By Benyamin Poghosyan, PhD, Chairman, Center for Political and Economic Strategic Studies

On September 27, 2020, Azerbaijan launched a large-scale attack along the whole line of contact with the Nagorno Karabakh Republic. This was the third flare-up in Karabakh conflict in recent four years. In April 2016, Azerbaijan again launched an attack on Karabakh, however, hostilities were stopped after four days as a result of active Russian mediation efforts without any significant changes on the ground. In July 2020, clashes broke out along the northern part of Armenia – Azerbaijan international border. However, the September 2020 attack has few in common with both April 2016 four day war and July 2020 border skirmishes. READ MORE

• October 24, 2020

Russia’s Defence Ministry on Tuesday said it had rejected a string of “unacceptable” austerity measures proposed by the Finance Ministry that would cut some 100,000 troops.

• October 21, 2020

OPEC and allied producers on Monday pledged action to support the oil market as concerns mounted that a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic will hobble demand and an earlier plan to raise output from next year would further depress prices.

• October 21, 2020

Turkey stands to lose more than most other countries if Joe Biden is elected president since he is expected to toughen the U.S. stance against President Tayyip Erdogan’s foreign military interventions and closer cooperation with Russia.

• October 21, 2020

Russia said on Wednesday it hoped to resolve its differences with the United States on extending a key nuclear arms control treaty, amid signs that the gap between the two sides is narrowing.

• October 21, 2020

By Elkhan Nuriyev, PhD, Eastern Europe-Global Area (EEGA) fellow at Leipzig University

The ongoing escalation of Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh is a most serious and significant one - just not surprising at all. This is mainly due to the lack of tangible progress in the OSCE Minsk Group-led peace talks between the two sides, which have been held since 1994. The absence of substantive negotiations over de-occupation of Azerbaijani territories, return of internally-displaced persons to the regions of their origin, the unblocking of transport, economic and other communications with Armenia has fueled strong skepticism about peaceful conflict resolution. Back in the summer it was evident that the smell of a new war had already hung heavily over the conflict-torn area. READ MORE

• October 7, 2020

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif talked by phone on Friday and expressed concern over the involvement of Syrian and Libyan fighters in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Russia’s foreign ministry said.

• October 2, 2020

Oil prices fell 3% on Friday after U.S. President Donald Trump tested positive for COVID-19, roiling risky assets, and as rising global crude output threatens to overwhelm the market’s weak recovery.

• October 2, 2020