Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
UPPER HOUSE OF AFGHAN PARLIAMENT BEGINS TO TAKE SHAPE
This week Afghan President Hamid Karzai announced his choices for 34 seats in the upper house of parliament (Mishrano Jirga), completing a process that began with the September 18 parliamentary elections. Afghanistan's new bicameral parliament is made up of a 249-seat lower house (Wolose Jirga)... MORE
RUSSIAN-KAZAKH PARTNERSHIP LEADS CENTRAL ASIAN INTEGRATION
The sudden thaw between Tashkent and Moscow after the Andijan bloodbath and the withdrawal of the U.S. air base from Uzbekistan left Astana guessing about the true intentions of the enigmatic Uzbek President Islam Karimov. But since the Russian-orchestrated integration of the Central Asian Cooperation... MORE
KREMLIN’S NEW “COALITION OF THE WILLING” AT UN
Uganda, Angola, Mali, Myanmar, and Venezuela have joined Armenia, France, and Spain in a Russian-led effort to deny the GUAM countries the right to bring their concerns before the United Nations General Assembly. On December 13, in the Assembly's agenda-setting General Committee, the aforementioned countries... MORE
NEW HOPE FOR SOUTH OSSETIA?
On December 12, Eduard Kokoiti, the self-styled president of South Ossetia, sent a letter to Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and leaders of OSCE countries to familiarize them with an action plan for settling the 15-year old conflict. Three successive stages call... MORE
IMF STUDY HIGHLIGHTS WESTERN DONOR PRAISE FOR ARMENIAN REFORMS
The Armenian authorities' economic policies have received another Western endorsement with the publication of extensive research conducted by a group of economists from the International Monetary Fund. In a research paper unveiled on December 6, they describe as "impressive" Armenia's decade-long economic growth and offered... MORE
LONG-EXPECTED PERSONNEL CHANGES BEGIN IN AZERBAIJAN
Immediately following Azerbaijan's November 6 parliamentary elections, President Ilham Aliyev began cadre changes in the government. Some local experts believe the changes are long overdue. On December 14, he replaced Yusif Humbatov, chief of the territorial-administrative division at the President's office, with Zeynal Nagdaliyev, a... MORE
OSCE-RUSSIA MILITARY PLAN FOR MOLDOVA CRITICIZED IN VIENNA
Moldova remains at the top of the European security agenda in the aftermath of the OSCE's year-end ministerial conference. On December 8 at OSCE headquarters in Vienna, Russian special envoy Valery Nesterushkin, the OSCE Moldova Mission's American chief William Hill, and that Mission's Military Consultant,... MORE
PUTIN PROTECTS ISLAM AND PRAISES DEMOCRACY IN GROZNY
The newly elected Chechen parliament held its first session on Monday, December 12, and the big surprise was the unscheduled appearance of Russian President Vladimir Putin (Vremya novostei; Kommersant, December 13). His seventh visit to Chechnya lasted only about an hour, including time to change... MORE
TYMOSHENKO FACES RIVAL CLAIM TO BE ANTI-YUSHCHENKO ORANGE FACTION
The youth group Pora (It's Time), which played an important role in Ukraine's Orange Revolution in November-December 2004, is set to contest the March 2006 parliamentary elections in an alliance with the Reforms and Order (RiP) party (pora.org.ua). The once united Orange coalition will now... MORE
OFFICIALS MEET TO DISCUSS SOUTH CAUCASUS RAIL SYSTEM
Last week, officials from Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey met in Tbilisi to discuss further steps in the construction of another strategically important project in the South Caucasus, the Kars-Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Baku (KATB) railway system. The idea to build a railroad that would connect Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey... MORE