Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
ASTANA ADOPTS MORE PRUDENT POLICY TOWARD ETHNIC KAZAKHS
On September 29 around 300 ethnic Kazakhs from 32 countries gathered in Astana for the Third World Congress of Kazakhs. For many participants this was their first time to see the booming new capital in the land of their ancestors. They were obviously impressed to... MORE
PUBLIC MOOD IN AZERBAIJAN POINTS TO A NEW WAR
On September 26-27, OSCE Minsk co-chairs Bernard Fassier (France), Yuri Merzlyakov (Russia), and Steven Mann (the United States) met in Vienna to discuss further steps in the Karabakh peace process. Before the meeting, Azerbaijan's foreign minister, Elmar Mammadyarov, declared, "The peace process has not yet... MORE
BELARUS AUTHORITIES MOVE TO SHUT DOWN MAIN OPPOSITION NEWSPAPER
Belarus's main opposition newspaper, Narodnaya volya, did not appear on the streets of Minsk on October 1. On September 20, its assets were seized by the Lenin district court in Minsk, and the printing house and factory responsible for distributing the newspaper annulled their agreements... MORE
WILL NEW PRIME MINISTER MAKE CRIMEA ANY BETTER?
Following recent events in Kyiv, Ukraine's only autonomous republic, Crimea, has dismissed its prime minister. The two events were not directly linked. Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko fired Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in early September because her populism and huge ambitions had started to undermine trust... MORE
TATARSTAN RETAINS PRIVILEGED RANK AMONG RUSSIAN REPUBLICS
Following the September 2004 tragedy in Beslan, the Russian State Duma adopted President Vladimir Putin's new law to eliminate the direct election of regional leaders. Now, all incoming governors in Russia are appointed by the president, subject to approval by local parliaments. Tatarstan, a republic... MORE
STATE BUDGET POSES RISKS FOR RUSSIAN ECONOMY
Last week 11 leading Russian economic experts sent a letter to Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov warning about the possible – and possibly grave – negative economic consequences from the planned massive increases in budget spending on various social programs (Vedomosti, September 30). The government is... MORE
RUSSIA UNEASY ABOUT POLAND’S RIGHTWARD SHIFT
Russia's political class is warily eyeing the government in Poland, where two center-right parties won the September 25 parliamentary elections. As relations between Moscow and Warsaw, never particularly warm, have sunk to new lows this year, the Kremlin is concerned with the possible impact of... MORE
LOCAL ELECTIONS EXPOSE WEAKNESS OF ARMENIAN CIVIL SOCIETY
Armenia's ongoing local election season is exposing the degradation of its democratic institutions as well as the weakness of its civil society. The polls, effectively boycotted by the Armenian opposition, are essentially an intra-government affair, with rival wealthy individuals seeking to further their business interests... MORE
INTERNATIONAL ASSISTANCE FOCUSING ON TAJIK-AFGHAN BORDER
Landmark agreements on border security and combating the narcotics trade were signed on September 26-29 in Dushanbe with a view toward stemming the Afghan heroin flow, the world's largest. Afghan drugs are being trafficked via Tajikistan to Russia and Europe. Following the mid-2005 completion of... MORE
WILL YUSHCHENKO FOLLOW THE PATTERN OF SERBIA’S KOSTUNICA — OR DJINDJIC?
This week has been both good and bad for Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko. Good, because his new government headed by Yuriy Yekhanurov is taking shape. The new government is set to be more market-reform minded, a step favored by foreign investors. But these positives come... MORE