Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members struggled on Wednesday to win support from Russia to join them in additional oil output cuts in a bid to prop up prices which have tumbled by a fifth this year because of the coronavirus outbreak.

• March 4, 2020

Crude oil prices were mixed, giving up early gains despite expectations that major producers were closing in on an agreement to cut supply aimed at offsetting a slump in demand caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

• March 4, 2020

Russia killed civilians in air strikes in Syria last year while rebels allied to Turkey carried out murder and pillage in Kurdish areas, U.N. investigators said on Monday - actions it said could amount to war crimes by both Moscow and Ankara.

• March 2, 2020

Russia is evaluating an earlier and smaller oil production cut proposal made by OPEC and its allies, energy minister Alexander Novak said, adding it had not received one for deeper cuts.

• March 2, 2020

Russia’s state gas company Gazprom has opened accounts at U.S. bank JP Morgan’s Russian branch, Interfax news agency said on Friday.

• February 24, 2020

The presidents of Turkey and Russia on Wednesday formally launched the TurkStream pipeline which will carry Russian natural gas to southern Europe through Turkey, part of Moscow’s efforts to reduce shipments via Ukraine.

• February 24, 2020

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

With Pompeo due in Minsk this week, and the Belarus presidential elections on the horizon, Moscow and Minsk have some difficult decisions to take.
Relations between Russia and Belarus are one of the hotly debated issues among pundits dealing with the politics of the post-Soviet space. Till recently bilateral relations were focused on economic cooperation, and more particularly, on the price of Russian gas and oil delivered to Belarus. In 2019 the accent shifted towards the practical implementation of the 1999 Union State treaty. The looming power transition in Russia in 2024, when President Putin fourth Presidential term expires, has inflamed the debate on the possibility of President Putin becoming the President of the Union state after 2024. This scenario was discussed as a possible way for President Putin to extend his power beyond 2024. READ MORE

• January 28, 2020

Belarus is looking for alternatives to Russian oil and is in talks with the United States, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates about supplies, President Alexander Lukashenko said on Friday, the Belta news agency reported.

• January 24, 2020