On April 21, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka delivered his annual “report to the Belarusian people and the National Assembly [parliament].” When speaking about the economy, Lukashenka did not use the words “crisis” or even “decline”; yet, he recognized the country’s inadequate labor productivity and competitiveness (Tut.by,... MORE

On April 14, Ukraine’s parliament replaced the cabinet of unpopular Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk with one headed by Volodymyr Hroysman, who had served as parliament speaker since November 2014. A former mayor of President Petro Poroshenko’s electoral and business stronghold of Vinnytsya, Hroysman has always... MORE

The “leader” of the separatist Moldovan region of Transnistria, Evgheni Shevchuk, met with Russia Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, in Moscow, on April 14. No official press statement followed, other than a few lines by Rogozin’s assistant on social media. Reportedly, Rogozin called upon the... MORE

Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka paid a visit to Turkey, last week, in conjunction with the April 14–15 Istanbul meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Founded in 1969, the OIC has 57 members and holds meetings once every three years. At the Istanbul meeting,... MORE

In January 2016, Belarus’s gross domestic product (GDP) was 4.3 percent lower than in January 2015 (Infofocus, February 2016). Since refined oil accounts for one-third of Belarusian exports, the steep decline in oil prices is the major factor explaining this shrinking GDP. It works directly,... MORE

Many observers both inside and outside Central Asia have noticed China’s rising economic influence there, supplanting the region’s traditional hegemon, Russia. In yet another sign of China’s growing economic clout in Eurasia, Astana International Financial Center governor and former National Bank chairman Kairat Kelimbetov announced,... MORE

Many analysts say the two wars in Chechnya in the 1990s were caused by the republic’s oil. These analysts, however, have tended to overlook the fact that Chechnya no longer had prospects as an oil extracting region by the time the wars started. Chechnya’s oil... MORE

On February 23, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev visited Tehran, where he met with his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani. Notably, the two presidents signed 11 memoranda of understanding (MoU) across several areas of cooperation, including energy, the economy and transport (IRNA, February 23). But the timing... MORE

January 16 marked the highly anticipated implementation of the nuclear accord signed between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (P5+1) known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The occasion was hailed by China as an important... MORE

President Vladimir Putin’s approval rating is regularly accepted as a proxy measure for the level of Russia’s internal cohesion. And his support remains on a sky-high plateau, where it has stood since the explosion of jingoism caused by the annexation of Crimea in March 2014... MORE