Kyrgyzstan’s recent peaceful presidential elections did not feature China as a campaign issue. For the most part, they focused on domestic issues and where foreign policy seeped in, it was mostly in the positive light that most Kyrgyz see Russia and separately its regional customs... MORE

Last week, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, in charge of relations with the US, arms control, ballistic missile defense (BMD) and proliferation, told Jamestown that US-Russian relations are not bad. Ryabkov expressed satisfaction that President Barack Obama fulfilled his promise to help Moscow overcome... MORE

As relations between Dushanbe and Tashkent have become increasingly strained due to multiple factors, including water resources and energy supplies, Tajikistan is trying to end its reliance on Uzbekistan’s highways and railroads. Tashkent has closed most of the Soviet-era highways linking the countries, and Tajikistan’s... MORE

Kazakhstan has been ranked among the top 50 world economies in the Doing Business 2012 report, compiled by the World Bank and its private-sector lender the International Finance Corp (i-news.kz, October 20). The ranking places Kazakhstan 47th among 183 countries in a study assessing business... MORE

President Dmitry Medvedev started his final round of top level meetings with the trip to Cannes where the leaders of the twenty largest world economic powers gathered to discuss measures to rescue the global financial system from the Greek crisis. The scale of the unfolding... MORE

Ukraine has signed a free trade agreement with the CIS and completed its free trade talks with the EU. Unlike membership of the Customs Union (Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan), which Moscow keeps inviting Kyiv to join, the CIS free trade accord does not formally hinder... MORE

Vladimir Putin, Russia’s current prime minister, chose to make his first foreign trip to China after his announcement in late September that he would run again for president. This led some to expect Russia would align closer toward Beijing in coming years. Perhaps for this... MORE

Ukraine has made considerable progress in the free trade talks with the EU during the past several months. Kyiv and Brussels are planning to sign an association and free trade agreement in December 2011, as the free trade talks were completed in Brussels on October... MORE

Moscow claims to have resolved energy-related pricing disagreements with Beijing and has promised to increase bilateral trade. The official visit by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to China on October 10-11 was designed to give bilateral economic and energy ties yet another boost. For that... MORE

On October 19, members of the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) announced in St. Petersburg that both Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are eligible to join the Russia-Belarus-Kazakhstan Customs Union (www.24.kg, October 19).Although the Customs Union positions itself as an economic alignment, it has long acquired political significance.... MORE