
Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles

The Vote in Georgia: Why Saakashvili Lost, Why Ivanishvili Won, and What This Means for the Future
The final results of the Georgian parliamentary elections were not announced yet when President Mikhail Saakashvili conceded that his party lost the majority of the vote; Bidzina Ivaanishvili has begun talks about forming a government and suggested that Saakashvili resign as president to preclude a... MORE

Officially Sanctioned Kidnappings Alienate the Dagestani Public
The news from Dagestan in September was dominated by reports of militant actions, special operations and terror attacks, but the most worrying development has been the occurrence of multiple kidnappings by both security forces and militants. Indeed, kidnappings are the only events that lead people... MORE

Kazakhstan Aims to Modernize its Energy Sector
On October 2 and 3, Kazakhstan’s capital hosted an annual gathering of the Kazenergy Association, which is comprised of 50 of the biggest players in the oil and gas sectors as well as the non-hydrocarbon sector, including foreign and domestic companies. The association was created... MORE

Will the Fergana Valley Become a Hotbed of Destabilization in Central Asia?
The ethnically and culturally complex region of the Fergana Valley is divided among three countries: Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The Kyrgyz and the Tajik parts of the Fergana Valley are geographically closer to Uzbekistan than to the capitals of their own countries. Tashkent is only... MORE

Moscow Faces Hard Choices in Tatarstan and Wider Volga Region
On September 20, the Tatar youth activist organization Azatlyk staged a protest in Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan. The activists countered the demands of Tatarstan’s Russian population to drop the Tatar language from the curriculum of the republic’s public schools. The leader of Azatlyk, Nail... MORE

Moscow Faces Hard Choices in Tatarstan and Wider Volga Region
On September 20, the Tatar youth activist organization Azatlyk staged a protest in Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan. The activists countered the demands of Tatarstan’s Russian population to drop the Tatar language from the curriculum of the republic’s public schools. The leader of Azatlyk, Nail... MORE

CIS Nations Eye Free Trade Zone in 2013
The latest top-level meeting of the oldest post-Soviet grouping, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), pledged to enact their free trade arrangements next year. However, the CIS free trade zone (FTZ) agreement has not been ratified by some signatory nations, while other CIS member states... MORE

What Does Russo–Serbian Strategic Partnership Mean?
Serbia is the key target of Russian foreign policy in the Western Balkans, as Moscow’s main strategic objective remains forestalling the European democratic integration in the Balkans and Eastern Europe as a whole. In that context, keeping Serbia out of NATO and the EU preserves... MORE

Setting the Right Tone on Belarus
On September 26, Belarus released two of the 13 political prisoners listed in a resolution of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in July 2012 (Nasha Niva, September 27; tut.by, July 7). Sergei Kovalenko, the better known of the two, was imprisoned for affixing a white-red-white flag... MORE

The Kremlin, General Shamanov and Transforming the CSTO
On September 21, Russian Defense Minister Anatoliy Serdyukov announced that Moscow plans to nominate the controversial Commander of the Airborne Forces (Vozdushno Desantnye Voyska–VDV), Colonel-General Vladimir Shamanov for the post of Chief of the Joint Staff of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). Moscow-based observers... MORE