Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles

New Gas Trader To Boost Turkmenistan-Ukraine Transit

On July 29, fully owned subsidiaries of Gazprom and of Austria's Raiffeisen Bank signed agreements establishing a joint gas-trading company, RosUkrEnergoprom. With Gazprom and Raiffeisen each holding half the shares, RosUkrEnergoprom will act as the operating company for gas exports from Turkmenistan to Ukraine via... MORE

Qatar Court Rejects Jailed Russian Agents’ Appeal

A Qatar appeals court on July 29 rejected an appeal by two Russian intelligence agents sentenced to life imprisonment for the February bombing that killed former Chechen separatist president Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev. The presiding judge, Abdullah al-Saadi, told the court that the appeal was rejected in... MORE

Russian Officials Fear Caucasus Attacks Could Spread Westward

Late on the evening of July 28, martial law was declared in Kabardino-Balkaria. According to Radio Liberty, all security forces, police, and internal troops were put on alert. Police stations, hospitals, and public transportation facilities were placed under heavy guard. A correspondent from a radio... MORE

Ukraine Rephrases Nato Goal

On July 26, the office of President Leonid Kuchma made public a presidential decree that amends Ukraine's military doctrine, deleting the goal of NATO membership. Whether deliberately or by coincidence, the change was published on the day of Kuchma's effusive meeting in Yalta with Russian... MORE

Moscow Leading Campaign To Reorient Osce Activities

On July 24, the head of the OSCE Center in Ashgabat, Ambassador Paraschiva Badescu, had to vacate her post and leave the country because Turkmen authorities refused the OSCE's request for another six-month extension of her accreditation. Such request and extension is typically a routine... MORE

Commentary: How To Turn Moldovans Into A Minority In Their Land

Addressing the OSCE Permanent Council's special session on Moldova, held in Vienna on July 22, U.S. Ambassador Stephan Minikes misinterpreted the recent assault on Moldovan schools in Trans-Dniester as a problem involving an ethnic minority. Minikes cast the issue in those terms no fewer than... MORE

South Ossetian Leader Warns Georgia From Moscow

On July 28 in Moscow, South Ossetia's leader Eduard Kokoev told a news conference that "Abkhazia, Karabakh, and Trans-Dniester are ready to render military assistance to South Ossetia" against Georgia. (NTV, July 28). Coincidentally or not, Trans-Dniester's self-styled "foreign affairs minister" Valery Litskay was in... MORE

Georgian Media Shackled After Rose Revolution

After the Rose Revolution, relations between the Georgian government and local media have increasingly caused concern, because the government has attempted to tame the press by administrative measures under the plausible excuse of establishing the rule of law. Consequentially, some Georgian television stations and newspapers,... MORE