The 23rd St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, which convened on June 6–8, was, as every year, pronounced a huge success by the Russian authoriti­es. Certainly, the 19,000 participants from 145 countries and the 3.1 trillion rubles’ ($49 billion) worth of contracts announced marked new records... MORE

Serbia is preparing to sign a free trade agreement with the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) in October, hoping to gain access to a market of 180 million people. At the same time, the Western Balkan country’s accession negotiations with the world’s largest trading bloc,... MORE

The second Central Asian Leaders’ Consultative Working Meeting was supposed to take place this spring, in Tashkent. However, scheduling conflicts around the Navruz holiday (March 20, 2019) prevented the summit from convening. For a time, there were indications that the summit would simply be rescheduled... MORE

A recent Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) report entitled, “The Composition of Crimes in Russia for January to March 2019” revealed that the number of crimes committed against foreigners and stateless persons has increased 9 percent year-on-year. Simultaneously, the number of crimes committed in... MORE

The Kremlin is losing the most important “weapon” in its campaign to restore a semblance of Moscow’s former empire in the post-Soviet space. According to Russian commentator Semyon Novoprudky, that weapon is the economic dependence of many post-Soviet countries on the Russian labor market (Spektr.press,... MORE

The political vacuum that emerged across Eurasia after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 saw Russia’s former suzerainty over the former Soviet space contested by both the United States and China in a new and modified version of the “Great Game.” But today,... MORE

Barring a radical destabilization of Xinjiang or fundamental shifts in Central Asian countries and their relations with major power centers abroad, Beijing will “very likely” establish a network of its own military bases in the region over the next five years, according to Dmitry Zhelobov,... MORE

Chinese plans to construct a railway from Xinjiang through Kyrgyzstan to Uzbekistan and onward to Turkmenistan will, if realized, transform the geopolitical situation in the region. This rail corridor promises to open up new possibilities for regional countries to bypass Russia in pursuit of foreign... MORE

President Donald Trump’s voiced intention to reduce the United States’ military presence in Afghanistan has triggered a rush of Kremlin activity in Central Asia (see EDM, February 14). Russia sees the expected US retreat as a window of opportunity for consolidating its own interests, which... MORE

Over the last month, Russian officials have suggested that militant groups in Afghanistan so threaten the countries of Central Asia that the latter should cooperate more closely with Russia in order to defend themselves. But in contrast to such campaigns in the past, Moscow is... MORE