The January events in Kazakhstan and the CSTO’s response proved to be a real litmus test of many countries’ attitudes towards Russia and the regional balance of power in modern times. Turkey was no exception here, as it showed what was behind its active assurances to Russia and the Central Asian countries of “bona fide…
Politics
Central Asia
17.01.2022
Kishida and Morrison Sign the Japan-Australia Reciprocal Access Agreement
On January 5, Reuters, citing Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, reported the signing of the so-called Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA) with his Japanese counterpart Kishida. This event is certainly one of the most significant ones in the process of development of the political and strategic situation in the Indo-Pacific…
Eastern Asia - Japan
17.01.2022
A Lesson in Source Studies or Did Kim Jong-il Really Invent Shawarma?
In early January, several media outlets ran a clickbait headline, “North Korea Claims Kim Jong-il Invented Shawarma.” This fast-food dish is popular in post-Soviet countries. The statement about its North Korean roots immediately broke into negative comments about how North Korea is duping the people and making them…
Eastern Asia - North Korea
15.01.2022
The Role that Social and Media Platforms Played in the Events in Kazakhstan
With the rise of cell phones, the Internet, social media, and other forms of electronic communication, the ability to influence public opinions and the social and political life in a country has grown significantly. Furthermore, the speed with which information is made available through social media is unprecedented. Today…
Central Asia
14.01.2022
Kazakhstan Chaos: An Opportunity, But for Who?
Kazakhstan has suffered severe nationwide violence allegedly prompted by fuel price concerns. However, it quickly became clear that it was instead actually foreign-sponsored destabilization which was, at best, using legitimate public concerns as cover for attempted regime change. A Russian-led deployment of Collective Security Treaty Organization…
Central Asia
14.01.2022
Why is the US Stirring Up Tibet as an ‘Issue’?
More than a mere territorial and ethnic question, Tibet, for the US, is a geo-political opportunity to up the ante against China in Asia and the Indo-Pacific region. The US decision to appoint a ‘special envoy’ for Tibetan ‘issue’ comes at a time when the US’ anti-China rhetoric has persistently failed to drive a wave of countries weaning away from Beijing and rushing towards…
USA in the World
14.01.2022
CSTO is a True Defender of the Interests that Regional Players Share
The recent developments in Kazakhstan and the role of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in assisting that country’s authorities in establishing order and security have particularly brought into sharp focus the importance of this regional interstate organization. The CSTO was established in 2002…
Central Asia
Economics
16.01.2022
Nuclear Power Causing Disagreements in the EU
Amid the world’s forced turn toward nuclear power and energy crisis, Europe had given serious thought to nuclear power’s future on the continent. Currently, 31 countries operate nuclear power plants. The peak in nuclear power generation was recorded in 2006 (2,660 TWh), but overall, the share of nuclear power in global electrical power generation decreased…
Europe
13.01.2022
China and Latin America: Washington is Losing Ground
The global Sino-American confrontation that has unfolded in recent years affects all spheres of the world economy and all regions. China stubbornly squeezes the United States in every area, including its traditional sphere of influence in Latin America. At the moment, the United States is the leading trading partner of Latin American countries…
Eastern Asia - China
12.01.2022
Why Do NATO States Commit Energy Hara Kiri ?
There is a great paradox in the increasingly aggressive US and NATO military stance towards Russia, and China, when measured against the clearly suicidal national Green Agenda economic policies of the USA as well as the EU NATO states. An astonishing transformation of the economies of the world’s most advanced industrial economies is underway and gaining…
Europe
11.01.2022
How China's RCEP Undermines the ‘Asia Pivot 2.0’
Even though the Biden administration, following in the footsteps of the Trump administration, has been seeking to build a global anti-China coalition even since coming into power, its efforts in the Indo-Pacific region continue to fail to produce enough support for the US-led ‘war’ against China. To a large extent, a key reason for this failure…
Eastern Asia - China
09.01.2022
Russia's Alternative to the Suez Canal is Getting More Reliable and Cost-effective
At the end of December, the Turkish authorities were forced to suspend maritime traffic through the Bosporus Strait for a day after the BARLAS, a 70-meter-long (230-foot-long) dry cargo vessel under the Panama flag ran aground after engine failure. The maritime traffic in this vital sea route was restored on December 29. This is the second incident…
Russia in the World
08.01.2022
Russia and Egypt Strive to Ensure Food Security in Africa
Despite modern agro-industrial technologies, the trend towards food shortages continues. This, in particular, is evidenced by the information published by the UN that up to 820 million people are starving in the world, which is about 10% of the world population. There are more malnourished and hungry people around the world today than ever before, despite…
Africa
29.12.2021
Political Coordination between Egypt and Russia Intensifies
Against the background of consistent strengthening by Egypt of its role in the Arab world and and in the international arena, further coordination of policy between Egypt and Russia continues with the development of bilateral cooperation in various fields. Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of the Security Council of Russia, held a meeting with colleagues from Egypt…
Middle East - Egypt
Society
14.01.2022
What is Behind the “Persecution of K-pop” in China?
According to South Korean media reports of January 6, the Chinese Hunan TV and Mango TV streaming platforms began airing a South Korean drama Saimdang, Memoir of Colors, on January 4, 2022. The National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) approved the series six years ago. On the other hand, Beijing was displeased with South Korea…
Eastern Asia - China
13.01.2022
The New Afghanistan: Why We’ve Heard It all Before and Again!
During the Christmas and New Year holiday periods, it is generally non-Christian countries which make the news. Everyday life carries on without interruption, so stories which build over a long period can mature without interruption. It was only a few weeks ago that everybody was talking about Afghanistan. The Taliban (a radical movement…
Central Asia - Afghanistan
12.01.2022
Why does the US Need Wars and Armed Conflicts?
During the last thirty years after the collapse of the USSR, the world, renamed by the West into a “Euro-Atlantic” one, began to change drastically, giving itself a completely different substance than Washington and the “renewed Europe” organized by America wanted it to be. It began to swell with a completely different meaning, the balance of forces in it began to change…
USA in the World
11.01.2022
The Straight Gas on Kazakhstan’s Recent Upheaval
It’s time we begin taking notes on where every nation, organization, and business stands on the crises in our world. The recent unrest in Kazakhstan, the world’s ninth-largest country, is a good place to start. A recent editorial from a multiple Pulitzer Prize winning media outlet warns of the further disintegration of truth. With trust becoming the scarcest commodity…
Central Asia
11.01.2022
Afghanistan: The Taliban is in Power, What Now?
The finance minister of Afghanistan in the new government of the Taliban (banned in Russia) has prepared a national budget which, for the first time in two decades, will be financed without foreign aid. This comes as the country becomes mired in an economic crisis and confronts an incipient humanitarian catastrophe, which the United Nations has called “an avalanche…
Central Asia - Afghanistan
10.01.2022
The Terrorist Threat in South Korea in 2021
20th December 2021. The National Intelligence Service of the Republic of Korea has warned of the possibility of terrorist attacks by extremist groups in all parts of the world, including the Republic of Korea, before the approaching Christmas and New Year holiday season. The warning forms part of a report sent to 26 state institutions and 62…
Eastern Asia - South Korea
07.01.2022
Prominent Humanitarian is Arrested in Yemen - Accused of Carrying Iran’s Revolutionary Agenda
Earlier this September media outlets close to Saudi Arabia announced with much fanfare that Yemen’s intelligence services had scored a massive victory in arresting the man they dubbed the ‘Khomeini of Yemen’, and that thanks to such efforts the Houthis had had the wind taken off their sail…
Middle East - Yemen
