITARY VICTORY IN CHECHNYA
On October 12, Russian Colonel-General Yevgeny Baryaev told a meeting of law-enforcement agency representatives in Grozny, the Chechen capital, “At the beginning of October the situation deteriorated in Chechnya, especially in the mountainous Vedeno district.” As an example, Baryaev mentioned that one week earlier a... MORE