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

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

On February 21, 2020 Iranians went to polling stations to elect their new parliament. Despite all the statements of Iran's leadership, including of the Supreme Leader Khamenei, of the importance of a high turnout, only 42 percent of registered voters casted their ballots, the lowest figure since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Many inside and outside Iran saw this low turnout as a tacit protest of a large part of the electorate against the Guardian Council's decision to cancel the registration of many moderate and reformist candidates. Supreme Leader blamed the low turnout on the "negative propaganda" about the new coronavirus by Iran's enemies. READ MORE

• March 2, 2020

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

In recent weeks the Syrian province of Idlib has been transformed into the hot spot of the Middle East. There were frantic flows of calls, meetings and visits between Russian, Turkish and Western officials. Some were seeking to deescalate the situation and prevent direct confrontation between Russian and Turkish troops, others were trying to use this situation and drive a wedge between Moscow and Ankara. Everything is pretty much clear – Turkey wants to keep Idlib under its control and use it as a tool to secure its influence in post–war Syria, while Russia is interested to finish the active phase of military operations and speed up the political process. READ MORE

• February 25, 2020

OPEC oil output fell in December as Nigeria and Iraq adhered more closely to pledged reductions and top exporter Saudi Arabia made further cuts ahead of a new production-limiting accord, a Reuters survey found.

• February 24, 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

On February 9, 2020 early parliamentary elections were held in Azerbaijan. According to preliminary results the ruling "New Azerbaijan" party has won a clear majority, while, some representatives of opposition, such as Erkin Gadirli from REAL, have entered the Parliament. However, the main speculation around the elections was not the name of the winner; few if any had expectations that ruling party may lose the elections, or that the process will be in full compliance with liberal democracy requirements. The key question is on the implications of these elections for the domestic balance of power in Azerbaijan, and the future development of the country. READ MORE

• February 17, 2020