Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
MAJOR RUSSIA-KAZAKHSTAN OIL PRODUCTION-SHARING AGREEMENT SIGNED
On July 6 in Astana, Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan witnessed the signing of a production-sharing agreement on Kazakhstan's Kurmangazy offshore oilfield. State oil company Rosneft President Sergei Bogdanchikov signed the agreement for the Russian side; Kazakhstan's Energy and Mineral... MORE
SHANGHAI COOPERATION ORGANIZATION SUMMIT SUGGESTS NEW RUSSIA-CHINA LINKS
As the six Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) members gathered Kazakhstan's capital, Astana, on July 5, the summit meeting seemingly adopted a measure of anti-Western rhetoric. The SCO states (China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan) not only suggested that the U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan... MORE
SCO ASKS WASHINGTON TO SET DATE FOR WITHDRAWAL OF FORCES
The presidents of Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan -- member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization -- held a summit of the SCO on July 5 in Astana. Their joint declaration requests the U.S.-led anti-terrorist coalition forces to set a date for leaving... MORE
PUTIN’S MÉNAGE À TROIS IN KALININGRAD
Over the weekend of July 3-4, Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted French President Jacques Chirac and German Prime Minister Gerhard Schroeder for a summit in Kaliningrad, supposedly to celebrate the city's 750th anniversary. Putin conspicuously declined to invite Polish and Lithuanian leaders to this event,... MORE
THE PRESIDENTIAL VERTICAL ECONOMY AND THE OIL SHOWER
Russian economic policy has never been so entertaining as in recent weeks, particularly in comparison with the dull and monotonous political discourse. Every weekly meeting of the government delivers a new verbal clash of economic titans often sparkling with rich metaphors. Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov... MORE
KAZAKHSTAN PREPARED TO USE FORCE AGAINST “REVOLUTIONARIES”
The authorities in Kazakhstan, reacting carefully and deliberately, are preparing security agencies to use force in the event of revolutionary activity similar to events in Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. It is predictable that the regime of President Nursultan Nazarbayev should choose to flex its muscles in... MORE
TENSIONS RISING AHEAD OF KYRGYZ PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
June 17 marked the peak of Kyrgyzstan's counter-revolutionary movement, which is apparently organized by Urmat Baryktabasov, a politician allied with ex-president Askar Akayev. The three months since Akayev's ouster in the March 24 Tulip Revolution have been very intense for Kyrgyzstan. There were two contract... MORE
RUSSIA-BELARUS: THE COMPLEX RELATIONSHIP
On July 2, Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenka was interviewed by Oleg Poptsov of the Russian TV Center, a company that covers nine Russian regions, in a program that lasted for three hours. The interview covered a variety of issues, but the key focus was on... MORE
UKRAINE’S REPUTATION AT STAKE IN GAS TRADE WITH RUSSIA
Interviewed on a Ukrainian television channel on July 1, Gazprom Vice-President Alexander Medvedev stated that the Russian side wants to go ahead with the Russian-Ukrainian-German understandings of 2003-2004 regarding ownership and management of Ukraine's gas transit system (TV Channel 5, July 1). Known informally as... MORE
MOSCOW PREPARES UNFRIENDLY TAKEOVER OF LITHUANIA’S OIL COMPLEX
The Russian government is moving to seize control of Lithuania's largest economic asset, the Mazeikiai oil complex, from the majority-owner Yukos and the Lithuanian state. Moscow seeks to preempt acquisition by international oil companies that have recently shown interest in Mazeikiai. It also seeks to... MORE