Georgia has accused Russia of violating its airspace as it discusses ramping up work on a railway project with Turkey and lobbies for the US to store weapons inside its borders. Its Ministry of Defense stated on December 10 that a Russian military helicopter had crossed the border with South Ossetia, calling the incident “provocative.”…
After Russia imposed a ban on the transit of Turkish trucks, a new, Caspian route has come to the fore as an alternative. Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan already saw an opportunity to cash in on the deteriorated relations. Astana expects an increase in turnover through the Europe-Caucasus-Asia Transport corridor (TRACECA) and an opportunity for Kazakh producers…
Kazakhstan, ranked first in the world in terms of uranium reserves, is now undertaking a transition to nuclear power. Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom and Kazakhstan´s Energy Ministry are on the move to sign an intergovernmental agreement on constructing nuclear plant in Kazakhstan. Drop in oil prices, energy and environmental reasoning are believed to be pushing Kazakhstan…
Opposition politicians and protesters gathered in Yerevan, claiming that Armenia’s November 7 referendum on constitutional reforms was marked with high rates of corruption. According to Armenia’s Central Election Commission, 63.5% of voters purportedly elected to pass a packet of over 200 changes to the constitution. One of the reforms would curb presidential powers but extend…
RIA Novosti reported that the United States government has refused to guarantee Ukraine’s liabilities on debt to Russia. The report stated that the US has officially refused to guarantee the $3 billion in debt that Russia was considering restructuring to relieve Ukraine from paying it back by the December 20 deadline. The Russian Ministry of…
Earlier this year we had the opportunity to speak to Dr. Sabit Khakimzhanov, the head of research at Halyk Finance, a leading Kazakh investment bank focused on Central Asia. Khakimzhanov is an authority on the Kazakh economy and investment climate, and has written and spoken widely on Kazakh monetary policy. Dr. Khakimzhanov has a Ph.D. in Applied Economics from…
Turkmenistan’s export options are steadily shrinking despite being one of the world’s largest natural gas reserve holders. Geopolitical conflicts, security and financing issues as well as lack of sufficient infrastructure are acting as constraints for market diversification. According to the U.S. government’s Energy Information Agency, Turkmenistan has natural gas reserves of 265 trillion cubic feet,…
Russia is expanding its presence in Syria, adding a second airbase as well as other command posts. Currently, Moscow has four operating bases in Syria including recently added bases in Hama and Tiyas. But now the West is most concerned about the second airbase in Shayrat capable of supporting fixed-wing aircraft which greatly expands Russia’s…
Tajikistan’s government is seeing human rights activists and others leave the country after it passed a law on NGOs similar to those of Russia and Azerbaijan. The amendments to an existing law on non-governmental organizations stipulate that NGOs must report the sources and amounts of their funding to the central government, and expanded the powers…
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