Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
TURKMEN GAS DELIVERIES TO RUSSIA ON HOLD
With almost no public notice, Turkmenistan has virtually ceased deliveries of gas to Russia since January 1 due to disagreement over the price (Vremya novosti, February 9). Gazprom did not acknowledge the problem publicly until yesterday (February 10). The company's chairman, Alexei Miller, held talks... MORE
OSCE DELEGATION BEGINS RECOMMENDATIONS FOR SETTLING KARABAKH DISPUTE
The week-long OSCE fact-finding mission on Karabakh ended February 6, leaving both Armenia and Azerbaijan impatiently waiting for the final report. Ten experts from Finland, Italy, Sweden, and Germany, as well as the co-chairs of the OSCE's Minsk group from Russia, France, and the United... MORE
TO ATTEND OR NOT TO ATTEND? THAT’S NOT REALLY THE QUESTION
The chairmen of the Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian parliamentary foreign relations committees, along with prominent historians and political scientists from the three Baltic states, have decided to convene an urgent videoconference to restore the sense of common purpose in handling the challenge of the May... MORE
KYRGYZ SECURITY TIGHTENS AHEAD OF PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS
Kyrgyz authorities are tightening security ahead of their February 27 parliamentary elections. Their concerns primarily focus around security fears on the Kyrgyz border and domestic fears about the unknown strength of the opposition. Generic political fears, triggered by the recent wave of peaceful revolutions in... MORE
AFGHANISTAN FACES ITS UGLY PAST
The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) presented its first report to President Hamid Karzai in a ceremony in Kabul on Saturday, January 29. The report, entitled "A Call for Justice," is a grim reminder of the abuses once committed by the country's so-called warlords... MORE
MASKHADOV’S CEASEFIRE OBEYED IN CHECHNYA, NOT IN DAGESTAN
On January 15, the Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov issued a special order to stop all military operations both inside and outside Chechnya until the end of February (EDM, February 4; Caucasus Times, February 4). According to an officer at the commandant's headquarters in Chechnya,... MORE
EUROPEAN UNION PUTS A TOE IN MOLDOVA
Responding to Moldova's appeals after years of procrastination, the European Union has decided to institute an EU Special Representative to Moldova, with a focus on Transnistria conflict settlement (AP, February 8). The decision must be welcomed as progress. But it follows the EU's style of... MORE
PROFOUND GENERATION SHIFT FOLLOWS UKRAINE’S ORANGE REVOLUTION
Now that the Ukrainian parliament has confirmed Yulia Tymoshenko as prime minister (see EDM, February 7), the country is witnessing a radical generational change. New people, pro-Western and not tainted by Soviet rule, are entering the political system (Zerkalo nedeli, February 5, includes biographies of... MORE
U.S.-RUSSIA RELATIONS: TURNING POINT OR DEAD END?
Clearly, the recent democratic transitions in Georgia and Ukraine have put the U.S.-Russia relationship under strain. The crucial factor in U.S.-Russia relations may now be the future evolution of the political system inside Russia. Thus far, the Bush administration has tended to turn a blind... MORE
KREMLIN REDEFINING POLICY IN “POST-SOVIET SPACE”
In a marathon-length press conference on February 3, Kremlin political consultant Gleb Pavlovsky laid certain Russian markers in Eurasia ahead of the George W. Bush-Vladimir Putin summit and, by the same token, seized the moment to announce a major redefinition of Russia's policy in the... MORE