The Cyprus issue has dominated political debates and intrigues in Moscow through last week, turning into a test of sorts for Russia’s ability to respond to acute external challenges. The financial disaster on the island that has become so intimately familiar to many Russians has... MORE

Kazakhstan has become South Korea’s (also known as the Republic of Korea—ROK) main economic partner in Central Asia, and powerful complementarities exist between Astana’s desire for foreign capital and technologies, especially in order to develop its infrastructure and new high-technology sectors, and Seoul’s need for... MORE

On March 17, accompanied by an 80-member delegation, including many directors of state-run companies, Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka left for a seven-day visit to Indonesia and Singapore (https://www.svaboda.org/content/article/24931615.html). On March 18, he reported signing export contracts worth $400 million in Jakarta (https://www.gazetaby.com/cont/art.php?sn_nid=54868). Two days prior... MORE

The Cypriot financial meltdown has rocked Moscow. Russia provided Cyprus in 2011 with a 2.5 billion-euro ($3.2 billion) low interest loan and believed the European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) should join in the bailout of a euro-zone member nation. Until now, the... MORE

Although the threat of war on the Korean Peninsula has been drawing most international attention, from the perspective of Central Asia, another interesting question is whether the new South Korean government will pursue as vigorous a Central Asian strategy as its predecessor. Under President Lee... MORE

The most influential Russian opposition figure and crusader against government corruption, Alexei Navalny, has turned his attention to the North Caucasus once again. On March 1, Navalny revealed a document that implicates Ingushetia’s government in planning to spend nearly $90,000 to enable a fashion designer... MORE

The first public debate on the proposed revisions of Mongolia’s mining regulations was conducted at the Citizen’s Hall of the Mongolian government on January 18, 2013. Although the revisions are long overdue, legislators appear to be in agreement that more deliberations are necessary in order... MORE

On February 25, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich traveled to China to attend a first meeting of the bilateral intergovernmental commission on energy cooperation. The commission was formed in December 2012 to replace the bilateral Russia-China energy dialogue. Dvorkovich held talks with his Chinese... MORE

Many Russians believe that the continuing influx of guest workers from Central Asia and the South Caucasus represents a security threat to their country either because of the supposed contributions of these groups to crime in Russian cities or because of the way in which... MORE

In January, reports surfaced that Laos would borrow money from China to finance a $7 billion, 260-mile rail project connecting the Lao capital of Vientiane to the Chinese border (Ming Pao [Hong Kong], January 15;Global Times, January 10; RFA, December 2, 2012). The project, by... MORE