![](/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/EDM_draft_banner2.jpg)
Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
![](/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Uzbekistan-Afghanistan-border-checkpoint-640x358.jpg)
Though Wary of Border Instability, Uzbekistan Ready to Handle Any Outcomes in Afghanistan
Tashkent continues to warily watch the developments on the Afghanistan-Uzbekistan border. The Taliban had swept through the northern parts of Afghanistan in June to claim control of all border checkpoints, and now the group is attempting to consolidate its power by force instead of negotiating... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Alexei-Navalny-mural-in-St.-Petersburg-painted-over-by-workers-640x360.jpg)
The Russian Elections and Hidden Regionalist Politics
Russians are scheduled to vote on September 19. They will be deciding electoral races not only to the State Duma (lower chamber of the national parliament) but also to 39 regional legislative assemblies, that is, in almost half of the federation’s subjects. In a genuine... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/BRICS-Summit-2021-640x360.png)
Russian-Style Multilateralism: Decorative and Ineffectual
Amidst the ongoing turmoil in Afghanistan, Russia has been convening or partaking in unusually numerous multilateral forums. President Vladimir Putin, aware of the strong emphasis by the Joseph Biden administration on reinvigorating the United States’ ties with allies and building a coalition of democracies, resorted... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Ashraf-Ghani-and-Emomali-Rahmon-640x360.jpg)
Tajikistan Breaks From Neighbors in Policy Toward Afghanistan
Confronted with the new Taliban government in Afghanistan, adjacent Tajikistan has broken from its Central Asian neighbors, which have largely adopted a conciliatory posture, and opted for a more confrontational approach. Speaking on the eve of Tajikistan’s 30th anniversary of independence and one day after... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Afghanistan-Kazakhstan-640x362.jpg)
Kazakhstan to Let Russia Do the Heavy Lifting on Afghanistan
The recent fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban took many a government by surprise. Kazakhstan—Central Asia’s biggest economy, which has no shared border with Afghanistan but is nonetheless actively involved in the regional security dialogue—was no exception. On August 15, the day the Taliban conquered... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Alyaksandr-Lukashenka-640x360.jpg)
Kremlin Considers Armenian Model to Resolve Belarus Crisis
After the West extended additional sanctions against Belarus and following Belarusian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s big press conference on August 9, the Kremlin began signaling its readiness to implement the so-called Armenian model to resolve the political crisis in the country. During Lukashenka’s press conference last... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Volodymyr-Zelenskyy-and-Joseph-Biden-640x434.jpeg)
US-Ukraine Strategic Partnership Gets Another Lease on Life (Part Two)
*To read Part One, please click here. The Joint Statement on the US-Ukraine Strategic Partnership was released during President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Washington visit (Whitehouse.gov, President.gov.ua, September 1), but surprisingly it carries no signatures. This document’s two direct predecessors, in 2008 and 2018, respectively, had been... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Kazakh-flags-640x360.jpg)
Kazakhstani-Russian Ties Decay as Nationalism Grows, Russians Flee and China Advances
In Soviet times, Russian writers habitually referred to what many now call Central Asia as “Central Asia and Kazakhstan” as a way of signaling that, from Moscow’s perspective, Kazakhstan was closer to Russia. Kazakhstan stood out from the other Soviet republics of Central Asia by... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Russian-troops-arrive-in-Belarus-for-Zapad-2021-640x360.jpg)
Massive Zapad 2021 War Games Begin
The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) has begun massive Zapad 2021 operational-strategic war games together with its smallish ally Belarus. The quadrennial Zapad (“West”) exercises are designed to test the ability of a joint Russo-Belarus military force to defend the Russo-Belarus Union State against enemies,... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Vladimir-Putin-and-Alyaksandr-Lukeshenka-meeting-640x426.jpg)
The Unstable Equilibrium of Belarus’s Political Crisis
The political crisis in Belarus seems to have entered the stage of unstable equilibrium both inside the country and along its perimeter. A system in this position accelerates away from steadiness if displaced even slightly. As Yauhenii Preiherman, who heads the Minsk Dialogue platform, opined,... MORE