On Monday, Azerbaijan’s Central Bank abandoned its peg to the dollar, allowing its currency to tumble by almost a third of its total value, dragged down by the consistently lower price of oil benchmarks. Against the US dollar on Monday morning, the manat was trading 32.3% weaker. The CB released statements soon afterwards, specifically citing…
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…
In a surprise move, the Central Bank of Azerbaijan devalued the manat by 33.5% over the weekend. The devaluation came flying in the face of earlier government rhetoric that it would be able to maintain the stability and value of its currency with the precipitous decline in oil prices over the past six months, coupled…
We recently had the opportunity to speak with Professor S. Neil MacFarlane, the Lester B. Pearson Professor of International Relations and Fellow at St. Anne’s College, Oxford University. Dr. MacFarlane is also an Associate Fellow in the Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House, and has previously taught at Harvard, the University of Virginia, and…
The technically autonomous Nagorno-Karabakh Republic was again the source of controversy past weekend as forces sympathetic to Azerbaijan and Armenia seemingly reengaged. The two countries have been at odds since the end of the Nagorono-Karabkh War in 1994, and despite attempts to negotiate long-standing cease fire agreements, numerous conflicts have occurred over the past few…
A raid on Friday of last week of the Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) news service offices in Baku by Azeri prosecutors has created an uproar in the news media. RFE/RL representatives reported that armed police ordered employees to leave the radio headquarters building “Azadliq” in the capital of Baku, said the station’s director,…
Human rights abuses in Azerbaijan have garnered the attention of international NGOs concerned about the Azerbaijani government’s “relentless crackdown” on individuals with opinions contrary to those of alleged strongman and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. Arif Yanus, a journalist and human rights advovate working for the Baku-based Institute for Peace and Democracy was recently arrested and…
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