Russian state gas giant Gazprom is awaiting the formation of a Ukrainian government before starting talks with Kiev on extending a deal to transit Russian gas across Ukraine to Europe, a senior company official said on Tuesday.

• July 15, 2019

Russian President Vladimir Putin has stressed that he is aware of Germany’s demand that Ukraine continues to transport gas to Europe after the opening of the Nordstream 2 pipeline, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday.

• July 15, 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

Iran and Russia have signed a memorandum of understanding over cooperation in the energy sector, the Iranian oil ministry’s SHANA news agency reported on Monday.

• June 17, 2019

A U.S. agreement with Poland to send 1,000 extra troops to the country is a defensive measure needed for its security, the U.S. ambassador to Warsaw said on Monday, replying to accusations from neighboring Russia that the move is aggressive.

• June 17, 2019

By Greta K. Wagner, Student, University of Glasgow, Intern, The European Geopolitical Forum

The Black Sea is often described as a strategic crossroads, which links east-west and north-south transport corridors. Particularly with regard to hydrocarbon resources, the Black Sea serves as a transit route between suppliers in Russia, the Caspian region, Central Asia and the Middle East and consumers in the European Union. Given its strategic importance, the Black Sea is an important puzzle piece for Russia’s “energy superpower” strategy. READ MORE.

• June 13, 2019

By Eduard Abrahamyan, Wider Black Sea & Central Asia regional security analyst

Moscow’s mistrust of the Armenian government headed by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan dates all the way back to his rise to power last year in the so-called “Velvet Revolution.” And that mistrust has persisted despite Pashinyan’s various foreign policy gambits designed to win Russia’s confidence (see EDM, March 21). At the same time, Pashinyan’s domestic agenda—specifically, his determination to dismantle the previous regime’s oligarchic/kleptocratic order, including by prosecuting former president Robert Kocharyan for abuses of power—seems to be increasingly irking Moscow as well. READ MORE

• June 13, 2019