Unlike the last time the two sides explored restoring ties, Azerbaijan doesn’t seem to be trying to play the spoiler. But questions remain about Russia’s involvement in the process.
Baku has been increasingly airing public criticisms of Moscow over the post-war order, which have been exacerbated by the lack of a formal mandate for the Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh.
EU officials responded by saying that Tbilisi hadn’t fulfilled the conditions to get the loan. “You can't decline what you were not eligible for,” one said.
Politicians in Moscow claim to be concerned that Russian-speaking citizens may be facing intimidation and aggression in Kyrgyzstan – a fact that officials in Bishkek deny.
Fighting surges in a new area, Aliyev meets Putin in Moscow, Azerbaijan again steps up the info war against Armenia, and the EU throws its hat into the conflict resolution ring. This week’s Post-War Report.
Central Asian leaders are engaged in a balancing act, showing they are content to live with the Taliban’s ascendancy in Afghanistan while signaling they will deal firmly with any trouble that might spill over.
The only question Georgian journalists had for the prime minister, as he attempted to host a pro-European summit of post-Soviet states: When will you step down?
In many former Soviet states, corruption is not simply a matter of individual officials abusing public power for private gain but, rather, an organizing principle of governance.