Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
ARMENIANS COUNT THEIR LOSSES AS THEIR CURRENCY GROWS STRONGER
Armenia's national currency, the dram, has appreciated dramatically against the euro and especially against the U.S. dollar over the past year, hitting hard a large part of the country's population. The real causes of this phenomenon have been a matter of serious contention in recent... MORE
RUSSIA’S CONFUSING PACIFIC OIL GAME
Although Moscow's East Asian policies have been eclipsed by the oil and gas game, the long saga of Russia's desire to create a Pacific oil pipeline, coupled with the controversial Yuganskneftegaz sell-off, have added a measure of confusion to Russia's ties with China. Last December,... MORE
NEW GROUP OF GEORGIA’S FRIENDS FOUNDED
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria founded the "New Group of Georgia's Friends" on February 4 in Tbilisi. The specification "new" differentiates it from the decade-old "Group of Friends of Georgia," originally comprised of the United States, Germany, Britain, and France. That old group... MORE
UKRAINE HAS NEW CABINET
On February 4 Ukraine's parliament approved President Viktor Yushchenko's choice for prime minister, his populist ally Yulia Tymoshenko. She mustered 375 "yes" votes in the 450-seat body, beating the record set by Pavlo Lazarenko, whose bid for prime minister was supported by 344 parliamentarians in... MORE
RUSSIA-JAPANESE RELATIONS AT A FAMILIAR IMPASSE
Despite initial hopes that Russian President Vladimir Putin would visit Japan in March, the month is rapidly approaching without a date being set. Thirty years ago, at the height of detente, there was great hope for Russo-Japanese relations. The script then stated that, despite tense... MORE
ARE PUTIN’S REFORMS WORKING?
Over the past year, Russian President Vladimir Putin has completed a radical re-centralization of the Russian political system. Skeptics who doubted that he had the acumen and political support to conceive and implement such an agenda have been proved wrong. But now the question is:... MORE
IS RUSSIA ABOUT TO TURN ITS GAZE TOWARD THE EAST?
Three events this week indicate the fast-growing economic and geopolitical ties between Moscow and Beijing. The Russian government's announcement of a massive Chinese loan to Rosneft, a pledge by a Russian transportation giant to modernize its infrastructure to boost oil supplies to China, and a... MORE
THE RISE AND FALL OF UKRAINE’S SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY
Ukraine's Social Democratic United Party (SDPUo), the oligarchic party that gained the most from Leonid Kuchma's second term in office, is now faced with a deep crisis that will ultimately be its undoing. Unfortunately for Viktor Medvedchuk, its leader and the former head of the... MORE
ETHNIC RUSSIANS IN KAZAKHSTAN VOLUNTEER TO FIGHT IN CHECHNYA
At a press conference held on February 2, the chairman of the Almaty-based Russian Observer Research Center, Fedor Miroglov, revealed that ethnic Russians living in Kazakhstan are being illegally recruited to serve in the Russian army. He said that in 2003 more than 100 Russians... MORE
CHECHEN REBELS START A TEMPORARY CEASEFIRE
On February 3, the Kavkazcenter website reported that Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov had ordered rebel fighters to lay down their weapons for one month. It also published a statement from warlord Shamil Basaev ordering fighters to obey Maskhadov's decree and halt all offensive military... MORE