Moscow’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov lauded the nuclear deal with Iran, but most Russian analysts and officials were quick to point out that the deal locks in Iran’s return to global oil markets, essentially guaranteeing a price cut at a time of extreme vulnerability for Russian government revenue. The Kremlin chose to stress the positives…
In April 2015 we had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Lawrence Markowitz, Assistant Professor of Political Science & Economics at Rowan University. Dr. Markowitz has researched and published extensively on the politics of state failure and authoritarian rule in Central Asia and the former Soviet Union. He is the author of State Erosion: Unlootable Resources…
After several months of negotiations, Iran and the P5+1 have come to terms on a nuclear deal. The deal sets limits on the Iranian capacity for centrifuges, reducing them by two thirds, and places a 15 year restriction on enriching uranium beyond 5%. Under the deal Iran will also be obligated to allow IAEA inspectors…
India and Pakistan have gained accession to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) a regional security agreement that originally started between Russia and China. The SCO conference took place after the BRICs meeting in Ufa. The SCO includes Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, and has been actively courting expansion for a long…
On his way to the BRICS conference in Moscow, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a pit stop in Astana, signing 5 agreements with President Nursultan Nazarbayev ranging from defense and terrorism to arranging for the transfer of uranium reserves from Kazakhstan to India. This is the first complete tour of the five post-Soviet “republics”…
As the P5+1 powers and Iran edge closer and closer to a nuclear accord, global oil markets have begun speculating as to how the flow of hydrocarbons will be affected and when sanctions will be released on Iran, which holds the world’s second largest reserves of oil and is additionally among the top 10 richest…
The New York Times writes that Ukraine is moving quickly to avoid a repeat of the ongoing Greece crisis and restructure its debt. The article contends that the Ukrainian government, along with the IMF, is attempting to strong-arm creditors into accepting “big losses” in the process of negotiating a bailout deal. The government currently stands…
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko unveiled several changes to the Constitution to Parliament on July 1, and has since been barraged by criticism and outright rejection from belligerent separatists still occupying vast swathes of the eastern part of the country. The changes largely amount to a decrease in overall presidential authority, granting local towns the significant…
The US State Department and the Iranian Foreign Ministry announced that negotiations related to its nuclear program will be extended until July 7. Reports related to the talks indicate that progress has been made and that the sides are “nearing” a deal. This in mind, there appears to be some ambiguity regarding the parameters of…
STEPPE DISPATCHES 