In response to the increasing instability in Northern Afghanistan, Russia has bolstered its diplomatic and security activities in Central Asia, grasping the opportunity to endorse its vision of “greater Eurasia”. Russian grand strategy of reshaping security dynamics in the region has already included strengthening its existing alliances while vying internationally to be considered a great…

US President Barack Obama announced the extension of the current presence of 9,800 troops in Afghanistan into 2016, with a drawdown to 5,500 through the end of his term in 2017. The announcement is contrary to the administration’s earlier plans to withdraw the majority of US military forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2017,…

Europe and Central Asia are experiencing multiple parallel developments in their respective energy markets. Russian energy company Gazprom is currently fighting to safeguard its market share in Europe by pushing for new projects and diversifying transit routes. Russia provides about a third of the EU natural gas energy supply, about half of which is shipped…

Iranian state news agency IRNA reported on October 12 that the Iranian Parliament passed a bill supporting the country’s participation in the nuclear deal reached in July. The legislation approves Iran’s future fulfillment of stipulations in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) negotiated between President Hassan Rouhani’s government and the P5+1 (China, France, Russia,…

The President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994, won the presidential election on Sunday with higher than ever votes of 83.5%. The representative of the opposition movement, Tatiana Korotkevich received only 4.4% of the vote and the other two pro-governmental candidates an even smaller percentage. Opposition politicians and several hundred…