Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
WILL YUSHCHENKO’S COALITION COLLAPSE?
While Ukraine 's president-elect Viktor Yushchenko deliberates about whom to choose for prime minister (see EDM, January 10), differences within his motley team are threatening to break it up from within. With Yushchenko's victory, the very broad coalition backing him, consisting of nationalists, market liberals,... MORE
RUSSIAN MISSILE MEN: ARE THEY NUTs?
Back in the 1980s there was a school of U.S. strategic analysts referred to as "NUTs" -- Nuclear Use Theorists. They argued that it was important to prepare for the limited use of nuclear weapons in order to maintain the U.S. deterrent against the Soviet... MORE
RUSSIA HIT BY A WAVE OF PROTESTS AGAINST GOVERNMENT BENEFITS POLICY
January 13 marked the fourth consecutive day of protests against the replacement of Soviet-era social benefits with cash payments. Demonstrations took place in cities across Russia, including Moscow Oblast, Izhevsk (the capital of Udmurtia), Kursk, Samara, Penza, and Ufa, the capital of Bashkortostan, where several... MORE
WANTED: COMPETITIVE IDEOLOGY AND ATTRACTIVE SOCIAL MODEL TO HELP RUSSIA RETAIN ITS CRUMBLING SPHERE OF INFLUENCE
The Kremlin's recent foreign-policy failures, particularly its inglorious defeat in the "battle for Ukraine," appear to have sparked a review of Russia's policies towards its neighbors in the post-Soviet space. Aware that Moscow is losing the geopolitical competition in the Commonwealth of Independent States to... MORE
NO LONGER NEEDING U.S. SUPPORT, KUCHMA WANTS TO BRING TROOPS HOME ON HIS WATCH
On January 10, President Leonid Kuchma held a meeting to discuss the deteriorating situation in Iraq. Eight Ukrainian troops died when a bomb they were defusing went off accidentally on January 9. Another seven Ukrainian troops were injured. Ukraine has the fourth-largest military contingent in... MORE
UKRAINE HAS DONE ITS DUTY IN IRAQ
On January 11-12, the U.S. State Department added an unnecessary complication to Ukrainian President-elect Viktor Yushchenko's internal political challenges. Questioning Ukraine's political decision to withdraw its 1,600 troops from Iraq, the Department's deputy spokesman Adam Ereli in Washington and U.S. Ambassador John Herbst in Kyiv... MORE
KAZAKHSTAN SUFFERS FIRST DEATH OF PEACEKEEPER IN IRAQ
Kazakhstan has suffered its first military casualty in Iraq. On January 9 Captain Kayrat Kudabayev died from his injuries after an explosion in Al-Suwaira, north of Wasit province. This incident marks a significant test for Kazakhstan in its ongoing commitment to peace support operations within... MORE
ASTANA PLEDGES STRATEGIC ALLIANCE WITH RUSSIA
On January 12 Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Almaty for a two-day official visit, his first foreign trip of the new year. Abandoning the usual practice of announcing upcoming visits by state leaders, Kazakhstan's official media refrained from publicizing Putin's visit prior to his... MORE
UZBEKISTAN BULLDOZES SETTLEMENTS ALONG BORDER WITH KAZAKHSTAN
A tense situation is unfolding near the South Kazakhstan--Uzbekistan border. In a program approved by Uzbekistan's Prime Minister, Shavkat Mirziyaev, local authorities are planning to demolish settlements and private dachas that happen to be located in the zone of border delimitation. Two districts of the... MORE
BALTIC DILEMMAS AND THE MOSCOW SUMMIT
On January 12, Latvia's President Vaira Vike-Freiberga announced that she would be attending the VE-Day 60th anniversary summit to be held in May in Moscow. The issue is deeply controversial in the three Baltic states, and Vike-Freiberga's announcement scuttles the November 2004 agreement by the... MORE