Kazakhstan was the first country in Central Asia to enact a state of emergency, effective March 16, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was followed, on March 25, by Kyrgyzstan; while the other three regional states—Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan—have yet to move in the... MORE

With nearly 2,000 officially confirmed COVID-19 cases, the Republic of Dagestan is currently the most badly hit territory in the North Caucasus. Furthermore, the republic has the fifth-largest number of cases in the Russian Federation. Some Dagestani municipalities report that they cannot cope with the... MORE

Georgia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has called on the Russian government to “refrain from provocative statements” and “disinformation” against the Center for Public Health Research, located near Tbilisi and named after the late United States Senator Richard Lugar (Kavkazsky Uzel, April 19). A couple weeks... MORE

In mid-April, Russia offered Moldova, at the latter’s insistence, an inter-governmental loan of €200 million ($217 million) on soft terms. Moldova’s Socialist-led government had planned this loan mainly for road construction, before the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic broke out. At present and in the near-to-medium term,... MORE

Russia and Moldova signed an inter-governmental loan agreement on April 17, in Moscow, at Chisinau’s insistence. Chisinau had initially sought a Russian loan for infrastructure development, but it may have to spend these Russian funds (along with Western assistance) to mitigate Moldova’s current fiscal emergency... MORE

During a videoconference organized by the Gorchakov Public Diplomacy Fund, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov addressed the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Karabakh, but his remarks greatly incensed Yerevan (Mid.ru, April 21). First, he expressed support for the current “firmly established format” of negotiations between Armenia and... MORE

As April drew to a close, Russia surpassed China in the number of recorded COVID-19 infections; and by the end of the first week of May, it is set to register twice as many cases as its southern neighbor whose population is ten times greater.... MORE

Introduction: Beijing’s Personnel Appointments and Advocacy of “Patriotic Education” Luo Huining (骆惠宁) was appointed in January 2020 as Director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (中央人民政府驻香港特别行政区联络办公室, Zhongyang Renmin Zhengfu Zhu Xianggang Tebie Xingzhengqu Lianluo Bangongshi)... MORE

Introduction: Beijing’s Plans for Stimulus Spending and “Six Stabilizations” After the bombshell announcement that the Chinese economy contracted by an unprecedented 6.8 percent in the first quarter of this year, the Xi Jinping administration has vowed to do whatever it takes to resuscitate growth and... MORE

Editor’s Note: Our April 1 issue contained the first part of this article series (Global Supply Chains, Economic Decoupling, and U.S.-China Relations, Part 1: The View from the United States), which focused on the issues and policy debates in America surrounding the prospects for U.S.-China... MORE