Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
CSTO SEEN AS A SHIELD AGAINST OUTSIDE MEDDLING
Russia has reiterated its pledges to strengthen the regional security grouping it has established with five former Soviet states. At an unprecedented November 29-30 meeting in Moscow of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO, which includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan) Council of... MORE
MOSCOW VOTES FOR LUZHKOV AS RIVALRY WITH PUTIN INTENSIFIES
On Sunday, December 4, Muscovites elected the members of their City Duma. Elections of this kind usually attract so little attention from voters that the minimum turnout was set at only 20%. The city council has even less power within its borders than the State... MORE
PARTY OF REGIONS ENLISTS AKHMETOV FOR POLLS
The Party of Regions of Ukraine (PRU) of Viktor Yanukovych, who was Viktor Yushchenko's main opponent in last year's presidential election, has come up with its list for the March 26 parliamentary elections. Unlike Yushchenko's Our Ukraine or Yulia Tymoshenko's party, the PRU will run... MORE
EUROPEAN UNION DEPLOYS FIRST BORDER MONITORING MISSION
The European Union's High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, Javier Solana, and EU External Affairs Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner joined the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and Moldova, Borys Tarasyuk and Andrei Stratan, to inaugurate the EU's Border Assistance Mission (BAM) for... MORE
PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN CHECHNYA: NO CLEAR WINNER
At noon on November 27, Russian TV broadcast a report about the progress of that day's parliamentary elections in Chechnya. The correspondent was standing alone inside the heavily guarded government headquarters in Grozny. No other people were visible in the area and the scene was... MORE
OSCE’S ELECTION-MONITORING ROLE UNDER RUSSIAN-LED ATTACK
On the eve of its year-end conference, the OSCE has suffered two serious hits to its last remaining credible function: that of Europe's leading election-monitoring organization. Moscow and Moscow-friendly authorities administered both blows as part of Russia's campaign to "reform" the OSCE and its Warsaw-based... MORE
AMENDMENTS PROPOSED TO CRIMINAL CODE IN BELARUS
The Lukashenka government in Belarus has taken several steps to ensure that there are no unexpected setbacks in the 2006 presidential election campaign. On November 23, the president proposed several amendments to the Criminal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure that, if accepted into law,... MORE
KREMLIN USES ENERGY TO TEACH EX-SOVIET NEIGHBORS A LESSON IN GEOPOLITICAL LOYALTY
Russia appears increasingly ready to use its status as a leading energy producer as an instrument of its muscular policy in the post-Soviet lands. Neighboring countries that do not have "special relations" with Moscow and that demonstrate pro-Western leanings are facing a steep rise in... MORE
FEARING COLOR REVOLUTIONS ARE CONTAGIOUS, KAZAKHSTAN SHUTS BORDER WITH KYRGYZSTAN
On November 29 Kazakhstan imposed new restrictions along the state border with Kyrgyzstan "to prevent possible penetration into Kazakhstan of unwanted elements" ahead of presidential elections on December 4 (Kazinform, November 30). Dozens of Kyrgyz traders were not able to cross the busy Kyrgyz-Kazakh Qordai... MORE
END-GAME NEGOTIATIONS AT OSCE PRESAGE YEAR-END ABDICATION
Secretive, end-game negotiations at OSCE headquarters in Vienna, one week before the year-end ministerial conference, demonstrate that Russia (not without assistance from a few countries) is successfully destroying the organization's credibility as a security actor. The OSCE's own lack of transparency plays into Moscow's hands... MORE