For Kazakhstan May was full of economically and geopolitically significant developments worth exploring in the national, regional, and global contexts. The country hosted the 4th Economic Forum in Astana on May 3 – 4, designed to assess economic challenges facing the world economy and explore... MORE

On June 7 in Moscow, Prime Ministers Vladimir Putin and Nikolai Azarov held tense negotiations on the terms of Russian gas supplies to Ukraine. The government in Kyiv and its Donetsk-based industrial interests are seeking a second round of gas price-cutting, after that agreed in... MORE

Belarusian President, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, is a man under pressure. Assailed by Western powers for his harsh treatment of former presidential candidates and protestors, he also faces mounting economic problems that have led to the devaluation of the national currency. At the same time, high rates... MORE

In what pundits have billed as a battle between David and Goliath, Chinese citizens appear to be pushing back on the all-powerful party-and-state apparatus that increasingly seems out of touch with popular aspirations. Efforts to challenge the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) supremacy are mounting even... MORE

Russia’s efforts to ameliorate its energy sector by pursuing international partnerships suffered a sensitive setback as a planned mega-deal ended in an apparent failure.Plans of Russia’s largest oil firm Rosneft to implement a share swap agreement with BP failed to materialize. Until mid-May, BP and... MORE

Ukraine has sent Russia a clear signal that it is unconvinced it would benefit from membership in the Russian-dominated customs union more than from free trade with the European Union. The Ukrainian parliament instructed the government to prioritize the association and free trade talks with... MORE

In just the past three years, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has established an impressive foothold in the former Portuguese colony of Mozambique in southern Africa. While China’s relations with Mozambique date back to the early 1960s when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) supported... MORE

Ukraine has expelled two Czech diplomats, explaining that they had gathered military secrets and hired local assistants who now face prison sentences. This is an extraordinary event as Ukraine has avoided scandals involving the expulsion of Western diplomats in the past. Moreover, this happened at... MORE

On May 5, the National Bank of Belarus, responding to pressure to devalue the Belarusian ruble, stipulated that by May 12, the exchange course with hard currency (the US dollar, the Euro and the Russian ruble) could increase from its current 8 percent depreciation rate... MORE

Kazakhstan is increasingly uncomfortable within the Customs Union with Belarus and Russia due to the constant attempts by the Kremlin to politicize the structure originally intended to boost trade relations and ensure free movement of citizens, goods and capital within the union. Recently, Grigoriy Onishenko... MORE