![](/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/EDM_draft_banner2.jpg)
Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
![](/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2560px-KhodaAfarin_Dam-640x400.jpg)
Iran Completes Controversial Hydropower Project on Aras River
In early May 2020, media reports highlighted the construction of a large hydropower system composed of the Khudafarin and Qiz Qalasi (Maiden Tower) hydropower plants as well as hydro junctions and related facilities and bridges on the Aras River, which follows part of the border... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Ukraine-NATO-exercise-640x418.jpeg)
Ukraine-NATO: Politicians Struggle, While Military Acts
Relations between Ukraine and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have long been complicated, sometimes even uncertain. From hopes for membership after the Bucharest Summit in April 2008, to effectively declaring Ukraine neutral during Viktor Yanukovych’s presidency; from the reactivation of a Euro-Atlantic integration course... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Victor-Babariko-1-640x406.jpg)
The Political Situation Grows Tense in Minsk
Perhaps never has the flow of events in Minsk been as dynamic and captivating as at present. Moreover, available sources of information have dramatically diversified as online social networks and Telegram channels gained prominence to supplement traditional media outlets. As a case in point: On... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/RD-180-rocket-engine-640x427.jpg)
Prospects for Future US-Russia Space Cooperation
After nine years of the United States relying entirely on Russian Soyuz rockets to deliver astronauts into orbit, this dependency finally ended on May 30, 2020, with the successful launch of the private US company SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, bound for the International Space Station... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Donbas-military-640x433.jpg)
Kyiv Raising the Level, Accelerating the Pace of the Minsk Process (Part Two)
*To read Part One, please click here. Kyiv has raised its delegation to the Minsk Contact Group from a semi-official level to a full-fledged, senior-level governmental and parliamentary delegation. Kyiv hopes that Moscow will reciprocate in order to accelerate the negotiations and do so,... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Russia-WWII-military-parade.jpg)
Three Controversial Articles by Top Officials Distort Russia’s Past, Present and Future
Russian authorities rarely resort to such old-fashioned means of communication as written articles. Yet, last week, three key figures in the top leadership—President Vladimir Putin, Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, and former prime minister Dmitry Medvedev, who now holds the newly established position of deputy... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Romanian-MK-Base-640x398.jpg)
Romania’s New National Defense Strategy Irks Kremlin (Part Two)
*To read Part One, please click here. A deeper look at Romania’s new national defense strategy, taken up for consideration by the parliament on June 3, provides some answers as to why Russia’s reaction to this 46-page planning document has been so aggressive (see... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Andriy-Yermak-640x427.jpg)
Kyiv Raising the Level, Accelerating the Pace of the Minsk Process (Part One)
Kyiv is adding Ukrainian citizens from the Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine’s east as members of Kyiv’s delegation to the Minsk Contact Group (see EDM, June 15, 17). But this is only one aspect of the delegation’s thorough overhaul. At the same time, Kyiv has turned... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/China-Tajikistan-military-drill.jpg)
Russian Military Seeking to Counter Growing Chinese Role in Central Asia
In March 2019, Dmitry Zhelobov, a specialist on China at Russia’s Urals Federal University, warned that Beijing was shifting from relying on soft power in Central Asia to using hard power. If Russia did not take this threat seriously, he added, China might have its... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Paul-Whelan-640x360.jpg)
Moscow Defiant on Sentencing of US Citizen on Trumped-up Espionage Charges
Paul Whelan (50)—a Canadian-born United States resident, Marine Corps veteran (discharged for bad conduct) and director of a security firm—was arrested in Moscow, in December 2018, by the Federal Security Service’s (FSB) counter-intelligence arm and charged with espionage. Whelan was incarcerated in the notorious FSB... MORE