The Chinese government’s decision to further liberalize its economy by establishing free trade zones (FTZ) has generated widespread optimism about the future of economic reform in China. The FTZ project, beginning with the creation of the Shanghai zone on September 29, 2013, is not only... MORE

The sharp escalation of hostilities in eastern Ukraine last week (January 22) has disheartened many in Europe who had hoped for a gradual resolution of the Ukraine conflict. On the other hand, it has been a welcome return to the path of victory for many... MORE

President Barack Obama said in his State of the Union message (delivered before Congress on January 20) that US economic sanctions have had a devastating impact on the Russian economy (Tvrain.ru, January 21). In reality, only certain parts of the economy of Russia have been... MORE

Since 2009, the Chinese government, in cooperation with state-run and private firms, has conducted an import substitution campaign in its computer server market, which is currently dominated by U.S. information technology (IT) companies IBM, Oracle and Hewlett-Packard (HP). China’s policy objective has been to reduce... MORE

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s new round of state-owned enterprise (SOE) reform and his anti-corruption campaign will dramatically change the preferences and performance of SOEs’ overseas economic expansion. The economic and political initiatives undertaken by Xi meet in the state sector, as the Chinese government is... MORE

The United States’ muted profile in mineral-rich, landlocked Mongolia receded even more in 2014. Indeed, the US has largely stood by while Mongolia deliberately integrated its faltering economy closer with its two neighbors, China and Russia. Last year, top-level Mongolian officials met with Chinese President... MORE

The unrest and ongoing fighting in eastern Ukraine seriously impacts coal supplies and thermal power electricity generation in the rest of the country. On December 28, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko ordered the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry to halt rolling power blackouts, adding that... MORE

In December 2014, Russian legislators quietly passed new legislation that allows Moscow to remove part of the region from under the control of that region’s government in order “to speed up socio-economic development” in the North Caucasus republics. As a Dagestani analyst Rasul Kadiev points... MORE

Late in 2014, Russian state oil company Rosneft acquired 49 percent of the Georgian company Petrocas Energy Group, which owns a strategically important oil terminal at the port of Poti and Georgia’s most extensive network of gas stations, branded as Gulf (Rosneft.com, December 29, 2014).... MORE

Uzbekistan is conveniently located at the center of Central Asia and borders on all Central Asian countries as well as Afghanistan; moreover, it lies in relatively close proximity to the various prodigiously developing markets of Asia. Nonetheless, Uzbekistan has been slow to embrace or champion... MORE