Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
KYRGYZSTAN ON UNEASY PATH TO PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION AND CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM
Discussions on reform and preparations for the July 10 presidential election in Kyrgyzstan are proceeding against a backdrop of instability with some symptoms that border on anarchy. On May 3, Acting President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, on a working visit to Jalalabad, criticized self-appointed officials who had... MORE
KYRGYZ ACTING PRESIDENT OUTLINES REFORM PLANS
Addressing the country on television on April 30, Kyrgyzstan's acting president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, outlined a comprehensive program of constitutional and political changes to be achieved in the short and medium terms. He spoke of a transitional period of several years during which the country must... MORE
KYRGYZSTAN’S NORTH-SOUTH AXIS SHIFTS AHEAD OF ELECTIONS
Worries about Kyrgyzstan's north-south divide have increased following Felix Kulov's April 25 announcement of his intention to run for the presidency. Although there are ten potential presidential candidates, acting president Kurmanbek Bakiyev and Kulov will be the two major competitors in the elections scheduled for... MORE
MORE PROBLEMS FOR YUSHCHENKO GOVERNMENT AS JUSTICE MINISTER CAUGHT EXAGGERATING HIS ACADEMIC RECORD
Two weeks after Ukrayinska pravda (April 14) published an expose on Roman Zvarych, the Minister of Justice finally admitted in the Ukrainian Weekly (May 1) that he did not have the academic credentials that he claimed. Zvarych admitted that he had misled the Ukrainian Weekly... MORE
KAZAKHSTAN AND TURKEY SEARCH FOR COMMON GROUND
In the early 1990s, many policymakers in Kazakhstan and in Turkey were euphoric about the prospects of intense cooperation between ethnically related nations that had for decades been divided by an ideological iron curtain. Turkey, hoping to expand its influence in Russia-dominated but Turkic-speaking Central... MORE
SLOW CADRE REFORM HINDERS ALIEV’S DEVELOPMENT AGENDA
On April 26, while visiting Shemakha, a town 100 kilometers away from Baku, Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliev was confronted by numerous complaints about rising prices in the country as well as the lack of employment opportunities. Yet, the most striking comment came from a senior... MORE
BELARUS SUPREME COURT ORDERS CLOSURE OF NISEPI
In mid-April, the Supreme Court of Belarus ordered the closure of the Independent Institute of Social-Economic and Political Research. The institute's Russian-language acronym is NISEPI, though it is better known outside Belarus as NISEPS or IISEPS (Narodnaya volya, April 16). Its director, the respected sociologist... MORE
WILL TYMOSHENKO AND YUSHCHENKO ENTER ELECTIONS TOGETHER?
According to recent polls, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has greatly benefited from the Orange Revolution and the ensuing popular optimism. She and her Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc are very popular now, three months after she became prime minister and a year ahead of the next... MORE
RUSSIAN DEFENSE INDUSTRIES EXPAND FOREIGN SALES
Russian defense industries are seeking to boost foreign sales primarily in Latin America and the Middle East, providing opportunities for Russian companies to compete with potentially expensive Western options. In Latin America the main fields of military cooperation are aviation, small arms, as well as... MORE
BALTIC BORDER AGREEMENTS ON AGENDA FOR EU-RUSSIA SUMMIT
Russian President Vladimir Putin's special envoy for relations with the European Union, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, warned on April 28 that Russia would not consent after all to sign the Border Agreement with Latvia on May 10 in Moscow. As an excuse, Yastrzhembsky cited the Latvian government's... MORE