Kazakhstan’s president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev believes “Never let a crisis go to waste.” Tokayev has been on a roll since January 2022, when the government requested assistance from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) to suppress deadly fuel price riots Tokayev claimed were hijacked by “terrorist groups” that had “received extensive …
Read More »Yearly Archives: 2023
CSM In Kosovo: The Great Serbian Project That Shouldn’t Exist – Analysis
In recent weeks and months, especially after the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24 last year, the pressure of Western diplomats on Belgrade and Pristina to implement the Brussels Agreement from 2013 as soon as possible has increased dramatically. In other words, western diplomats want to …
Read More »Iran Holding Air Defense Drill To Practice Shielding Nuclear Sites
During the main stage of a large-scale military exercise at nighttime, the Iranian air defense forces are going to employ tactics to protect the country’s sensitive nuclear and military sites, a commander said on Monday. The commander of the Khatam al-Anbia Air Defense Base -the central headquarters of Iran’s Air …
Read More »Iran: Son Of Former Shah Urges West To Back Dissidents
The eldest son of the last shah of Iran has urged Western governments to support popular efforts to topple the regime in Tehran. Reza Pahlavi, who is in Europe to drum up support for young activists in his country, told the Guardian that the West should proscribe the Islamic Revolutionary …
Read More »Iran File Crucial To Netanyahu-Biden Relationship – OpEd
The US-Israel relationship is at the center of Washington’s vision of the region. This status has been evident ever since 1967, when Israel demonstrated its military superiority over neighboring Arab states. To cement this, the US has provided more aid to Israel than any other state since the end of …
Read More »Blinken Visits Central Asia With Moscow-Loyal Region Roiled By Ukraine Fallout
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is making his first visit to a region that is roiled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but still loyal to Moscow, while bloody crackdowns have overshadowed reform drives initiated in Central Asia’s two largest countries — Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. In another sense, the environment …
Read More »The Geopolitical Deadlock That Befell The World – Analysis
It has been a year since the war erupted in Ukraine, with hundreds of thousands of casualties on both sides, yet there seems to be no end in sight. This conflict, as things stand, is a microcosm of global instability, as the world faces its darkest period and the largest-scale …
Read More »Kosovo Media, And Regulators, Failing On Privacy Protection – Analysis
When Indeksonline, an online media outlet in Kosovo, reported in January that a participant in a local reality TV show was HIV positive, dozens of other media ran with the story. The story was wrong, and Indeksonline later retracted it and issued an apology. But the claim is still doing …
Read More »Russia’s Ukraine War Continues To Impact Azerbaijan’s Oil Sector
Oil from Azerbaijan’s giant ACG oil field in the Caspian Sea briefly resumed flowing through the Baku-Supsa pipeline to the Georgian Black Sea coast for the first time in 10 months after a halt due to the Russia-Ukraine war. BP, which operates both the ACG field and the Baku-Supsa pipeline, …
Read More »Avalon Militarism – OpEd
The global pandemic was not completely catastrophic in its effects. It led to the cancellation, and postponement, of wasteful projects and events. It spared public money. But as the pandemic slides into the shadow of policymaking, bad habits have returned. The profligates are here to stay. One such habit is …
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