Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
MOSCOW PRESSING FOR CFE TREATY RATIFICATION DESPITE ITS OWN NON-COMPLIANCE
Amid a deep secrecy that belies its democratic professions, the OSCE is preparing to hold a Conference to Review the Operation of the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) in Vienna at the end of this month. Some West European chancelleries are seeking ways... MORE
PUTIN MARKS ZERO-SUM WIN WITH KARIMOV IN SOCHI
Uzbek President Islam Karimov's May 12 meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Sochi marks a further stage in Russia's successful exploitation of Uzbekistan's unnecessary alienation from the United States. The Putin-Karimov meeting was demonstratively timed to the anniversary of the violent suppression of... MORE
RUSSIA REMAINS KARIMOV’S BEST HOPE
Amid growing international isolation, Tashkent views an alliance with Moscow as its main -- if not last -- geopolitical hope. The regime ruling Uzbekistan appears so keen to forge closer ties with Russia that President Islam Karimov has seemingly offered Russian companies unprecedented access to... MORE
RUSSIA PLANS EXPANSION OF ITS MILITARY PRESENCE IN KYRGYZSTAN
The Russian military is set to expand its military presence in Kyrgyzstan later this year by increasing the number of Russian personnel at its airbase in Kant, near Bishkek. According to Colonel-General Vladimir Mikhailov, commander of the Russian air force, by the end of 2006... MORE
RUSSIA’S VIRTUAL MILITARY MIGHT SHIELD AGAINST U.S. CRITICISM
Russian President Vladimir Putin's address to parliament last week was perhaps less interesting in its "how-to-spend" content than in what was left out. The secrecy around the drafting of the speech had been tighter than around Stalin's war plans or Brezhnev's health bulletins, but observers... MORE
IS AN ECONOMIC CRISIS LOOMING IN BELARUS?
Reports circulated on May 12 that, three days earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin had signed a decree on fundamental changes in Russia's trade-economic and credit-financial policies toward Belarus. In turn, the Russian gas monopoly Gazprom reportedly plans a threefold rise in the price of gas... MORE
MOLDOVA CAN FOLLOW GEORGIA’S EXAMPLE ON RUSSIAN “PEACEKEEPING” TROOPS
Two upcoming international events offer Moldova and Georgia an unprecedented opportunity to demand the termination of Russian "peacekeeping" -- also known as "piecekeeping," that is, seizure of pieces of another country's territory -- and its replacement by genuine international peacekeeping missions. Those two events are... MORE
PUTIN’S NEW DEAL: KREMLIN PLAYS UP NATIONALIST CARD
The annual address Russian President Vladimir Putin gave to the Federal Assembly on May 10 has already been billed by some Kremlin spin-doctors as Russia's version of the New Deal -- the set of policies pursued by Franklin D. Roosevelt in the wake of the... MORE
KYIV ALSO GLANCING AT EXIT FROM CIS
While Tbilisi seems prepared to leave the Commonwealth of Independent States altogether (see EDM, May 11), Kyiv is reducing its own participation in the organization to almost nil, while maximizing its criticism of it. Even the meager membership dues of "nearly $1 million" that Ukraine... MORE
ALIYEV’S RECENT SCHEDULE: BALANCED FOREIGN POLICY OR BAD TIMING?
Last Friday, May 5, Azerbaijan hosted the ninth summit of the ten-member Economic Cooperation Organization. The meeting convened in Baku and was attended by Hamid Karzai, president of Afghanistan; Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran, Daniyal Akhmetov, prime minister of Kazakhstan; Medetbek Kerimkulov, first vice prime... MORE