In his January 17 State of the Nation Address, Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev reaffirmed the core long-term vision of stable economic development found in the “Kazakhstan-2050” national development strategy that he proposed in his December 2012 address. For example, the president wants to increase Kazakhstan’s per capita... MORE

The European Union–Russia biannual summit, postponed from December 2013 and held on January 28, 2014, and reduced to three hours instead of the customary one and a half or two days, perforce omitted energy from its agenda. The severely abbreviated summit in Brussels had to... MORE

With the backing of the Kremlin, and some help from interested European parties, Gazprom is intent on rolling back the European Union’s Third Energy Legislation Package on EU territory. The Russian government and Gazprom have signed inter-governmental and corporate agreements to build sections of the... MORE

So much self-congratulating has been emanating from the Kremlin following the spectacular triumphs of Russian foreign policy since September 2013, that the court of President Vladimir Putin prefers to ignore the fact that the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, which took place in... MORE

As 2013 came to a close, China and Russia continued to be Uzbekistan’s most important partners: China as the country’s biggest investor, and Russia as its largest trade partner. However, last year’s signing of the Agreement on Strategic Partnership between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan made Astana... MORE

On December 18, 2013, in Ulaanbaatar, the Mongolian government’s Ministry of Road and Transportation and the Mongolian-Russian shareholding “Ulaanbaatar Railway” Society organized the first tripartite consultative meeting of “The Mongolian-Russian-Chinese Northern Railway” (news.mn, December 19, 2013). Because of the lack of existing rail freight loading... MORE

On January 17, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev made his traditional address to the nation, unveiling the key aspects of this year’s government agenda. While most of his speech was dedicated to the implementation of the “Kazakhstan 2050 strategy,” an ambitious program aiming to catapult the... MORE

Recently published detailed analysis of Belarus’s economic problems on the Russian analytical portal Regnum (https://www.regnum.ru/news/1752886.html) is couched in stridently negative terms. The highlights include a decline of industrial exports to Russia because of lower (recession-conditioned) demand and heightened competition due to Russia’s accession to the... MORE

The Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and the Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem have flown to Moscow on the same plane this week to meet their Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, to discuss the situation in Syria and the Geneva II peace conference due later... MORE

As 2013 came to an end, the economy of Uzbekistan reportedly finished strong. Industrial manufacturing output and exports saw a boost. Moreover, the Oliy Majlis, the parliament of Uzbekistan, approved a program to create nearly a million places of work in 2014. In his Constitution... MORE