On July 31, the international Contact Group, which aims to resolve the crisis in Ukraine (see EDM, July 18), met in Zaslavl, Belarus. It was attended by former Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma, Russia’s ambassador to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov, some representative of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s... MORE

With the arrival of August, political expectations in Russia, informed by the long experience of setbacks and disasters, are turning negative. Second thoughts about the “victorious” war with Georgia that erupted six years ago blend with reflections on the centennial anniversary of World War I... MORE

On the 40th anniversary of establishing bilateral diplomatic relations, Mongolia’s President Tsakhia Elbegdorj and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met in Tokyo on July 22, 2014, to sign a Joint Statement on affirming the final roadmap toward instituting an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). Aimed at... MORE

In reply to Western sanctions over the Ukrainian crisis, the Russian government has announced a sweeping ban on the import of meat and meat products, fish and sea food, cheese, milk and milk products, as well as fruit and vegetables from the United States, the... MORE

The Russian government has announced the imminent suspension of the Free Trade Regime between the Russian Federation and Georgia, which had been in place since 1994, following Georgia’s accession to the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) (Civil Georgia, July 31). Moscow established the same regime... MORE

On July 10, Tatyana Golikova, chairperson of the Audit Chamber, Russia’s independent state budgetary watchdog agency, spoke about the country’s highly subsidized regions at a government meeting in Moscow. The Audit Chamber reviewed budget execution in seven highly subsidized regions to determine how well such... MORE

Nikolai Petrov, the well-known economist from Moscow’s Higher School of Economics, has scathingly criticized the glowing reports made by Ingushetia’s Governor Yunus-Bek Yevkurov. In an article, published by the Vzglyad website on July 28, Petrov pointed out that Ingushetia’s economy showed some positive dynamics, but... MORE

This year Sino-Mongolian relations have been buffeted by a series of challenging interruptions: the Mongolian government’s standoff with Rio Tinto over expanding underground mining operations at Oyu Tolgoi (OT) which will disrupt development of shipments of copper concentrate supplies to China, another Mongolian postponement in... MORE

On July 10, several Chinese news outlets announced that China had taken an important step towards achieving “self-reliance” (zizhu baozhang) through the “breaking” (dapo) of a foreign monopoly on military-use computer airborne systems (People’s Daily Online, July 10). Many details of the two real-time operating... MORE

Fresh sanctions against Russia imposed by the Barack Obama administration on July 16 will likely hamper Gazprom’s ability to finance the South Stream natural gas pipeline. Among the sanctioned entities are two energy companies, Rosneft and Novatek, and two financial institutions—Russia’s third-largest lender, Gazprombank, and... MORE