Pro-Russian separatists in Eastern Ukraine stormed government buildings in Luhansk, the provincial capital of Ukraine’s eastern region. Loyalties appear to have splintered, with local police waiting it out and not participating in the fighting, and the regional leadership and their state police still resisting the growing power of the pro-Russian militias. Among the locations seized…

Turkmenistan’s status as a gas giant and large scale provider to both East and West has expanded rapidly during the course of the last several years, and only looks to expand further as it announced plans to rapidly scale up existing infrastructure in order to accommodate the increasing needs of the European Union. The Turkmen…

Iran and Russia have been consistently dialoguing about potential deals for $10 billion worth of electricity, in addition to another set of deals to exchange food and other products for Iranian oil. Iranian Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian and Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak met in Tehran on Sunday to discuss the deal, which included construction…

Russia and India have made tentative arrangements to construct a $30 billion oil pipeline through China’s Xinjiang province south to India. The pipeline is set to be the most expensive yet constructed, and the groundwork for the agreement was laid last October when Manmohan Singh visited Moscow during the 14th annual India-Russia summit. The agreement…

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he will no longer seek to boost Russia’s sagging economy through an influx of government spending. The move turned heads in the international press given that Putin, along with his minister of economy, had initially voiced their support for the measure. The announcement was coupled with a statement released…

Yesterday foreign ministers of the Caspian countries – Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and Iran – met in Moscow to prepare for the 4th summit of Caspian states in September. The legal status of the Caspian Sea with its rich reserves of petroleum and natural gas is up for debate. With few borders for maritime territories…

Though the results are far from finalized, already tallied votes indicate that Abdullah Abduallah could prevail in the preliminary round of Afghan elections. More than half of all the votes cast have yet to be counted, and a run-off is still likely, but Abdullah has widened his lead over his closest rival, Ashraf Ghani by…

The Toktogul hydroelectric power plant in Kyrgyzstan has reported low water levels. The plant is one of the largest in Central Asia and currently dams the Naryn River, and is part of the Naryn-Sry Darya cascade. Generating over 1,200 MW of power a day, it is the largest power plant in Kyrgyzstan and is one…

Iran is moving faster than expected to comply with the November nuclear deal, the IAEA reported yesterday. Iran has apparently diluted half of its stockpile of 20 percent enriched uranium to lower levels. If true, the report means that Iran has cut 75% of its stockpile since January, when it stood at just above 200 kilograms.…

Military operations designed to regain lost territory in eastern Ukraine failed on Wednesday. The much-publicized effort had seen Ukraine send columns of armored vehicles to cities that had been overtaken by pro-Russia separatist forces, but has thus far been an abject failure. Reported emerged that one column of armored vehicles were abandoned and subsequently seized…