Tim Ash of Standard Bank
Tue, 18th Jun -- What is absolutely striking is the universal surprise at developments over the past few weeks from everyone we have met - no one had expected both the scale of the anti-government demonstrations and also the severity of the government response.

Marcus Svedberg of East Capital
Wed, 5th Jun -- One should always be careful in drawing parallels between seemingly similar events in different countries. But there are a number of striking similarities between the current protests in Turkey and the recent events in Russia.

bne
Mon, 3rd Jun -- Social media has empowered populations in emerging markets and allowed mass protests to organise organically. The latest example has come in Turkey, where peaceful protests on Taksim Square in the heart of Istanbul exploded into violence on May 31 as police moved in to clear demonstrators protesting plans to build a shopping centre.

bne
Fri, 31st May -- And so it starts. The articles slating US talk show icon Larry King for agreeing to do a series of shows for the Kremlin-sponsored RT (nee Russia Today) have begun to flow, full of the predictable bile and vitriol.

bne
Mon, 27th May -- There has been a lot of noise about the possibility of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev being sacked and replaced by the former finance minister Alexei Kudrin. We think it will happen - just not yet, but possibly as soon as this autumn.

bne
Mon, 27th May -- Kazakhstan was hosting its annual "Astana Economic Forum" May 22-24. To great pomp and ceremony, delegates came from all over the world to listen to President Nursultan Nazarbayev and most of the country's elite expound on their plans for the future.

Ivan Tchakarov of Renaissance Capital
Wed, 22nd May -- Russia seems to have fallen into the middle-income trap as it reaches per-capital income levels of $16k. A slowdown in GDP growth of a similar magnitude to that observed in other economies suffering from the same disease would yield a post-middle-income-trap average growth rate of only 1.6%.

Ben Aris in Moscow
Wed, 22nd May -- Confusion reigns over what will happen to the Russian economy in due course: is it headed into the "dustbin of history", in Trotsky's immortal phrase, or will it be the fastest growing in Europe by the end of the year?

Ben Aris in Istanbul
Fri, 10th May -- "The news is not good: there is no quick turnaround in sight." That was the conclusion of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development's chief economist, Eric Berglof, at the multilateral lender's annual conference being held this year in Istanbul on May 10-11.

Anders Aslund
Fri, 3rd May -- The Ukrainian banking system has gone through persistent convulsions. A wave of West European purchases of Ukrainian banks just before the crisis of 2008-09 has been largely reversed. Instead, Russian and Ukrainian state banks have expanded, as have banks owned by people close to President Viktor Yanukovych.

bne
Mon, 29th Apr -- Much has been made of Russia's poor demographic situation and the problem of a shrinking population has been held up as the reason the country is doomed. But in an excellent piece, Forbes contributor Mark Adomanis points out that if Russia is doomed, then so are all the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

Ben Aris in Moscow
Sat, 27th Apr -- Russian President Vladimir Putin broke his own record with his longest ever annual Q&A "meet the people" press conference, where he laid out what is essentially a conservative platform.