By Benyamin Poghosyan, PhD, Executive Director, Political Science Association of Armenia

A pivot towards the West is simply not in Armenia’s best interest.
Immediately after the “Velvet Revolution” in Armenia during the spring of 2018, the main narrative regarding possible developments in Armenian and Russian relations focused on negative expectations. Conventional wisdom brought plenty of reasons for such a mood. Russian authorities do not like leaders who come to power through street demonstrations, and Russia mainly exerts power in its neighbourhood through a network of corrupt and oligarchic elites. READ MORE

• July 12, 2019

By Nika Chitadze, PhD, Director, Center for International Studies, International Black Sea University, Tbilisi

By Putin's order, flights to Georgia from Russia will be prohibited from July 8. Based on past experience, it can be mentioned, that this step from the official Kremlin may not be a catastrophe for Georgia and on the contrary, to be a chance for the better future. The opening of the Russian market during the last several years and the partial settlement of relations with Russia was considered as a means of growth of Georgia's economy, but the developments since 2013 have proved contradictory. READ MORE

• July 12, 2019

The EU has strongly urged Iran to reverse its decision to raise the level at which it enriches uranium beyond that allowed by a 2015 nuclear deal.

• July 8, 2019

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that the issue of Ukrainian sailors detained by Russia in 2018 had dominated his talks with U.S. President Donald Trump at the G20 summit but no decision on the sailors’ fate had been made yet.

• July 1, 2019

Russia’s president said on Saturday that Moscow would do all it could to improve relations with the United States that have been strained by years of diplomatic conflicts over Ukraine and accusations of Russian meddling in U.S. elections.

• July 1, 2019

By Ahmad Alili, Head of Research, Caucasus Policy Analysis Center, Baku

In the real world, we do not have dragons, faceless men, red woman, white walkers or resurrection from the dead. Yet, the public policy challenges facing advisers in the famous Game of Thrones (GoT) TV show mirror those that political advisors to real governments face. We draw parallels to the real world in the way the show's decision-makers and advisers face the same limitations of time, resources and information bias. READ MORE

• July 1, 2019

President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday Russia had differences with OPEC over what constituted a fair price for oil, but that Moscow would take a joint decision on output with OPEC colleagues at a policy meeting in the coming weeks.

• June 19, 2019

There is a still a risk that oil producers pump out too much crude and prices fall sharply, Russia’s energy minister said on Monday, suggesting Moscow might support an extension of output cuts at a meeting of leading oil producing countries next month.

• June 19, 2019