In a move that adds further murkiness to an already confused situation, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan have agreed to a demarcation of their maritime border in the Caspian Sea, despite the fact that previous conferences of the five Caspian littoral states (Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, and Russia) established that borders had to be delineated and agreed…
In a speech last week, Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamanei publicly ruled out the possibility of IAEA inspections at Iranian military sights, and stated that Iranian nuclear scientists would similarly be unavailable to IAEA personnel. Since then, Iran has softened its position to allow for “managed access” to its facilities. However, these statements reportedly contrast with…
Deputy Foreign Minister of Iran in charge of its nuclear negotiations Abbas Araqchi said that it has agreed to the major concession of allowing UN inspectors to have managed access to military facilities as part of its nuclear deal with the P5+1 Powers. The UN team would apparently be allowed to take environmental samples from…
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law legislation granting the Russian government the authority to shut down NGOs that it deems “undesirable.” The new law extends mainly to foreign NGOs and affords the government the leeway to fine and restrict their activities if it views them as illicit or in violation of the new law.…
The last time the EU Eastern Partnership Summit took place, it was 2013, and we lived in a different world. The results of that meeting, with former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych choosing to go with Russia’s offer of a $9 billion development fund in exchange for EEU association over an EU Association Agreement, sparked the…
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif visited Ashgabat, Turkmenistan yesterday to make a concerted effort to push the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline project forward, which would supply energy consuming Pakistan and India with Turkmen natural gas. Sharif met with Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and issued several memorandums of understanding to lay the framework for specific agreements regarding…
Russia announced that it may partially repeal an embargo leveled against European food imports. Specifically, Moscow may begin to allow for imports from approximately 20 firms from Hungary, Cyprus and Greece back into the Russian market after an embargo worth $9 billion was imposed in August of 2014. Incidentally, in order to make up for…
One of the deputy chairman of the Central Bank of Uzbekistan published a letter to Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyaev that the country is suffering from a lack of “traceable” funds – the letter details a low level of confidence in the Uzbek currency, the som, which is prompting most businesses and individuals to rely only…
Christopher Weafer is the founder of Macro-Advisory, a research consulting company focusing on Russia, the CIS, and macro oil trends and was recently in 2013 voted the best Russian investment strategist in a poll by Thomas Reuters Extel. Before becoming a consultant, Chris was Chief Strategist at Sberbank-CIB, Russia’s largest bank. He also writes extensively…
The Wall Street Journal published an interesting piece on the hardships facing Ukrainian businesses attempting to compete in the European Union. The headline message of the piece is that it is proving much more difficult for the Ukrainian economy to shift away from its legacy affiliation with Russia and adapt in phases to the competitive…
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