The Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) today announced that no-one will be able to establish military bases on the territory of a CSTO member state without the express agreement of all other member states. In practice, this is a setback for the United States, who will find it next to impossible to establish a new [...]
Russia WTO entry – all but guaranteed
Russia’s World Trade Organisation entry has been all but guaranteed after the WTO’s Working Party on Russian membership agreed the precise rules and obligations that Russia will have to meet as a member of the global trading body. The news comes almost immediately after a customs and trade monitoring agreement between Russia and Georgia which [...]
Russian hockey coach attacks fans
Andrei Nazarov, former NHL player and current coach of KHL team Vityaz Chekhov, was having a tough day at the office, and took his frustrations out on the fans.
Why so little internet in Ukraine?
Why do only 10% of Ukrainians have internet access when more than 33% of their Belarussian neighbours have access?
How the Belarus oil story has grown
I picked up some incoming traffic from Matthew Yglesias’ blog today. Wondering what was going on, I wondered over to his site, to find the following story about the Russian decision to shut down the flow of oil through Belarus: All of Europe gets cut off from crude oil supplies, apparently. His source is the [...]
Oil wars
It looks as though Russia’s neighbours have made a New Year’s resolution for 2007 – to demonstrate to Russia that they too can flex their energy muscles. In the past few days: Belarus have slapped a tax on Russian oil transiting Belarus, and siphoning off Transneft’s oil to pay for it. In response, Transneft have [...]
Belarus reaches last minute deal with Russia over gas price
Just minutes before Gazprom implemented their threat to cut of gas supplies to Belarus, a deal was reached to secure gas deliveries until 2011. Under the terms of the deal, Belarus will pay $100 per thousand cubic metres this year, but the price will steadily rise until it reaches around $250 per thousand cubic metres [...]
Belarus-Russia relations sour over gas deal
It looks as if relations between Belarus and Russia are becoming increasingly strained, as reports come through that no agreement has been reached on the future of gas prices. Although there has been no official announement yet on the outcome of the talks, Reuters are reporting that the talks went so badly that Lukashenko decided to [...]
Belarus, Russia involved in Ivory Coast sanctions busting?
Despite an international arms embargo affecting both government and rebel forces, it appears that military equipment from the Former Soviet Union is still managing to make its way into the Ivory Coast, the Telegraph reports: Gen Fall, who commands 6,000 troops, said there was evidence to suggest that the vehicles, which had been ordered by [...]
Union?
Following last week’s meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, many observers – myself included – chose to make fun of the way in which Lukashenko related or, rather, did not relate to Putin’s pet labrador. But perhaps more was agreed at their meeting than we originally thought.. Pavel Felgenhauer [...]