Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
KREMLIN ENERGY POLICY IN UKRAINE: UNWIELDY COMBINATION OF STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES AND PRIVATE INTERESTS
The controversial deal that brought an end, at least for now, to the acrimonious gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine (see EDM, January 5) appears to reflect a contradictory mix of interests that shape Kremlin energy policies. While Russia failed to attain most of the... MORE
LOOMING KARABAKH DEAL NOT DEBATED IN ARMENIA, FOR NOW
The international community has always believed that public opinion in Armenia and Azerbaijan must be prepped for painful concessions before the conflict over Karabakh can be resolved. Yet no such efforts seem to be taken in either country despite the apparently significant progress made over... MORE
TASHKENT SEEKS NEW MILITARY ASSISTANCE
Since the Andijan massacre in May 2005, Uzbekistan has made little headway with its recent attempts to use pro-Western contacts to establish a way forward for its military and security agencies. Now Uzbekistan's armed forces are the subject of widespread Soviet-style efforts to prop up... MORE
RUSSIA-UKRAINE GAS TRUCE: MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS
On January 4, after all-night negotiations in Moscow, Russia's Gazprom and Naftohaz Ukrainy signed five-year agreements on the supply of Russian and Turkmen gas to Ukraine and transit of Russian gas via Ukraine to European countries. Literally overnight, the agreements bring a truce to the... MORE
AZERBAIJAN’S OPPOSITION CRUMBLES AFTER ELECTIONS
After their humiliating losses during the November 6 parliamentary elections, Azerbaijan's opposition has entered a predictable period of in-fighting and collapse. Many local analysts had predicted that with no tangible successes during elections for the past 12 years and with no apparent ability to organize... MORE
INSURGENTS SEEM TO HAVE UPPER HAND ACROSS THE NORTH CAUCASUS
Russian security officials stepped up their activities in the North Caucasus during the last two months of 2005. Officials in Kabardino-Balkaria and Dagestan proudly declared they had captured or killed scores of insurgent rebels in each republic, while Ingushetia struggled with cross-border raids from Chechnya.... MORE
FORMER RESISTANCE LEADER TO LEAD AFGHANISTAN’S NEW PARLIAMENT
Afghanistan's new parliament convened on December 19 in the presence of U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney. Among the items on the opening agenda, the legislators had to select chairmen for each chamber of parliament, and they opted for two former resistance leaders. The upper house elected... MORE
UKRAINIAN AND MOLDOVAN PRESIDENTS CLOSE RANKS, APPEAL TO EUROPEAN UNION ON GAS CRISIS
On January 3, Presidents Viktor Yushchenko of Ukraine and Vladimir Voronin of Moldova announced joint steps to cope with the gas-supply crisis and appealed to the European Union to intercede with Russia in support of the Ukrainian-Moldovan position. Voronin initiated this joint demarche after Gazprom... MORE
GAZPROM HALTS GAS SUPPLIES TO MOLDOVA
On January 1, Russia's Gazprom imposed a total halt on gas deliveries to Moldova. The management in Moscow issued an internal order to its dispatchers on Ukraine's territory to reduce the supplies to Moldova to "zero level" (Moldpres, January 2). Gazprom has not officially announced... MORE
AS RUSSIA IS DOWNGRADED TO “UNFREE” IS IT UNFIT TO HEAD THE G-8?
It is perhaps fitting that the Ukraine-Russia gas conflict has rekindled debates whether Russia truly belongs in the prestigious Group of Eight (G-8) advanced liberal democratic market economies. As the Wall Street Journal Europe (January 3) editorialized, "All of this makes Russia's assumption of the... MORE