On February 2, Tajikistan’s government approved an “anti-crisis program” designed to stimulate economic growth by creating 200,000 new jobs (Ozodi, February 2). While the details of the stimulus plan are uncertain, the causes of Tajikistan’s current economic woes are clear. In particular, the Russian economic... MORE

On February 18–19, Ukraine decided to request the United Nations Security Council to authorize a peacekeeping contingent or police mission that would discourage further advances of Russian and proxy forces in Ukraine’s east (Ukrinform, February 18, 19). Debaltseve fell to Russian and proxy forces on... MORE

The new Prime Minister of Mongolia, Chimediin Saikhanbileg, whose ‘Reconciliation Government’ has been in power less than three months, visited Japan on February 9–11 to sign a Mongolian-Japanese Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with his Japanese counterpart, Shinzo Abe. This economic partnership agreement, effective immediately, was... MORE

During his visit to Ankara in December 2014, Vladimir Putin announced that South Stream—a large pipeline that would have carried Europe-bound Russian gas under the Black Sea and across Southeastern Europe—had been terminated. A major reason for South Stream’s cancellation was attributed to the exit... MORE

*To read Part One please click here *To read Part Two please click here  Unlike the Minsk One ceasefire agreements of September 2014, the Minsk Two agreement of February 12, 2015, goes far beyond a military armistice. It is overloaded with political provisions which, if implemented,... MORE

Since the beginning of the Ukraine crisis, China has been remarkably forthright in its consistent opposition to the imposition of sanctions against Russia following the country’s annexation of Crimea in March 2014 and support for separatist movements in the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.... MORE

*To read Part One, please click here. The capture of Debaltseve in Ukraine on Wednesday (Interfax, February 18) by Russian and proxy troops, following prolonged bombardment by their heavy missile systems, is not simply a prima facie breach of the February 12, 2015, “Minsk Two”... MORE

After weeks of intense battles, Russia-supported militants have captured Debaltseve, a strategically located town in eastern Ukraine (Interfax, February 18). In a telephone conversation with the author on February 19, the spokesman for the Ministry of Defense of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Eduard... MORE

The ceasefire agreement signed in Minsk last week (February 12) did not stop the fighting in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine (Donbas encompasses the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces). The Moscow-backed Donbas rebels concentrated their efforts on an offensive northeast of Donetsk in the so-called... MORE

On January 28, a village parish of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate) in Ternopil province published a letter to the Ukrainian Church’s primate, Metropolitan Onufriy. In the letter, the priests and lay activists strongly criticized recent controversial statements made by the... MORE