President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that Turkey’s military incursion in northern Syria’s Idlib province would crush Kurdish militia forces that control the neighboring region of Afrin.

• January 13, 2018

Russia-friendly Czech President Milos Zeman won the first round of voting to retain his job on Saturday, but pro-western runner-up Jiri Drahos will be a formidable opponent in the second round vote in two weeks, nearly complete results showed.

• January 13, 2018

A new round of U.S. sanctions expected against Moscow is an attempt to influence Russia’s domestic affairs ahead of a presidential election, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted as saying on Saturday.

• January 13, 2018

Federal Reserve policymakers reacted coolly to a report on Wednesday that China could curb its massive U.S. debt purchases, pointing out that such rebalancing by countries can be healthy and would not likely disrupt the U.S. central bank’s plan to trim its own bond portfolio.

• January 10, 2018

Democratic U.S. lawmakers accused Russia on Wednesday of a “relentless assault” on democratic institutions worldwide, and called on President Donald Trump to treat election interference as a national crisis.

• January 10, 2018

New European rules on online payments and banking due to go into effect on Saturday mark the start of a “slow burn” revolution that will prise open traditional retail banking and may force lenders to rethink their business models, regulators say.

• January 10, 2018

By Eugene Kogan, Tbilisi-based defence and security expert

The declaration that Russia and Iran are strategic partners lacks both solid foundation and strategic perspective. Despite the sense of urgency generated by regional and global concerns, Russia and Iran have failed to establish broad-based economic, scientific, technical, educational and societal ties. In terms of arms exports, Russia still sees Iran as a customer, while Iran is doing its best to distance itself from Russia and to become self-reliant; Iran has recently turned to China in order to diversify its weapons imports away from Russia. Whether this divergence will continue remains to be seen. READ MORE

• January 9, 2018

By Benyamin Poghosyan, PhD, Executive Director, Political Science Association of Armenia

Since gaining independence in 1991 Armenia has faced tough challenges in building relations with two of its four neighbors – Azerbaijan and Turkey. Relations with Azerbaijan were mainly influenced by Karabakh conflict. Armenia was supporting Nagorno Karabakh Armenians to defend themselves against Azerbaijani aggression. The end of hostilities in 1994 and the signature of a ceasefire agreement did not bring up peace, and negotiations are still underway, for the last 23 years, to find a mutually accepted settlement. READ MORE

• January 9, 2018