Russian Energy Minister, Sergei Shmatko, and Gazprom’s top hierarchy, along with their West-European business allies, advertised the South Stream project at a promotional event on May 25 in Brussels (Interfax, Euractiv, May 25, 26). The European Commission had agreed to be represented at this event,... MORE

Hungary’s government has successfully completed negotiations with the Russian government and Surgutneftegaz about the latter’s exit from Hungary. The government is purchasing Surgut’s 21.2 percent stake in the oil and gas company MOL, Hungary’s largest business entity and Central European oil-refining leader. Surgut, a Kremlin-connected... 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

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

On April 15-16, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev adopted a “Road Map” for 2011-2014 to strengthen the strategic partnership between India and Kazakhstan, signing seven agreements in areas as diverse as energy, cyber security, space exploration, education, and hi-tech development,... MORE

Ukraine has launched talks to revise the January 2009 gas contract with Russia according to which the base price was hiked from $179 to $450 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas. Kyiv hopes the contract will be revised by the end of the summer. Ukraine’s... MORE

US proposals to reduce tactical nuclear weapons are being carefully and consistently downplayed by Moscow. Mikhail Margelov, head of the Federation Council’s International Affairs Committee expressed skepticism on the issue following a series of meetings with US defense officials in Washington. Mergelov characterized Moscow’s stance... MORE

International donors committed a total of some 550 million Euros ($790 million) for the Chernobyl Shelter Facility (CSF) fund at the donor conference in Kyiv on April 19. Although this is less than the Ukrainian government originally hoped to raise, it is still an achievement... MORE

Russia has pledged to expand its trade with China but commercial ties between the two nations remains focused on energy. During his trip to China for the BRICS summit (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), on April 13, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev pledged to... MORE

Japan has been dealt a number of blows over the past few years which have put the country’s high-tech production capacity at risk. Most recently the massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit Japan in March has directly affected production efforts through rolling blackouts and... MORE