Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
Russia Looks East and Sees Storm Clouds: Part Two
Attention to both combat capabilities and combat-readiness by senior officers in Russian military forces echoes comments made by retired Army-General Makhmut Gareev in early March during a conference organized by the Academy of Military Sciences on the lessons of the Great Patriotic War and their... MORE
The UN Accepts CSTO as a Regional Security Organization
On March 18, in Moscow, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Collective Security Treaty Organization’s (CSTO) Secretary-General, Nikolay Bordyuzha, signed a declaration on cooperation between the two secretariats. The document, and the UN’s steps preceding it, can be interpreted as UN recognition of this... MORE
Gas Lobby Takes Control of Ukraine’s Security Service
On March 11, the Ukrainian parliament appointed Prime Minister, Nikolai Azarov, and a new Security Service (SBU) Chairman, Valery Khoroshkovsky. As Ukrayinska Pravda (February 24) warned: “An additional bonus for the Liovochkin-Firtash group could be the appointment of Khoroshkovsky as the head of the SBU... MORE
Moscow Exploits TV Invasion Hoax to Isolate Georgia
On March 13, the pro-government, Imedi TV broadcasted what appeared to be a documentary report about a new Russian invasion that led to President Mikheil Saakashvili’s assassination. The program caused widespread public panic despite the Imedi anchor’s announcement (immediately after reporting Saakashvili’s death) that the... MORE
Russia Looks East and Sees Storm Clouds: Part One
As Roger McDermott has already noted (EDM, March 16), Army-General Makhmut Gareev, the President of the Russian Academy of Military Sciences, recently addressed what he called the “eastern vector” of Russian national security in an interview with Krasnaya Zvezda (Krasnaya Zvezda, March 5). He noted... MORE
“Gross Expropriation” or a Softer Approach at Kovykta?
The Russian government seems to envisage two options for disposing of TNK-BP’s giant Kovykta gas project in Siberia: coercive re-nationalization with compensation for the capital already invested, or without compensation. The state regulatory apparatus claims that the license holder is violating the Kovykta license terms.... MORE
All the President’s Men in a Deja-vu Ukrainian Cabinet
A new pro-Yanukovych majority in parliament appointed its cabinet on March 11. Prime Minister, Mykola Azarov’s, cabinet, numbering 29 ministers, is the largest in Europe after Belarus. It looks very much like the cabinet of the then-Prime Minister Yanukovych in 2006-2007. Azarov’s cabinet is dominated... MORE
Murder of Circassian Activist Unsettles Multi-Ethnic Karachaevo-Cherkessia
On March 15, the funeral of a Circassian activist killed the previous day turned into an impromptu protest rally. An estimated 200 Circassian demonstrators gathered at the central square, next to the republican government building in Cherkessk, the capital of Karachaevo-Cherkessia, to protest against the... MORE
South Stream: a Casualty of Moscow’s Excess Pipeline Capacity Building
Like all parties involved with South Stream, ENI must rely on the new Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych agreeing to share control of Ukraine’s gas transit system with Moscow. In that case, Gazprom would no longer need South Stream as a Ukraine-bypass option, which Moscow had... MORE
Gazprom’s Partner ENI Loses Confidence in South Stream
Italy’s ENI chief executive, Paolo Scaroni, has proposed unifying the Gazprom-led South Stream with the European Union-backed Nabucco pipeline project. The Italian state-controlled energy conglomerate ENI is the key technological and commercial partner to Gazprom in South Stream, the project aimed at transporting gas from... MORE