Slowly but surely, village by village, the Ukrainian army is advancing towards Kherson. This city of more than 200,000 inhabitants was one of the first large Ukrainian cities to fall in the early days of the conflict.
To the surprise of many, each of the Central Asian Republics has maintained a neutral stance on Russia’s military operations in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s war displacement with 7mn refugees, and even more internally in flux, is the world’s largest, according to the UN refugee agency. Governments have spent some €30bn on help, but more money is needed and the capital markets may help.
Turks are rightly proud of the success of Bayraktar drones in the conflict in Ukraine and Kyiv was grateful, but now they are not so sure as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan plays both side of the fence.
The Russian Federation has defaulted on its debts, failing to pay interest on a pair of Eurobonds within their 30-day grace period that ended on 26 June – another blow struck against Russia in an escalating economic war.
Many economists are of the opinion that the US Fed has had a pretty abysmal track record in forecasting inflation during past years. It first deliberately changed policy to allow inflation to run hot at higher than 2%, but now it's too high.
On June 13, Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak named the specific amount of Western weapon supplies Ukraine needs in order to “end the war” and “kick Russia out of Ukraine”: 1,000 155-mm howitzers and more.
For the Uzbeks, the strategic relationship helps with the balancing act between the big powers. For the Turks, it builds regional influence in line with the pan-Turkic agenda.
Turkish leader might be won round with economic lifeline that would persuade him to abandon Moscow, says Maximilian Hess.
Georgia can become an EU candidate country, but not with Georgian Dream in power.
A new book exposes the hollowness of many Western assumptions about China’s role in Central Asia.
The Ukrainian economy has been badly hit by the war and is operating in an extremely challenging environment. Budget revenues have plummeted while expenditures stay elevated. Will the government be forced to restructure its debt again?
Counter-cyclical fiscal policy needed. Among other things, more modest budget spending would help country combat soaring inflation.
The lack of adequate road infrastructure, as well as road maintenance, has been a persistent impediment to growth in the Western Balkans, but infrastructure bottlenecks are now being addressed.
The debate around inflation is centre-stage at present, with headline and PPI inflation soaring globally in response to a range of factors but including climate change/transition and Covid-related supply disruptions.
When Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, international supply chains were still fragile after the massive impact of COVID-19. Russia's invasion of Ukraine is not causing quite the same pain, but its effects are being felt around the world.
Every modern constitution claims to speak for the public. “We the People,” the US Constitution famously begins. Uzbekistan’s own Soviet era constitution, passed in 1978, declared grandly that “all power” belonged to the people. It didn’t.
There is a widespread feeling of ‘business as usual’. There is very little sense of impending doom. This confidence is misplaced.
Ukrainians are showing remarkable bravery in defending not only their own country, but our values. But Western financial support is largely credits, not grants. If they are fighting on our behalf, should they also pay for a war they didn’t start?
“Everything that orc troops celebrate will disappear from the foreign literature programme,” declared Ukraine's Deputy Minister of Education and Science Andriy Vitrenko on June 7, announcing planned changes to the school curriculum in Ukraine.