Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
BLOODY CRACKDOWN ENDS ARMENIAN POST-ELECTION UNREST, FOR NOW
The unrest sparked by Armenia’s February 19 presidential election, praised by the West but considered fraudulent by many Armenians, could have hardly had a worse denouement. At least eight people were killed and more than a hundred others wounded on the night of March 1-2,... MORE
MOSCOW BACKTRACKING IN NEGOTIATIONS WITH GEORGIA ON BORDER AND CUSTOMS CONTROL
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s February 21-22 Moscow visit, nominally for a multilateral Commonwealth of Independent States summit, centered on carefully prepared bilateral talks by the Georgian delegation with outgoing president Vladimir Putin and ministerial counterparts. The visit succeeded in ameliorating the atmosphere of Georgia’s relations... MORE
FREQUENT CRASHES CAST DOUBT ON RUSSIAN-MADE JETS IN KAZAKH AIR FORCE
On the morning of February 12, a MiG-29 fighter jet from the Kazakh Air Force crashed while landing at a military airfield in Almaty region. Just seconds before the plane hit the ground, crew members ejected from the cockpit, but because of the low altitude,... MORE
GAZA RAID FURTHER STRAINS ISRAELI-TURKISH TIES
Israel’s recent military incursion into Gaza has further strained its already troubled relationship with Turkey and highlighted the two countries’ divergent attitudes toward Hamas. For many Turks, the contrast between the muted U.S. reaction to the Israeli raid and its insistence on a rapid curtailment... MORE
WILL PRIME MINISTER PUTIN SERVE AT THE PLEASURE OF PRESIDENT MEDVEDEV?
As of 10 am, Moscow time, on March 3, Russia’s Central Election Commission was reporting that with more than 99% of the votes in the March 2 presidential election counted, President Vladimir Putin’s handpicked successor, Dmitry Medvedev, won 70.23% of the vote. That means 51,938,974... MORE
PUTIN’S PLAN PROGRESSES, BUT THE MEANING OF MEDVEDEV REMAINS OBSCURE
Elections are supposed to focus on the question of who wins, but Russia makes an exception: President Vladimir Putin’s re-election in early 2004 had no suspense at all. But with the electoral exercise that took place yesterday, March 2, the question was not about “Who?”... MORE
NAZARBAYEV WATCHES FOR SIGNS OF MEDVEDEV’S LEADERSHIP STYLE
Speaking in Moscow at the informal February Commonwealth of Independent States summit, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev praised his country’s relations with Russia, pointing to bilateral action plans signed in 2006-07 that prioritized shared concerns. He highlighted how closely both countries cooperate across a wide range... MORE
PKK TRIUMPHANT AS ANKARA RETREATS FROM NORTHERN IRAQ
After only eight days, Turkey abruptly ended its military incursion into Iraqi Kurdistan on Friday February 29. The withdrawal of Turkish troops caught many observers, as well as the Turkish public, by surprise. Only one day earlier, Turkish Chief of Staff General Yasar Buyukanit refused... MORE
HUNGARY’S SOCIALIST GOVERNMENT JOINS GAZPROM’S SOUTH STREAM PROJECT
On February 28 Hungary’s Socialist Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany joined Russia’s outgoing and incoming presidents, Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, in Moscow to seal an intergovernmental agreement on Gazprom’s further expansion into European Union territory via Hungary. Hungary’s privately owned energy company MOL is staying... MORE
RUSSIAN SOFT-POWER INCREASING IN AZERBAIJAN
Following Ukraine’s Orange Revolution in 2004, political analysts predicted that the Kremlin would step up its efforts to conquer the hearts and minds of people living in the post-Soviet region. This “soft diplomacy” has long been a powerful tool for Western democracies, and it is... MORE