Features
The economics of herding in Mongolia
More and more young people may be leaving the physically demanding herding life behind to seek their fortunes in the cities, but it remains big business.
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EXPLAINER: how a price cap on Russian oil might work
Europe is scrambling to find alternatives to Russian crude oil, natural gas and coal. But the fact remains that despite recent cuts in the amount that the EU buys from Russia, Moscow’s revenues from hydrocarbon exports still surged 40% this year.
Russia catches a nasty dose of the Dutch Disease
Russia has caught a bad case of the Dutch Disease, an economic ailment that sends the value of a currency soaring well beyond what it should be and smothers the rest of the economy.
Sky-high inflation forces more Russians to take out “pay-day” loans
Sky-high inflation is forcing more Russians to take out expensive short-term loans to make it to the end of the month, when they get their pay-check.
Death of China-to-Russia cargo transit routes means it’s all aboard for Kazakhstan
Vladimir Putin wants to reorientate Russian trade east and south. To some extent, such a strategy will be complicated by an avoid-Russia-at-all-costs mentality drawing commerce to a ‘Middle Corridor’.
Armenia diaspora faces waning influence on Turkey, Azerbaijan negotiations
Recent moves toward restoring relations with Armenia’s traditional enemies have run into strong resistance from the global diaspora. But will it make a difference?
Gas crisis: Can Europe store enough gas this summer to get through the winter?
“Winter is coming, and the night is full or terrors.” The Game of Thrones' most famous quote would serve well as a morning greeting for gas traders as they come into work.
African gas pipeline projects revived due to European gas crisis
A mounting gas crisis in Europe caused by Russia’s decision to reduce flows has revived several African gas pipeline projects to take over from the Russian deliveries.
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Lithuania braces for Russian retaliation over Kaliningrad sanctions
Moscow regards the ban on the transport of certain goods – notably steel and ferrous metal products – between parts of its territory as a violation of a 2002 agreement with the EU.
CEE inflation spreading across whole region, set to last for years
Inflation is being driven up by the food crisis and disrupted supply chains, first during the pandemic and now due to the war in Ukraine, leading to fears of stagflation for the whole world.
Colonial scars: Why Ukraine is unlikely to find allies in Africa
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy appealed to the African Union for support on June 20, but Kyiv is struggling to find allies on the continent.
Russia’s leading petrochemical company Sibur denies renting a luxury villa for Putin’s personal use
Leaked emails from Russia’s top petrochemical company Sibur show that the company rented a luxury villa in the Gulf of Finland that has been used by Russian President Vladimir Putin as a holiday getaway.
Polish banks go from resilience to vulnerability
Mounting economic woes and government interventions have pushed the banking stock index down more than 36% in the year to date.
Russia-EU gas crisis enters next phase as Germany, Italy and France all report cuts in supply
The crisis in the EU-Russia gas relationship has taken another turn for the worse, with Germany, Italy and France all reporting cuts in supply after all three countries backed Ukraine’s bid for EU candidate status.
World hit by interest rate and inflation shock says IIF
The world’s economy is being hit by an inflation and interest rate shock that shows no sign of abating, Institute of International Finance (IIF) said in a recent paper.
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EU keeps market guessing with designation of Arkady Volozh
The EU's sanctions against Yandex co-founder Arkady Volozh have ruffled some feathers in Russia's business community and abroad. Yandex's international reach and shareholder base and Volozh's distance from the Kremlin make him an unlikely target.
As Russian economy sputters, UK lures Central Asian labour migrants
More than 7,000 Kyrgyz nationals applied for seasonal farming jobs in Britain
The Belarusian security threat – Part II
Since 2020, the Minsk regime has gradually made Belarus into a pariah state and the regime’s previous attempts to position itself as a regional security guarantor have been and are continuously being undone.
Europe's gas storage tanks already half full, but will it be enough?
Gazprom cuts supplies of gas as Europe races to fill its storage tanks. These crossed the halfway mark on June 7 and are now 51.12% full, as the EU seeks to replenish its supplies ahead of the coming winter.
Turkey’s despair rating score is worse than war-torn Ukraine’s
Turkey is in a full-blown crisis and has an extremely high despair index of 93.8, even worse than that of sanction-embattled Russia’s 42.5. And if you don't believe the official Turkish statistics, Turkey's score is also even worse than Ukraine's.
