Uzbekistan was quick to clamp down as the coronavirus epidemic gathered pace and as Central Asia’s most populous country it had good reason to be worried. But now the peak has passed and the biggest of the Central Asian five ‘Stans its back to work and return to the comprehensive reform programm
The coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic is spreading fast in Russia, but while most of the infections are concentrated in Moscow, the large isolated mono-cities in the hinterland are at high risk. Russia’s big business has moved fast to contain the infection, but at the same time most of them need
The world is going through its biggest crisis since the Great Depression. A global pandemic of a killer virus has come on top of an oil price shock that drove down prices into negative numbers for the first time in history. And a climate crisis continues to run in the background. Where will it end?
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has brought the world’s economy to a shuddering stop. In many respects it is the biggest crisis humanity have face in decades, if not ever. But once the virus burns out what will happen then? There are two scenarios: a rapid bounce back or the beginnings of a
The oil price war that has broken out between Russia, Saudi Arabia and the US sent oil price tumbling this week. The fears of a global coronavirus pandemic has only made the collapse worse. But these things didn't cause the crisis. It only made them worse, argues Murray Gunn, an analyst with Elli
In order to grow Russia needs to respect the rule of law. Russia and Gazprom are upsetting the European energy security as they are ignoring rules and arbitration rulings they had agreed to respect. And this is happening as so few of our European leaders are willing to stand up and demand that Russi
The initial excitement about the changes taking place in Uzbekistan since Uzbek president Shavkat Mirziyoyev took over two years ago are starting to wear off as the enormity of the challenge becomes clear. There is no lack of good ideas coming out of Tashkent, or even enthusiasm. What is lacking
Russia’s economy is emerging from a nasty crisis in 2014-2016, but everyone agrees that growth is capped at 2% at best and incomes have been stagnant for six years already. Russia needs a new economic model and the Kremlin has launched a RUB27 trillion spending programme to transform the countr
WoE: high tensions in the Middle East Tensions are escalating in the Middle East after US president Donald Trump’s announcement that he was pulling US troops out of Syria. That gave a greenlight to Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s desired incursion over the Syrian board to cleans