Turkmenistan reveals its closest partners as it prepares to host a gas-focused summit with Azerbaijan and Turkey. Plus, with the New Year approaching, it is time for bread and circus. Our weekly briefing.
The drills included a crossing of the river that forms the Azerbaijan-Iran border, mirroring the threat that Iran’s armed forces had made weeks earlier.
Women pay for the president’s conservative obsessions; Turkmenistan’s paranoia undermines its wish to be a transport hub; and the EU offers the methane polluter a chance to green its image. Our weekly briefing.
Putin hijacked a summit in Kazakhstan to spread a conspiracy theory, undermining his host’s efforts to get the world to take a grouping of Asian leaders seriously.
Baku has been reforming its armed forces with a new education system, new weaponry, and a big increase in special forces units. And it is all being modeled after Turkey’s military.
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?