Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles

BALTIC ANCHORS TO THE BLACK SEA

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and his ministerial team wound up a visit to the three Baltic states on October 15. Their tour highlighted both an accelerating process and an incipient one. The first is Georgia's Euro-Atlantic course, re-energized by the new president and Western-trained cabinet... MORE

BELARUS REFERENDUM RESULTS DISPUTED

Belarusian citizens went to the polls on October 17 to elect a new parliament and to take part in a referendum on whether President Alexander Lukashenka should be permitted to amend the constitution and run for a third term in office. The official results provided... MORE

BORODIN PREDICTS A REFERENDUM TO EXTEND PUTIN’S TERM

The idea that Russian President Vladimir Putin should stay on beyond his second and last constitutionally mandated term was given fresh expression yesterday (October 19) by Pavel Borodin, state secretary of the still largely notional Russia-Belarus Union. Borodin, the former Kremlin property department chief who... MORE

UKRAINIAN LEADERS CRACK DOWN ON YOUTH GROUPS AHEAD OF ELECTION

On October 15 Ukrainian Prime Minister and presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych told foreign diplomats in Kyiv that the government is taking all measures to ensure a free and fair election on October 31 (Ukrayinska pravda, October 15). Officials will ensure observance of the rule of... MORE

RUSSIA TAKING OVER TAJIKISTAN’S MAIN ECONOMIC ENTITIES

Visiting Tajikistan on October 16-17 to mark the ratification and entry into force of a military basing agreement, Russian President Vladimir Putin observed that relations with Tajikistan exemplified Russia's "comprehensive approach" to dealing with post-Soviet countries. That approach entails coordination of the military-security and economic... MORE

KAZAKHSTAN PARLIAMENTARY LEADER RESIGNS IN PROTEST

The Speaker of the Kazakhstan Majilis, the lower house of the Kazakhstan Parliament, announced his resignation on October 18 in protest over what he termed crude violations of electoral process in Kazakhstan's September parliamentary elections. Zharmakhan Tuyakbai, who went public with his complaints of executive... MORE

RUSSIAN ARMY BASE IN TAJIKISTAN LEGALIZED; BORDER TROOPS TO WITHDRAW

On October 17, Russian President Vladimir Putin inaugurated the now legal Russian military base in Tajikistan. One day earlier in Dushanbe, Putin and Tajikistan President Imomali Rakhmonov exchanged the instruments of ratification for the April 1999 agreement that conferred basing rights on the Russian Army... MORE

BESLAN’S TRAGIC END: SPONTANEOUS OR PLANNED?

More than one month has now passed since the tragedy in the North Ossetian town of Beslan, but what really happened there is still subject to debate. When the hostages crisis ended with hundreds dead, Russian authorities tried their best to assure the outside world... MORE