Russia’s level of investment is, and has been for the past decade, far closer to the levels of developed, wealthy countries than to China‘s. I don’t find this to be particularly alarming or surprising for three reasons. First, because Russian investment collapsed so catastrophically during the 1990′s the current levels are actually an improvement: as you can see from that chart, Russian investment has substantially increased from the depths it reached in 1999 and has done so during a time that overall GDP has grown dramatically (the actual expenditures on investment have thus exploded).

• April 7, 2012

President Barack Obama has told Iran the United States would accept Tehran having a civilian nuclear programme if the Islamic state can prove it is not seeking atomic weapons, the Washington Post said Friday. Obama sent such a message to Tehran via Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who delivered it to Iran's Supreme leader Ali Khamenei last week, said the newspaper's foreign affairs columnist David Ignatius.

• April 7, 2012

Charge d'Affaires of Kazakhstan to Georgia Adil Tursunov and Energy and Natural Resources Minister of Georgia Alexander Khetaguri discussed transit of Kazakh hydrocarbons through Georgia, as well as KazTransGas - Tbilisi Company's activity at a meeting in Tbilisi.

• April 6, 2012

A unified missile defense system comprising the United States and six Arab states is a signal that a military strike on Iran could be on the horizon, says the Chairman of the State Duma's International Affairs Committee.

• April 6, 2012

Among the initiatives discussed were the CASA-1000 Power Transmission Project and the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project (TAPI).

• April 6, 2012

Ashgabat,  Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and Afghan Mines Minister Wahidullah Shahrani at meeting in Ashgabat said there is considerable international resonance and interest of many countries and companies willing to participate in largest transnational Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India TAPI gas pipeline project implementation, Turkmen government said Thursday, Trend news agency reported.

• April 5, 2012

Kyrgyzstan and Russia remain strategic partners, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a meeting with Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev on Thursday, KyrTAG reported on Thursday.

• April 5, 2012

A peaceful and stable Pakistan is integral to western efforts to pacify Afghanistan, but Islamabad’s obsessions with its giant eastern neighbor may render such issues moot.
Since partition in 1947, Pakistan and India have fought four armed conflicts, in 1947, 1965, 1971 (which led to the establishment of Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan) and the 1999 Kargil clash.

• April 5, 2012