The Russian political class, epitomized by the ruling United Russia party and its leaders, might well be one of the most destructive phenomena that has swept the country in recent decades. Anything goes to ensure their grip on power stays firm, and the pleasures of... MORE

On May 14, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met in Brussels for the fifth meeting on peace negotiations as mediated by European Council President Charles Michel (Consilium.europa.eu, May 14). This summit came on the heels of the United States–mediated meeting... MORE

On April 30, the citizens of Uzbekistan, in a referendum, voted in favor of modifying the country’s constitution. The reported voter turnout was quite high at 84.5 percent and resulted in an overwhelming majority (90.2 percent) in approving the proposed amendments. However, according to the... MORE

In recent months, traditionally isolationist Turkmenistan has begun to make efforts to open up more to the outside world. As a result, intense competition has ensued among key actors, including Russia, China and the United States, for access to Turkmenistan’s transportation routes and energy resources... MORE

On April 23, Azerbaijan’s installation of a checkpoint along the Lachin road—the so-called “Miatsum road” (“unification road”)—can be considered the most significant tactical achievement for Baku since the end of the Second Karabakh War in 2020. Overall, the purpose of this checkpoint is to grant... MORE

On May 11, Turkish opposition candidate Muharren Ince announced that he was dropping out of the upcoming presidential elections, allegedly due to, in his words, a “smear campaign” that is “the work of the Gülenist Terror Group” (Daily Sabah, May 11). As one of four... MORE

Israel is usually mentioned as a “third party” in the political literature of Iranian leaders and officials, especially when talking about Tel Aviv’s influence on relations between Tehran and Baku. Even so, Azerbaijan remains adamant that Israel is not using its territory for military and... MORE

From May 1 to 4, the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Ararat Mirzoyan and Jeyhun Bayramov, respectively, held four-day peace talks facilitated by United States Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in Washington (Mfa.gov.az, May 4). Reportedly, Blinken only attended the introductory and closing sessions... MORE

On May 3, speaking at an international conference in Shusha on “The Formation of the Geopolitics of Greater Eurasia: From the Past to the Present and Future,” Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev announced that “having become a military ally of Turkey, Azerbaijan has indirectly become, to... MORE

In an aim to make itself more independent of Russia, Kazakhstan is rapidly expanding its fleet of oil tankers so it can ship more oil across the Caspian to Azerbaijan and then onward to the West via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline—rather than using mostly Russian routes... MORE