Exerting influence in the wider Black and Caspian Seas region is becoming a crucial element in Russia’s current geopolitical strategy. Energy and security are two of Moscow’s primary concerns relating to the region. Turkey, the EU, and the United States, as well as international energy companies will have to be aware of the operational instruments which Moscow has been deploying as part of its geopolitical strategy in the region, which include:
1) inserting itself into the domestic political affairs of its post-Soviet neighbors;
2) simultaneously acting as a crisis mediator/peacekeeper and fostering regional tension to provoke further crisis;
3) behaving as the regional “strong man” in the name of protecting Russian minorities;
4) strengthening energy ties with other former-Soviet Republics in the region; and
5) striking bilateral commercial deals with select Western corporate partners and governments. The deployment of such instruments will ensure that Moscow’s approach to regional geopolitics will remain purposefully unpredictable and full of intrigue, and will invariably continue to take other regional actors by surprise. READ MORE

• August 4, 2010

The European Union is seeking an agreement on a natural-gas pipeline between Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan as the 27-nation bloc aims to import Caspian fuel and reduce its dependence on Russia.

• August 4, 2010

Iran has embarked on a series of ambitious projects to revive the historic Silk Road, moves aimed at expanding its regional influence and overcoming Western efforts to isolate it.

• August 4, 2010

International monitors are expected in Armenia to examine plans to start construction of a nuclear power plant, a state agency said.

• July 31, 2010

India and the US have signed an agreement on reprocessing of American nuclear spent fuel by India, marking the final steps in terms of implementation of the landmark civil nuclear deal between the two countries.

• July 31, 2010

Ukraine will use $2 billion out of its new $15 billion IMF facility to finance its budget deficit this year and will stick to tight fiscal targets imposed by the deal

• July 31, 2010

Russian officials are making a costly and two-fold mistake in viewing Ukraine as a country permanently divided between a virulently nationalistic and Russophobic West and a Russian-speaking and pro-Moscow East, according to a senior analyst at the Moscow Institute of CIS Countries

• July 31, 2010

Russia has announced the largest privatization program since the post-communist sales of the early 1990s.

• July 30, 2010