Features
A pandemic boost but challenges to overcome for Bulgaria’s online retailers
Online vendors of goods got a pandemic boost in Bulgaria, but when the lockdowns were lifted, many people simply went back to the shops.
Montenegro: The agritourism boom
In countries like Montenegro, more and more tourists have decided to venture inland and swap the comfort of seaside hotel beds for old wooden huts, also known as “katuns”, used in the past by nomadic herders, writes the EBRD.
Quantifying the Caucasus’ gains from BRI trade
Two new papers find that Georgia and Azerbaijan would gain more from improving trade with their neighbours than pursing a place on the Belt and Road.
LONG READ: How a V-shaped market and ageing pipes and fields sent gas prices soaring
Russia has been accused of cutting gas supplies to Europe to force the EU to certify its new Nord Stream 2 pipeline, but most of the record-breaking prices can be explained by steep V-shaped market forces and ageing fields and pipelines.
Russian retail investors “shoot the moon” using social media to pick stocks
Russia’s retailed equity boom is gathering momentum and it is, like elsewhere, increasingly being driven by social media, according to a survey carried out by VTB Capital called “To the moon: Scoring social stock sentiment."
bneGREEN: Western Balkans power plants in doubt after China to drop overseas coal projects
What Chinese President Xi Jinping’s commitment not to back new coal-fired power plants abroad means for Bosnia and Serbia’s plans to invest into more coal power capacity.
New study adds to Caucasus’ brag sheet: Cradle of lettuce
Geneticists say the popular vegetable was first domesticated in the region.
Shurnukh: face to face with the enemy in Armenia’s newly divided border village
Villagers endure loss of livestock that wander across new frontier and frustration of knowing that reaching the rest of their country by road means crossing into Azerbaijan.
Georgia flooded with leaked surveillance recordings of clergy
The massive release of “kompromat” focused on the country’s powerful church but also provided evidence of state snooping on journalists, politicians and diplomats.
Iran’s economy – less troubled than Washington would like, and turning to the East
Iran's economy is under pressure from US sanctions, but is not nearly as sick as US reports would make you think.
The Kremlin takes control of the internet in Russia’s Duma elections
Russia Duma elections are underway but the election is not about re-electing the ruling United Russia Party but more to ensure that jailed anti-corruption activist and opposition politician Alexei Navalny’s smart voting project is a total failure.
Georgian tourism struggles to recover
Once a key economic driver, the sector has been hard hit by COVID-19 and political turbulence.
LONG READ: Russia's hybrid Duma elections
Russia goes to the polls this weekend to vote in a new Duma. There is little doubt that the ruling United Russia will win a majority. The elections are fixed. But in many regions the elections are fair and those are the smart voting targets.
SPB Exchange driving Russia's retail equity investment revolution
Russia is going through a retail investment revolution. Plunging interest rates at bank deposits – long the favoured store of wealth for the average person – have led to a boom in Russians investing into equities.
DATACRUNCH: Serbia makes a strong recovery from a modest crisis
Serbia was one of the best performers in the entire emerging Europe region in 2020 and is now on track for rapid growth this year.
INTERVIEW: Benjamin Roll, Czech protest leader
Million Moments chairman says his protest movement is ready to take centre stage again as Prime Minister Andrej Babis chases re-election next month.
Russia's ultra-convenience shopping’s future isn’t just online
Europe’s largest retail market may see sales from small local shops offering low-price basic items more than double over the next five years. Russia's new "ultra-convenience" stores are the next big thing in retail.
Memoir | 9/11 shifted the world. In Central Asia, diplomatic frenzy ensued
Behind the scenes with an American negotiator who helped forge a radical new level of US engagement in Central Asia after 9/11.
bneGreen: Green push comes to steel
The world got its first delivery of carbon-free steel last month, setting a pair of green goalposts for the industry’s future. Progress for the moment and future, all the same, will require changes in production processes, feed stock and fuels.
As Georgia rebuffs the West, investors reconsider
Country's image as a business haven seems to have reached its limits. Raft of scandals, major failed investment deals and a corrupt, unreformed judiciary have nearly ground investment to a halt.
