Eurasia / Opinion

COMMENT: South Caucasus offers a potential diplomatic triumph for Trump

Robert Ananyan in Yerevan March 31, 2025

The new US administration wants to become the political team that ends the longstanding conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

COMMENT: Rail and logistics firms bet on Middle Corridor as key Eurasian route

Fuad Shahbazov in Baku March 18, 2025

As the Trans-Caspian International Transport route grows in importance, rail operators and other companies have committed to boosting traffic along the route.

COMMENT: Armenia, the last man standing

Richard Giragosian in Yerevan February 28, 2025

In a neighbourhood of authoritarian strongmen, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is increasingly isolated and exposed as the sole democratic statesman left standing in the region.

COMMENT: Turkey, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan create new Eurasian economic hub

Seymur Mammadov in Baku February 5, 2025

A growing partnership between Azerbaijan, Turkey and Uzbekistan marks an important shift in regional economic diplomacy.

COMMENT: Trump’s return holds both peril and promise for the South Caucasus

Richard Giragosian in Yerevan February 4, 2025

Struggling democracy Armenia left isolated and vulnerable, while for the leaders of Azerbaijan and Georgia, Trump’s victory indicates a welcome relief from the usual US emphasis on democracy and human rights.

COMMENT: Ukraine eyes key role in Azerbaijani gas transit to Europe

Fuad Shahbazov in Durham February 3, 2025

Kyiv wants to become a transit hub for Azerbaijani gas after ending Russian gas transport, but plan faces political, logistical and economic hurdles.

PANNIER: Taliban’s relations with Central Asia imperilled as Trump turns off aid taps

Bruce Pannier January 27, 2025

Afghanistan pays for electricity and food imports with US development assistance. No more?

RIDDLE: Sanctions and the Eurasian Economic Union

Vladislav Inozemtsev for Riddle Ben Aris in Berlin January 27, 2025

The first months of 2025 are likely to mark a turning point in the history of sanctions against Russia: after three years of "escalating" but steadily reducing the tempo of sanctions policy. Are sanctions working?

Are Georgia and Serbia heading for coloured revolutions?

Clare Nuttall in Glasgow January 23, 2025

As protests swell in Georgia and Serbia, the critical question is whether demonstrators will force change or prove ineffective against their deeply entrenched ruling elites.

URUS-ClearPic: Across Eurasia, China is leveraging supply risk successfully – so could others

Alexander Teddy and Alexander Sherwood of Urus Advisory January 23, 2025

In late 2001, when much of the world – especially the US and the West – was preoccupied by 9/11 and the resulting military campaigns, China acceded to the World Trade Organisation. This marked a shift in its global trade and China’s playbook.

COMMENT: Armenia makes a strategic turn from Russia towards the West

Robert Ananyan in Yerevan January 16, 2025

Moscow realises it is losing Armenia, which has been considered its main ally in the South Caucasus for decades.

PANNIER: Tajikistan, Taliban tone down the hostile rhetoric

Bruce Pannier January 9, 2025

Grudging acceptance that relations need to improve seen in Dushanbe and Kabul.

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