As inflation rises out of control in Russia thanks to the astonishing 17% decline in the value of the ruble against the dollar, coupled with the drop in the price of oil and infusions of capital by the Russian Central Bank, the Russian economy has certainly seen better days. Russia originally aimed at the beginning…
An already shaky Russian economy has been made worse by plummeting oil prices that could cause the Russian economy to recess by 1.2%. Sberbank CIB, Russia’s most important lender, estimates that if the price of crude remains around $90 per barrel that it will shrink, and additional estimates show that if the price of crude…
On Monday, the Kazakh government announced its intention to sell 10-year and 30-year bonds in US dollars to international investors after more than 14 years of absence from allowing public investment in government debt. Intended to avoid an expensive and potentially politically divisive battle over debt restructuring (such as the one in Argentina in 2001…
Kazakhstan appears poised to reclaim its place among the world’s leading gas and oil producers in the coming years. Kazakh Deputy Energy Minister Magzum Mirzagaliyev recently announced that Kazakhstan’s long-awaited Kashagan oil field will resume crude oil production during the second half of 2016. The supergiant (>10 billion barrels) which became operational in 2013 but…
Yesterday, Ukrainian state gas company Naftogaz repaid its Eurobond of $1.595 billion in principal, with a total accumulated coupon (or interest) of $75.76 million. It had been a source of concern to bondholders that Naftogaz would be forced to default with Ukraine facing its current political situation – an ongoing civil war and fraught relations…
Tajik national and Ph.D. student at the University of Exeter Alexander Sodiqov was recently released by Tajik authorities and has successfully returned to Canada, where he is expected to continue his doctoral studies. Sodiqov, who had been researching separatist groups in the restive Tajik autonomous region of Gomo-Badakhstan, was detained on charges of sedition and…
After almost a year of debate and delay by former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) and Status of Force Agreement (SOFA) have been signed as of yesterday, which will allow American and NATO forces to remain in Afghanistan beyond the end of this year, and potentially until 2024, essentially ensuring a…
As P5+1 members get ready to renew talks with Iran surrounding its much maligned nuclear program, the possibility of a nuclear deal, while still not guaranteed, is still extant. Sources close to the deal have oscillated from initially optimistic, to overtly pessimistic, to somewhere in between, though at the current juncture it appears that both…
Russia announced that nuclear talks between Iran and the P5+1 powers were moving along steadily, and that some 95% of a final deal had been agreed to, despite the presence of “two or three very difficult issues that remained.” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergi Ryabkov said that the deal is feasible if there is enough…
Newly elected Ukrainian President and former chocolate magnate Petro Poroshenko addressed the UN General Assembly earlier this week. Poroshenko, in a cautionary address directed principally at the United States and the European Union, warned that removing sanctions currently levied against Moscow too quickly could lead to a ramping up of Russian involvement in eastern Ukraine,…
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