
Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles

Militarism Is a Poor Fit for Putin’s ‘Patriotic’ Kleptocracy
The need to mobilize the core support base and re-invent a drive for the aging bureaucratic regime is recognized very clearly in the Kremlin, despite the desire to close out the tumultuous election period. Greater volume rather than sophistication in official propaganda is a key... MORE

The Central Powers’ Policies Toward the North Caucasus, 1914–1917 (Part One)
The First World War, which resulted in independence for some non-Russian peoples of the former Romanov Empire, also awakened a striving for sovereignty among the peoples of the Caucasus, which had gone dormant after the 1905 revolution. The Caucasian peoples’ potential to the Central Powers’... MORE

President Nazarbayev Announces Ambitious National Goals in Coming Decades
In his State of the Nation address to the parliament on December 14, 2012, President Nursultan Nazarbayev outlined a new strategy for Kazakhstan’s development through 2050. The document, developed by the government with the help of national and foreign experts, seeks to establish “the vector... MORE

Georgian Patriarch’s Visit to Moscow: Is Georgia Leaning to the North?
The head of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Ilia II, will visit Moscow on January 21 at the invitation of Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church (https://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=25612). Official press releases of both churches say that Patriarch Ilia II will be given an... MORE

Chechnya’s Insurgency Stubbornly Remained Active in 2012
Out of 137 official news releases in connection to the armed opposition’s activities in Chechnya in 2012, 71 were about the arrests of rebel supporters. One-third of those arrested on charges of providing support to the rebels were women. Meanwhile, 28 militants and 42 service... MORE

China’s Latest Piece of the New Silk Road
While the concept of a “New Silk Road” of trade, transport and telecommunications connections across Eurasia was formally endorsed by the US State Department, it is Beijing and Chinese companies that have taken the lead in realizing the immense infrastructure projects that will tie the... MORE

Belarus: A Countdown Toward Political Change?
In 2012, Belarus was recovering from the financial crisis, the peak of which was in summer 2011. The achievements along this line have been the international trade surplus, the 20-percent growth of personal incomes (throughout 2012), and a relatively stable exchange rate of the Belarusian... MORE

Violence in Dagestan Accelerated in 2012
At the start of 2013 it makes sense to summarize the events of the previous year. The official figures from 2012 suggest that the Republic of Dagestan today is the primary base of the armed resistance in the North Caucasus: 262 terrorism-related crimes were committed... MORE

Putin Activates Anti-American PR Campaign
Moscow politics were dominated last month by the angry reaction of Russian officials to the Magnitsky Act. Adopted by the United States Congress in mid-December, this legislation bars US entry to Russians accused of involvement in the death in custody of anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky... MORE

Fresh Border Incident Could Provoke New Inter-Ethnic Clashes in the Ferghana Valley
Residents of Uzbekistan’s enclave of Sokh located within Batken province (southern Kyrgyzstan) attacked Kyrgyz border guards and took, according to different sources, between 30 and 40 citizens of Kyrgyzstan hostage in a series of events that began on January 5. Border guards from Kyrgyzstan were... MORE