Ramsar, Iran, a beach-lined Iranian city bordering the Caspian Sea in Iran’s northwest, recently played host to a meeting of the working group for the legal status of the Caspian Sea. The attendees of the meeting included delegations sent from Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. The five countries, in addition to enjoying mostly amicable…

Just a day after it appeared that talks between Russia and Ukraine would fail to bear fruit, both sides renewed their commitment to substantive negotiations over the two nations’ economic and political relations. Officials from Kiev and Moscow met along with a delegation from Poland in St. Petersburg in order to discuss, among other things,…

Talks have stalled at the summit between energy officials from Ukraine and Russia hosted by the European Commission in Brussels yesterday. A breakthrough had occurred at 3 am on Tuesday, which was the deadline that Kiev had been set by officials of Gazprom and Moscow. Russia has threatened Ukraine if it defaults on its debt…

Flash Floods in Northern Afghanistan have claimed the lives of more than 70 Afghans who had previously inhabited villages in the remote Baghlan province. The death toll, which has been estimated at between 80 and 100, has driven hundreds more from homes that have been quickly washed away by the rapid influx of water.  This…

Afghan presidential frontrunner Abdullah Abdullah escaped assassination on Friday morning when two charges detonated outside of a hotel. Six people are confirmed dead, and the blasts destroyed several cars in Abdullah’s convoy. Twenty-two bystanders were also injured. The blasts took place in the Kote Sangi area of western Kabul, next to the Ariana Hotel. Police…

Fears of another cold war seemingly allayed, Russia and the United States have renewed talks surrounding bilateral space cooperation. Shortly after the first US sanctions were doled out as a response to Russia’s annexation and activities that were perceived to fan the flame of separatism in eastern Ukraine, many news outlets began to speculate over…

Last month, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia were approved to propose the so-called “roadmap” for integration into the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan by a summit meeting in Astana (which recently announced its change in title and function to the Eurasian Economic Union or EEU at the beginning of next year). The roadmap has now hit…

The third in a series of pipelines connecting mainland China with Central Asia has been launched. The pipeline, which will stretch from Turkmenistan into its eastern neighbor Uzbekistan and finally end up in China, was commemorated with a ribbon ceremony in Gazli, Uzbekistan. The line will connect with already extant lines A and B, which…

Despite the successful election of Petro Poroshenko, clashes in the Donetsk Oblast have increased. Separatist troops attacked the Donetsk airport and were repelled by government forces. Vladyslav Seleznyov, the spokesman for the Ukrainian army’s current operations in the east, said that “pro-Russian separatists are attacking Ukrainian forces’ checkpoints all the time in Slovyansk,” a noted…