![](/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/EDM_draft_banner2.jpg)
Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
![](/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Alyaksandr-Lukashenka-EDM-February-21-2020-640x360.jpg)
Belarus Does Some Soul-Searching Amid Showdown With Russia
Oppressive silence followed the February 7 Russian-Belarusian summit in Sochi, Russia. President Alyaksandr Lukashenka left that North Caucasus resort city without making any public statement. However, it was clear that silence would not last long given the emotional and charismatic personality of the Belarusian leader.... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/20191223-_m3_3583-640x427.jpg)
Moldova’s Leftist President Moving Steadily Toward the Political Center (Part Three)
*To read Part One, please click here. *To read Part Two, please click here. Lacking a parliamentary majority and facing elections later this year, Moldovan President Igor Dodon and his Socialist Party are staking out a more centrist political position for themselves, which also... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/financial-times-640x360.jpg)
Moldova’s Leftist President Moving Steadily Toward the Political Center (Part Two)
*To read Part One, please click here. President Igor Dodon and his Socialist Party are governing Moldova without a parliamentary majority of their own and having to face two years of serial elections (February 2019 parliamentary elections, October 2019 country-wide local elections, November 2020... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/PashtovoaDOTcom-640x360.jpg)
Its Caspian Sea Trade Cut by US Sanctions, Iran Turns to Railways—and Moscow Helps
The United States’ sanctions against Iran and the unwillingness of most Caspian littoral states to challenge them have sent Tehran’s maritime trade in this sea plummeting over the last two years, reducing its non-petroleum component by half (Financial Tribune, May 27, 2019). But that has... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/radiofreeeurope-640x360.jpg)
Amid High-Level Personnel Reshuffle, Moscow Retains Hard-Nosed Policy Vis-à-Vis Ukraine
On February 18, President Vladimir Putin signed an ukaz (executive order) dismissing his long-time cohort and political advisor Vladislav Surkov (55). The Kremlin tradition known as nomenklatura requires that someone dismissed from a top job be immediately provided with another one. A couple of weeks... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Saradzhyan-Putin-Conditions-Use-of-Force-Georgia-War-AP_11080812793_0-640x295.jpg)
Russia Boosts Its Military Contingent in Georgia’s Occupied Territories
In the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib, the Russian Armed Forces—mainly via their “proxy,” Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian Arab Army—are confronting Turkish military units (see EDM, January 30, February 18), putting severe strains on the Moscow-Ankara relationship. But Russian military activities along Turkey’s borders are not... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Turkstream-opening-ceremony-EDM-February-19-2020-640x360.jpg)
Russia Faces New Demands and Conditions From Bulgaria
Tensions between Russia and Bulgaria looked on the verge of resolution at the end of last month. But trust between the two countries has since declined. In late January, Bulgaria announced its intention to replace half of its Russian natural gas consumption with volumes from... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/tU1pbqL2VTEZRAnA8VZ2kf32pEBOMJ9S-640x409.jpg)
Putin Agrees to Major Write-Off of Russia’s Defense Industry Debt
In late December 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an ukaz (decree) detailing plans to write off a large portion of the debt collectively owed by the country’s defense industrial complex (Oboronnyi Promyshennyi Kompleks—OPK). The details are not publicly available since the ukaz was classified... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Transnistria-parade-EDM-February-18-2020-640x428.png)
Moscow-Dependent Moldovan Government Turns Blind Eye to Russian Military Activities in Transnistria
On February 13, the breakaway Transnistria region’s representative to the Joint Control Commission (JCC) demanded that Russian “peacekeeping” forces be augmented from the current size of over 400 personnel to 4,200. The latter figure is notably one that Russian media outlets frequently invoke as the... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Dnieper-Bug-river-barges-EDM-February-18-2020.jpg)
Plans for Waterway From Baltic to Black Sea via Ukraine, Belarus and Poland Advance
During the Middle Ages, the waterways linking the Baltic and the Black seas were a far more important trade corridor than any land routes linking Europe with what was to become Russia. Twenty years ago, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the European Union... MORE