Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
GEORGIA EXTRICATING FROM GAZPROM’S BEAR HUG
The winter now ending was almost certainly the last one during which Georgia had to face Gazprom's commercial blackmail and supply cutoffs. Within the coming months, Georgia will begin receiving Azerbaijani gas through the Shah Deniz-Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum (Turkey) transit pipeline and will also have an opportunity... MORE
YUSHCHENKO CHOOSING BETWEEN TYMOSHENKO AND YANUKOVYCH?
Ukraine will abstain from assessing the Belarusian presidential election until after the OSCE delivers its verdict, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said on March 20, one day after Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenka won the highly controversial poll. Yushchenko was equally noncommittal when asked by journalists a... MORE
NEWFOUND U.S. INTEREST IN AZERBAIJAN PROMISES MORE HEADACHES FOR BAKU
On March 13-14, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Daniel Fried and U.S. Special Negotiator for Eurasian Conflicts and U.S. Minsk Group co-chair Ambassador Steven Mann visited Azerbaijan for a two-day official trip. During their visit, the U.S. officials held talks... MORE
KAZAKH-UZBEK RELATIONS SHOW SIGNS OF IMPROVEMENT
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev's March 19 visit to Uzbekistan was one of his first foreign trips after his reelection as president in December. This priority stresses the political importance of Tashkent for Astana as an economically significant neighbor, although it would be premature to regard... MORE
BISHKEK STAGES ANTI-TERRORIST EXERCISES
Kyrgyzstan has launched a series of military exercises aimed at testing and enhancing its anti-terrorist capabilities. Commencing on March 10, and scheduled to finish in late March, these two-stage command and staff exercises involved the use of the security agencies and emergencies department, clearly rehearsing... MORE
GAZPROM BROADENS, DEEPENS INROADS INTO EUROPEAN UNION’S INTERNAL MARKETS, TRANSPORT SYSTEMS
Even as some European Union authorities in Brussels attempt to formulate a common EU energy policy, major European players seem to be vying for bilateral deals with Gazprom that could lock their countries into long-term dependence before any common policy is in place. On March... MORE
A SOVIET-STYLE ELECTION ENDS IN BELARUS, PROTESTS BEGIN
Belarus has just completed a divisive and fundamentally flawed election campaign. Though the 2006 presidential election has been notable for the public prominence of two opposition candidates, Alexander Milinkevich and Alexander Kazulin, it has ended predictably with the chair of the Electoral Commission announcing yet... MORE
QUARRELS IN THE GOVERNMENT FUELLED BY INFLATION AND INTRIGUE
The last two weeks produced many unusually loud and disagreeable exchanges in the Russian government. Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov even questioned the "professional competence" of his ministers to perform their duties. The main topic in these bureaucratic dramas played in front of TV cameras was... MORE
KOSOVO IMPEDES SETTLEMENT OF ABKHAZ SITUATION
Talk of possible independence for Kosovo, Serbia's separatist enclave, is markedly hampering the Georgian government's efforts to find a mutually acceptable model for the reintegration of its breakaway regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The Abkhaz separatists argue that the possible recognition of Kosovo's independence strengthens... MORE
UKRAINE DEBT REPAYMENT CAN REACTIVATE GAS TALKS WITH TURKMENISTAN
The vision of a gas pipeline from the eastern Caspian basin via Azerbaijan and Georgia, bypassing Russia, to Ukraine and farther into Europe was a topic of discussion at Georgia's international conference on oil and gas infrastructure (GIOGIE 2006) on March 16 in Tbilisi. A... MORE