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…
Both Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for a return to normal relations yesterday during a diplomatic summit just after a larger boycott of the Victory Day parade celebrating the end of WWII on Saturday. Despite the boycott, two dozen other world leaders flew to Russia including guests of honor Xi…
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.…
Ukrainian and separatist representatives are meeting in Minsk for a third time, but marking the first official meeting since the signing of a peace deal in February. The two sides, including officials from Russia and the OSCE held talks yesterday to discuss how to create more stability in the eastern region of the country. Both…
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…
The battle between Afghan security forces and the Taliban still rages in Kunduz, a province of northern Afghanistan – all while Taliban representatives met with Afghan political figures in Qatar to discuss possible ceasefires. The major source of disagreement was the continued presence of US troops in the country. The Afghan government has made no…
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…
Russia cut its key interest rate to 12.5% from 14%, in a bid to mildly boost inflation to keep up the slight build in momentum the economy has gained over the past quarter. This is the third movement by the Russian Central Bank in the past six months, beginning with the controversial and unexpected raising…
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…
A summit between leaders of the European Union and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko yesterday did little to convince onlookers that Ukraine would be joining the EU anytime soon. The EU has downplayed a prior claim that they would consider a peacekeeping mission to eastern Ukraine, while Poroshenko loudly defended the debt restricting deal/economic reforms and…
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