The European Bank of Reconstruction and Development has committed $50m to assist in funding the modernization of Tajikistan’s Qairokkum hydroelectric plant. The plant, a 1957 holdover from the Soviet era, is currently the only facility that generates electricity for Tajikistan’s northern provinces, which currently hosts about 500,000 homes. The funds allocated to the project by…
Tajik Minister of Transport and Roads Hayrullo Asozodas announced that his country, along with Turkmenistan and Afghanistan, have agreed to the final set of terms that would precede the construction of a multinational railway that would connect Tajikistan and Turkmenistan by way of Afghanistan. The railway project has been in the works since 2013, when…
Faced with a looming deadline next week, Iran’s Chief Negotiator Abbas Araqchi has conceded to a vital portion of the proposed deal between the P5+1 Powers and Iran, stating they could accept a deal that would freeze their capacity to produce nuclear fuel at current levels for many years, provided that after this the program…
Chinese authorities bent on dispelling separatist sentiments from its troubled Western province of Xinjiang have announced sentences for an additional 113 ethnic Uighurs on charges ranging from inciting terrorism to possessing “terrorist” materials. The sentences handed out are of no less than ten years, and include 69 life sentences. The charges brought fourth against the…
In January, Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif reached out to one of the most well-organized Pakistani Taliban groups, the Tehrik-i-Taliban (or TTP) to begin peace dialogues. Calling for a ceasefire between the near-daily clashes with government forces in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan (FATA), the talks were quickly derailed after TTP spokesman…
To compound already-bursting tensions between Ukraine and Russia, the Russian oil and gas company Gazprom has raised prices to the country by 37% by cancelling a discount and even threatening to cut supplies entirely. This, according to a statement delivered by Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuri Prodan, means that Ukraine will be forced to pay $368.50…
Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych has been impeached by more than two thirds of the Ukrainian parliament, capping off a series of events that did away with the controversial president in a matter of days. The impeachment, however, was soon followed up by an even greater indictment of the president’s actions towards the outraged Ukrainian populace,…
Ongoing violence in Independence Square, or Maidan, in Kiev, Ukraine, has claimed the lives of more than 50 Ukrainian protestors and seen hundreds more injured. The rapid escalation in aggression impetuously put an end to a short-lived truce brokered between the Ukrainian government and opposition party leaders. Though the principal catalyzing factor remains unknown, both…
Turkmenistan is not the only source of LNG in Central Asia. Iran has long hoped to marshal its LNG resources but its central problem is the hesitancy of its neighbors to enter into a partnership to develop pipeline infrastructure. This is partially due to the harsh economic sanctions placed upon the Iranian economy on account…
Allegations of widespread corruption in Russia are not a new phenomenon. However, as Sergey Guriev, a leading Russian economist and former Rector of the New Economic School of Moscow, pointed out in a speech delivered at Columbia University this past Friday, the problems facing the Russian, while endemic and deeply ingrained, can be ascribed to…
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