Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
RUSSIA REGISTERS GROWTH IN TRADE WITH CHINA, BUT INCREASE DUE TO HIGHER PRICES, NOT MORE TURNOVER
The Kremlin has boasted that Russia's growing trade with China is a manifestation of Moscow's "strategic" bilateral partnership with Beijing. Yet despite Russia's stated reluctance to limit itself to the role of raw materials supplier for the Chinese economy, actual export and import trends in... MORE
ENERGY DILEMMA FOR BELARUS
On January 24, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenka met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Constantine Palace near St Petersburg prior to a session of the Russian-Belarusian Supreme State Council. Lukashenka remarked that the integration process between the two states had taken on an irreversible... MORE
PUTIN, GAZPROM, AND “THE OTHER NORWEGIAN COMPANY”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has every reason to be pleased with his performance at last week's press conference. For three and a half hours he confidently and smoothly handled a barrage of questions, not all of them conveniently pre-arranged, projecting the image of a competent... MORE
MOSCOW ON KOSOVO: HAVING ITS CAKE AND EATING IT TOO
Russian President Vladimir Putin's proposal that the status of Kosovo should, after its enactment, be used as model and precedent for settling the post-Soviet conflicts (see EDM, February 2) was predictable in its content, but unusual in its form. Putin personally aired the proposal in... MORE
MOSCOW CHANGES TACTICS IN UKRAINE
According to as yet unconfirmed but largely credible reports on February 2 from Kyiv, officials in the presidency and government have authorized the immediate signing of a gas agreement and six attachments with Russia. Those documents are said to ensure Russian monopoly use and possibly... MORE
BIFURCATION OF EUROPE: RUSSIA PONDERS STRATEGIC OFFENSIVE IN EURO-EAST
A new World Bank study, released on January 31, warns that the countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union are moving along two divergent economic trajectories: a group of more prosperous and faster-reforming states are forging closer ties with Western Europe, while the... MORE
NAZARBAYEV ROTATES CABINET, IGNORES PROMISE TO INCLUDE OPPOSITION
The recent government reshuffle in Astana disappointed analysts who expected major changes. Prime Minister Daniyal Akhmetov had a rough 2005; he was strongly criticized for the scandalous takeover of PetroKazakhstan by the China National Petroleum Company, the Russian-Ukrainian gas deal's detrimental consequences for the Kazakh... MORE
PUTIN ON KOSOVO AND POST-SOVIET CONFLICTS: DESTRUCTIVE AMBIGUITY
Innovating on the diplomatic device known as constructive ambiguity, Russian President Vladimir Putin is resorting to what may be termed destructive ambiguity on Kosovo and the post-Soviet conflicts. Without coming down either for the principle of territorial integrity or that of self-determination, Putin leaves his... MORE
RUSSIANS, GEORGIANS, OR CAUCASUS REBELS: WHO BLEW UP THE PIPELINES?
On January 22, several explosions stopped the flow of Russian electricity and natural gas to the North Caucasus. An export power-transmission line was damaged in Karachaevo-Cherkessia, a republic in the west of the region, and almost simultaneously two gas pipelines were blown up in the... MORE
DONORS PLEDGE MORE AID, BUT WORRY HOW KABUL WILL SPEND IT
A two-day conference on Afghanistan wrapped up on February 1 with commitments by major donor countries for rebuilding Afghanistan. About 70 countries took part in the conference, and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and U.S. Secretary of... MORE