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…
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…
Radio Free Europe reports on the growing presence of Uzbek extremist group The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan in Afghan combat zones. The group has reportedly gained a foothold in at least eight different Afghan provinces, where it has established training and logistical operations. The group had previously found refuge in Northern Pakistan after being forced…
In late March we had the chance to sit down with Marlene Laruelle, Director of the Central Asia Program at The George Washington University. Dr. Laruelle is also Research Professor of International Affairs at the Elliott School of International Relations, Associate Director of the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies and the editor-in-chief of Central Asian Affairs. She has authored and…
US Secretary of State John Kerry will visit Moscow to engage in talks with his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The two statesmen are expected to broach not only the subject of Ukraine, but also those of Western sanctions, regional cooperation and extremism. The visit has predictably drawn a healthy amount of attention in…
Russian energy behemoth Gazprom announced that it has reached a deal with Turkish government officials and representatives from Botas, a major Turkish energy firm, to construct what has been labeled the “Turkey Stream.” The new pipeline is expected to connect the two countries and will become operational in December 2016, according to a Gazprom spokesperson.…
The Tajik parliament is currently mulling a bill that would prohibit all names of “Islamic origin.” The bill has not yet been passed but is seen as the latest in a series of steps taken by the government in an attempt to counter extremism in the country. The Tajik President Emomali Rahmon has explicitly instructed…
According to a new report published by Reuters, the European Union expects to begin receiving Turkmen natural gas as early as 2019. EU Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic, a Russian-speaking career diplomat from Slovakia, recently held meetings in Ashgabat with the foreign ministers of Turkmenistan, Turkey and Azerbaijan, meetings that were also attended by senior…
The United States senate rejected an effort that would have made mandatory any treaty brokered with Iran to be considered an “international treaty.” If it had passed, the provision would have made any deal’s ratification dependent on a two-thirds vote by the US senate. The measure was proposed by a number of Republican senators and…
Presidential elections are being held in Kazakhstan this week. Though there is a multiplicity of candidates in the running, only one is expected to receive a significant percentage of the vote: incumbent Nursaltan Nazarbayev. Nazarbayev, the first and only president of Kazakhstan following the collapse of the Soviet Union, published an op-ed in a prominent…
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