
Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles

Moscow’s Laughs Not to Be Trusted in the Baltics
Humor is a much more powerful “soft warfare” weapon in Russia’s hands than one might think. This month (March 2017), a team of academics from Latvia and Ukraine, in collaboration with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) Strategic Communications Center of Excellence (STRATCOM), presented their... MORE

Moscow Mobilizes the Science of Strategic Foresight
Since the Russian seizure of Crimea, many Western analysts have come to habitually scrutinize the annual speeches of Army General Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the General Staff. This focus was initially prompted by his 2013 address to the Academy of Military Sciences and his... MORE

Armenian Authorities Arrest Former Separatist Karabakh ‘Defense Minister’ on Eve of Parliamentary Elections
On March 22, the Armenian National Security Service (NSS) arrested three persons, including Samvel Babayan—a paramilitary unit commander during the Karabakh War (1988–1994) and “defense minister” of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), from 1994 to 2000 (News.am, March 25). Coincidentally, the date of the arrest coincided with... MORE

Moldova-Ukraine Energy Deal Upsets Russia by Cutting Transnistria Out
Ukraine’s DTEK Trading, owned by Rinat Akhmetov, and Moldova’s state-owned intermediary Energocom signed a one-year contract, on April 1, for the supply of electricity to Moldovan distributors. Energocom/DTEK’s only competitor was the Kuchurgan Power Station, which is located in Transnistria and belongs to the Russian... MORE

Putin Demands Improved Russia-US Relations
“Big mistake”—that was how Russian President Vladimir Putin recently described the determined efforts in the United States to investigate Russia’s interference in the US elections last year. He characterized the present level of bilateral relations as “close to zero” and warned that further “absurd” attempts... MORE

Georgia Readies Itself for New Constitutional Changes
On March 18, Georgian parliamentary speaker Irakli Kobakhidze stated that the country’s Constitutional Reform Commission (CRC) is readying to present to the public the draft of new constitutional changes by April 30, 2017. Among those planned changes, the most important clause affects the office of... MORE

Conflict Escalates Again in Eastern Ukraine: Possible Causes and Consequences
The first quarter of 2017 was marked by a renewed escalation of the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine. The increased military confrontation began in the vicinity of Donetsk, at the end of January, when saboteur-reconnaissance groups of Russia-backed militants made an attempt to seize the... MORE

Russia Rocked by Massive Protest Demonstrations
On Sunday, March 26, tens of thousands of protesters gathered in the center of Moscow and in 80 other Russian regions to protest corruption in the top levels of government (see EDM, March 27). In some cities, the anti-corruption rallies and marches were allowed by... MORE

Kyiv Stops Trade With Occupied Donbas, Slaps Sanctions on Russian Bank Subsidiaries
President Petro Poroshenko has banned cargo traffic between the areas held by Moscow-backed militants in the Donbas area and slapped sanctions on the Ukrainian subsidiaries of Russian state-owned banks. This appears logical, given the continuing Russian occupation of Crimea and assistance to the rebels. However,... MORE

Iran Builds Soft Power in Georgia to Foster Tighter Nexus With Russia
“I appreciate that Georgia has [a governmental] agency that directly works on religious affairs and with religions. I am very pleased that thanks to the efforts of Georgian government representatives, different religions and ethnic groups peacefully coexist here. That is exactly how it is also... MORE