Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
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
ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN HOPE TO MAKE 2006 A “YEAR OF PEACE”
For Armenia and Azerbaijan, the year 2005 was marked by intensified negotiations over a possible agreement in the Karabakh peace process. The presidents and foreign ministers of the two countries met several times during the year, and the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs from France, Russia,... MORE
KREMLIN STOPS GAS DELIVERIES TO UKRAINE
Authorized by President Vladimir Putin, Gazprom halted deliveries of Russian gas to Ukraine as of 10 am Moscow time on January 1. To maximize the political impact in Ukraine, Russia's state-controlled television channels showed Putin, his close aide and Gazprom chairman Dmitry Medvedev, and other... MORE
YUSHCHENKO CHALLENGES CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM
On January 1, 2006, Ukraine began its transformation from a semi-presidential republic into a parliamentary democracy. The reform is in line with the constitutional amendments that the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) passed at the height of the Orange Revolution in late 2004. This was a compromise... MORE