From his love of Deep Purple to his penchant for Savile Row suits, Medvedev's a bit of a Brit at heart. And today, our Personable Putinist boldly followed his Cuddly Conservative soul-mate into the final frontier….the cyber-frontier! History was made as President Medvedev became the first head of state to have a Video Blog, […]
A large earthquake struck Kyrgyzstan's Osh region today and the death toll is currently around 70 and may increase. The village of Nura, which was home to about 1,000 people, was said to be completely flattened. The 6.6 US registered quake hit an area near the border to Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and China well-known as a […]
Contrary to the Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates during the recent debates, new leader of the US Central Command Gen. David Petraeus provides us with some straight talk and analysis about the Afghanistan conflict and possible strategies for success. However, his position is still political and politics seep through at times, especially regarding whether or not […]
Last night's Vice -Presidential debate made last Friday's Presidential debate's discussion of what is going on and what strategy to implement in Afghanistan look depressingly deep. Senator Joe Biden and Governor Sarah Palin barely scratched the surface of defining the seriousness of the conflict there, besides just mentioning Al Qaeda, and what strategy to implement, […]
Here are a few items you may find of interest…please find them of interest! 1. Central Asia's Railroad – Continuing yesterday's discussion of China's growing influence and investments in Central Asia, well according to this Turkish Weekly report even the Yuan can't buy everything. The report argues that prospects for building a railroad that would […]
Yesterday, I offhandedly stated my disappointment about the lack of a discussion of China's growing influence during Friday's presidential debate. It was amazing to me that the United States could have a "Foreign Policy' presidential debate and only mention the word China once. The leaders, government, businesses, and citizens of Central Asia know how important […]
Good morning. I just want to provide some real quick reaction and analysis to Friday's presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain. Here is the transcript (which I also put on the bottom of this post) and video, and here is video of the five minutes or so they spent on Afghanistan/Pakistan. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/CczYk8-qlZs” […]
Call me Miss Congeniality, but my brittle European sensibilities were flummoxed by the sheer boorishness of the anti-Russia vitriol in last night's McCain-Obama match. Setting aside the painful hypocrisy inherent, in the words of one BBC commenter, in “the irony of two men castigating Russia for unnacceptable petrodollar muscleflexing and interfering in other nations affairs […]
I was lucky enough to attend the Foreign Policy Association sponsored 2008 World Leadership Forum yesterday in New York City and here is a short summary/analysis of what I saw and heard from some of the world's leading experts and leaders of various foreign policy issues, including our beloved Central Asian region. During yesterday's session […]
A few various items today: A. Yesterday, and the day before, we discussed the meaning of a new CSTO deployment in Central Asia, with myself coming out on the side that it was both a political and strategic move for Russia and for the Central Asian states involved. Basically, Russia wants the CA states looking […]
47% of percent of my graduating class entered the financial sector. Of those, 100% of the Russian speakers I knew, from all over the CIS, seemed to have joined Lehman Brothers. Not without a bit of old fashioned Soviet cronyism, mind you (you can take the Sovok out of the USSR…). Sergei, my first […]
Yesterday, we quickly went over the planned new alignment of the CSTO, which would consist of a deployment of 10,000 more troops and a missile shield, in what the organization's Secretary General called “a powerful military grouping of five countries in Central Asia." Eurasia Daily today provided more details of the new force structure, its […]
Today we will discuss two recent developments: An expansion of the Russia-dominated Collective Security Treaty Organization CSTO and the first EU/Central Asian Forum on Security Issues held this past week. What do these two developments individually tell us about Russia and the EU's role/position in Central Asia? Which cooperation discussions and pronouncements have or will […]
Apparently a ‘clash’ occurred in Turkmenistan's capital of Ashgabat last Friday and Saturday in which heavy fire was exchanged, tanks and armored vehicles were used, and 20 or so Turkmen police officers were killed, who the clash involved besides Turkmen officers and what it was about is still open to debate. Turkmenistan's state media made […]
I did a quick summary of most of the major outcomes of the SCO's Dushanbe Summit on Monday, but I want to get a bit more into the affect of Russia's conflict in Georgia and all that has happened since diplomatically and strategically. As we have read, the SCO's Dushanbe Declaration came out with a […]