Eurasia

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu met Wednesday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Ankara in an effort to stave off a global food crisis by restarting Ukrainian grain exports along a sea corridor. The UN’s plan to do so was “reasonable,” Çavuşoğlu said, and the talks were fruitful, but …

The West Is Dependent on Moscow for More Than Just Gas and Oil The invasion of Ukraine has thrust the world into an energy crisis. Since Russian troops began pouring across the country’s borders, oil prices have risen by more than a quarter. Gas prices have nearly doubled. And the …

It’s Too Soon for a Lasting Diplomatic Settlement As Russia’s war in Ukraine enters its fourth month, calls are growing in Western Europe and the United States for a diplomatic push to end the war. In late May, Italy proposed a four-point peace plan for Ukraine that would culminate in …

Norway and Spain are among the few countries that have flown below the radar with their support to Ukraine. Without any drama and unnecessary bureaucracy, Norway has donated some M109A3GN 155mm tracked self-propelled howitzers and is currently used by the Ukrainian forces. Spain is also doing its part by stating …

Lead figures in the Assad regime’s Qatirji oil-smuggling network were among those sanctioned. Members of the Riyadh-based Terrorist Financing Targeting Center (TFTC), which includes the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman, blacklisted 13 individuals and three organizations for financing terrorism on Monday. Among …

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham continues to restrict humanitarian organizations operating in its areas of control in northwestern Syria. Through its Salvation Government, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), formerly known as al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra, has been seeking to fully control the humanitarian aid that is being provided to the displaced in Idlib province …

Receiving Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Ankara, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu maintains that the creation of a safe maritime corridor for Ukrainian grain exports should be accompanied by the easing of sanctions against Russia. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reiterated his country’s “understanding” of Turkish security concerns along …

Net withdrawals of natural gas from U.S. storage totaled 2,264 billion cubic feet (Bcf) this winter (November through March). This amount is the most natural gas withdrawn from storage since the winter of 2017–18 and 10% more than the previous five-year (2016–17 to 2021–22) average, according to our recently released …

US and European acquiescence in Turkey’s long-standing refusal to honour Kurdish ethnic, cultural, and political rights has come home to roost with Turkish opposition to Finnish and Swedish NATO membership. The opposition has sparked debates about Turkey’s controversial place in the North Atlantic defense alliance. Turkey’s detractors point to its …

Of Parity, Assured Destruction, & Mistrust For the last 77 years, since the US first detonated nuclear weapons and annihilated the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, an eerie ambivalence has prevailed on the subject of nuclear use. On the one hand, some scholars and practitioners are convinced of the …