The ruble’s value plunged once again against other currencies after the Central Bank of Russia returned to a “free-float” on the ruble yesterday. The move was designed to reduce speculative pressure on the currency as it continued to face heavy selling despite a major rate increase last week. The bank did not fully remove itself…
UN weapons inspectors from the IAEA are continuing to be blocked by the Iranian government from examining their enrichment facilities, where Western politicians believe to be laboratories for compiling fissile materials for a nuclear weapon. With the deadline for the deal to lift sanctions coming once again at the end of November, prospects are not…
The Russian state-run media conglomerate Rossiya Sevodnya will be opening local bureaus in over 29 world capitals to expand global media presence in a bid to escalate an ongoing “information war” with the West. Details will apparently be released at an event in Moscow next month, but confirmed locations for the new bureaus include Dushanbe,…
The new deadline on November 24 for Iran is rapidly approaching, and still large questions about basic elements of the deal are prevalent in the media. Iran has released new statements prohibiting any approval in negotiations on “backward steps,” specifically the enrichment of uranium and number of active centrifuges. The comments were made by Deputy…
Graeme Robertson is currently an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill. He received his BA from Oxford University, his MA from Harvard in Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies, and his Ph.D from Columbia University, with work focusing on political protest in Russian politics. His book…
The Summit on the legal status of the Caspian Sea ended at the beginning of October after being held in Astrakhan, Russia. But renewed signs of optimism from convention attendees, released earlier this week, show that the breakthroughs on legal negotiations have taken with the five littoral states. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that…
Despite over $7.6 billion in expenditures by the United States to prevent opium cultivation in Afghanistan, crop yields have risen to their highest levels during the harvest this year. Cultivation of the poppy is a “significant” source of revenue for local Taliban groups, according to the new report released by the UN Office on Drugs…
Pakistani National Security Advisor Sartag Aziz paid a short visit to new Afghan President Ashraf Ghani over the weekend, with future meetings set up between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Ghani forthcoming, an apparent sign of detente. A formal invitation was extended from Sharif to Ghani to arrange a meeting to ‘share his vision’ for…
NATO Supreme Allied Commander in Europe Philip Breedlove told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Greece that the alliance would welcome the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Donetsk region of Ukraine, but that no “major improvements” have been seen. Despite this proclamation, this past Saturday Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered 17,600 troops…
Uzbek Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyaev announced that roughly $1 billion worth of textile products have been shipped this year and that sales are expected to increase, making Uzbekistan the world’s fifth largest producer of cotton. Some 3.3 million tons of cotton were produced last year, but Western powers like the United States have been adamant…
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