Latest Eurasia Daily Monitor Articles
FORMER SECURITY CHIEF REVEALS DETAILS ABOUT VIOLENCE DURING UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
In February, Oleksandr Turchynov, a close ally of Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, replaced Ihor Smeshko as chief of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU). Smeshko recently provided new details about violence during Ukraine's 2004 presidential elections in a long interview published in the May 27 issue... MORE
BAKU-TBILISI-CEYHAN OIL PIPELINE INAUGURATED
The first stage of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil export pipeline was officially inaugurated on May 25 at the Sangachal shore terminal, south of Baku. The presidents of Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Kazakhstan, as well as BP President Lord John Browne, U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman,... MORE
CONTEST MOVES FROM WESTERN TO EASTERN CASPIAN SHORE
At the Baku inauguration events, President Nursultan Nazarbayev confirmed Kazakhstan's intention to develop a trans-Caspian oil transport system, linked to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline. If achieved on the scale that is now envisaged, this export route could deeply dent Russia's near-monopoly on the transit of... MORE
BAKU AND ASTANA PLAY IT SAFE IN CASPIAN OIL BATTLE
Until Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev made a landmark trip to Baku on May 25, marking Kazakhstan's decisive move towards joining the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline project, bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan had shown few signs of progress. Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliev visited Kazakhstan in March 2004,... MORE
KYRGYZ INTERIM GOVERNMENT ATTACKED BY PREVIOUS REGIME, SUPPORTED BY INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
The electoral alliance between Kyrgyzstan's Acting President Kurmanbek Bakiyev and First Deputy Prime Minister Felix Kulov is gaining credibility domestically and receiving positive reactions from the international community. According to recent polls in Bishkek, about 55% of the population will vote for Bakiyev in the... MORE
PUBLIC SENTIMENT TURNS TOWARD KHODORKOVSKY, WHILE PUTIN GRAPPLES WITH BLACKOUT
On May 16, a Russian court began reading the verdict in the trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, owner of the destroyed oil giant Yukos, and his partner, Platon Lebedev. By the end of the first week of reading the 1,000-page verdict aloud, a different issue had... MORE
WILL BAKU-TBILISI-CEYHAN PIPELINE CARRY REVOLUTIONARY IDEAS ALONG WITH CRUDE?
During the opening ceremony on May 25, oil started flowing into the U.S.-backed Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, which will bring Caspian hydrocarbons to Western markets and break Russia's monopoly on energy exports from the Caucasus and Central Asia. But some Russian political analysts contend that the... MORE
ANALYSTS TURN A CRITICAL EYE TOWARD YUSHCHENKO’S EARLY RECORD
Ukraine watchers are abuzz about a May 25 article in Lvivska Hazeta, in which the paper's Moscow correspondent called upon Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko to dismiss Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. According to an eyewitness account published in Zerkalo Tyzhnia/Nedeli on May 21, Yushchenko did call... MORE
TALYSH ISSUE, DORMANT IN AZERBAIJAN, REOPENED IN ARMENIA
On May 20-22, in Armenia's resort town of Tsaghkadzor, an event billed as the "First International Conference on Talysh Studies" was hosted by Yerevan State University's Iranian Studies Department and the Yerevan-based Center for Iranian Studies. Almost certainly, some political circles in Armenia were behind... MORE
ASSASSINATION IN DAGESTAN DAMAGES KREMLIN ATTEMPTS TO ATTRACT FOREIGN INVESTMENT FOR THE CAUCASUS
Early last year Russian President Vladimir Putin solemnly declared, "Armed confrontations and conflicts are becoming history. Even in the most difficult territory, the Chechen republic, the peace process is becoming irreversible" (grani.ru, March 3, 2004). Putin then called for investment in the North Caucasus. However,... MORE