Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
NEW ARMENIAN PRESIDENT TAKES OFFICE, KEEPS UP REPRESSION
Serzh Sarkisian was sworn in as Armenia’s new president on April 9 amid a lingering political crisis triggered by his extremely controversial victory in last February’s presidential election. Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, the 53-year-old former prime minister sought to reach out to hundreds of... MORE
NATO WEIGHS PROTECTION OF KAZAKH OIL FACILITIES
NATO's 26 member states held their 59th annual gathering from April 2 to 4 in Bucharest. Its ambitious agenda was headed by proposals to expand the alliance. NATO eventually decided to extend membership offers to Albania and Croatia, while Macedonia, Georgia and Ukraine saw their... MORE
KYRGYZSTAN SPUTTERS ABOUT U.S. BASE, BUT COOPERATION CONTINUES
On April 8 the issue of pollution from the U.S. Manas Airbase once again resurfaced in the Kyrgyz Parliament. It was alleged by one member of parliament that foreign military personnel stationed at Manas were polluting the atmosphere, and this view was supported by others... MORE
PROPOSED AMENDMENTS REVEAL CONFUSION AND DISSENT IN AKP
On April 14 Turkish Speaker of Parliament Koksal Toptan formally forwarded a draft amendment to Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code to the Parliamentary Justice Committee. This notorious article makes it an imprisonable offence to denigrate “Turkishness.” The hopes of the ruling Justice and... MORE
MOSCOW MAKES FURIOUS BUT EMPTY THREATS TO GEORGIA AND UKRAINE
In the wake of NATO’s summit, top Russian officials are threatening Georgia and Ukraine directly and NATO indirectly with retaliation, if the alliance approves membership action plans for these countries. During the run-up to NATO’s Bucharest summit, from such threats were commonplace Kremlin political consultants... MORE
FORMER DUMA DEPUTY CALLS LIBERAL PROMISES A COVER FOR GROWING AUTHORITARIANISM
Former independent State Duma deputy Vladimir Ryzhkov was one of the last liberals to remain in the State Duma, but the fate of his career as a parliamentary deputy was sealed in March 2007, when Russia’s Supreme Court liquidated his small Republican Party of Russia,... MORE
KARIMOV AND PUTIN SEEK NEW COOPERATION WITH NATO ON AFGHANISTAN
Initiatives from NATO’s Partners for Peace (PFP) during the NATO summit in Bucharest from April 2 to 4 tended to be eclipsed by the alliance’s preoccupation with enlargement. Afghanistan was, and will remain for some time, the critical test for the long-term credibility of NATO... MORE
TURKEY AND IRAN EXPECTED TO BOOST SECURITY COOPERATION
Turkey and Iran will look to boost security cooperation during the 12th meeting of the Turkey-Iran High Security Commission in Ankara on April 14-18. The agenda is expected to be dominated by discussions about cooperation against violent rebel Kurdish groups: the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK),... MORE
NATO SUMMIT SENDS AMBIGUOUS MESSAGE ON RUSSIAN TROOPS IN MOLDOVA AND GEORGIA
At its summit in Bucharest on April 2 to 4, NATO seems to have dropped its long-standing demand for full withdrawal of Russian troops from Moldova and Georgia. The NATO alliance had reiterated that demand at its preceding two summits, in Istanbul in 2004 and... MORE
VENEZUELA BUYS RUSSIAN ARMS
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Washington’s favorite Latin American bete noir after Fidel Castro, unsettled Washington again last year by negotiating a $1 billion deal with Moscow to purchase a number of 636-model Varshavianka-class (NATO designation “Kilo”) diesel electric submarines (Agentstvo Voyennykh Novostei, April 4). Various... MORE