Pro-Western blocs in Ukraine are leading the way with over 22% of the vote in Ukraine’s ongoing parliamentary elections.  Competing parties led by Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and current President and former chocolate mogul Petro Poroshenko are leading the with just over 21.65% of the vote each, with all other parties at least seven percentage points behind. The elections will determine which parties will control the majority in parliament, and seem to indicate that the country will go the way of its “Maidan” protests of earlier this year, with the country favoring pro-EU representation. Ukraine first post-revolution elections are expected to culminate in the formation of a coalition led by its current prime minister and president, and include other parties that share similar values.

The impact of the elections on the crisis in eastern Ukraine is expected to be negative. The formation of a government that “all but extinguishes” all pro-Russia parties will likely exacerbate ties between Ukraine and Russia, the effects of which will be felt on the battlefield near Donetsk. The population of the region of Donetsk, as well as populations throughout war-torn regions of east Ukraine will naturally be excluded from the elections due to the lack of state-sanctioned voting stations throughout the region. How the Ukrainian government will ultimately incorporate these populaces into the country if and when they are re-incorporated into the country remains to be seen.

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News Briefs: 

• An investment forum in Dushanbe will get under way today, October 27, in order to discuss the future of development in Central Asia. The forum will be attended by 110 individuals from across the region, and are expected to engage in talks surrounding Central Asia’s capacities for new transport systems as well as energy infrastructure.

• Kyrgyzstan has sent a delegation to Ashgabat, Turkmenistan in order to begin talks with Turkmen officials surrounding the possible export of Turkmen electric power to Kyrgyzstan. The Kyrgyz are struggling to fulfill electricity production goals due to a 25% reduction in hydroelectric production, and are scrambling to make up for the loss. The Kyrgyz have already agreed to import over one billion kilowatts from Kazakhstan, and will seek to supplement Kazakh energy with an undisclosed amount from Turkmenistan.

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• Iran’s state-controlled media released a report denying reports that Iran will shut down any of its nuclear facilities. Talks in Vienna between P5+1 and Iranian negotiators have failed to progress despite assurances from both sides that a deal was “near,” with one of these complications being the status of Iran’s heavy water reactor located near Arak. The reactor, which could theoretically be utilized to produce plutonium, has long been labeled by Western negotiators as a sign that Iran intends to militarize its nuclear program.