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

Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 has profoundly impacted the military balance in the Black Sea. Amidst mutual distrust and conflicting insecurity perceptions, militarization has become the dominant security paradigm. Both Moscow and the NATO members in the region are steadily building up their military capacities and engaging in tit-for-tat defense enhancements. READ MORE

• May 21, 2019

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Friday said he had discussed the purchase of mid-range air defense missiles at a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday.

• May 17, 2019

The quality of Russian crude is gradually improving after a contamination scandal that rocked oil markets, buyers said on Tuesday, but Russia’s energy minister cautioned that it will take until the second half of May to fix the problem.

• May 17, 2019

OPEC said on Tuesday that world demand for its oil would be higher than expected this year as supply growth from rivals including U.S. shale producers slows, pointing to a tighter market if the exporter group refrains from raising output.

• May 15, 2019

Exports of clean Russian oil via the Druzhba pipeline, interrupted due to contamination, will be fully restored in late May or early June, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Wednesday.

• May 15, 2019

By Fuad Shahbazov, Baku-based independent regional security and defence analyst

On 5th April of 2019, a meeting of the railway authorities of Kazakhstan, China, Iran, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan took place in Almaty dedicated to advancing cargo traffic along the North-South Transit Corridor. In fact, the participation of Uzbekistan in the project will shorten the route of goods from China to Iran and forward. Being a part of the ambitious North-South Transit Corridor, the China-Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-Iran railway can shape the geopolitics of Central Asia. READ MORE

• May 14, 2019

Oil production capacity could fall to under one percent of global oil demand by the end of the year if OPEC compensates falling production from Iran and Venezuela, leaving oil prices exposed to sharp swings in the event of unplanned outages, analysts say.

• May 13, 2019

Mike Pompeo will make his first trip to Russia as U.S. secretary of state next week for talks with President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on “aggressive and destabilizing actions” Moscow has taken around the world, a senior State Department official said on Friday.

• May 13, 2019