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Russia Sanctions

The Biden administration’s parting gift to Russia: Still more sanctions

Clearly working overtime to underscore the Biden administration’s desire to inflict maximum economic pain on Moscow and its coterie of Ukraine invasion supporters outside...

Stringent new energy sector sanctions on Russia announced

On January 10, the U.S. Government released a massive new listing of over 200 entities and individuals involved in Russia’s energy sector for Ukraine-related...

OPEC+ postpones plans to increase production over supply unease

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies including Russia, known collectively as OPEC+, decided on December 5 to delay its planned...

U.S. sanctions Russian banks, finance officials and securities registrars

The U.S. announced on November 21 new sanctions targeting Russia’s largest remaining non-designated bank (Gazprombank), as well as dozens of other financial institutions and...

IMF pronounces victory over inflation while sounding debt and tariff warnings

The 2024 Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group (WBG) took place in Washington D.C. from October 21...

Drone producers in China and Russia face new U.S. sanctions

In recent months, the Biden administration’s sanctions taskmasters at the State and Treasury Departments have clearly gone into overdrive, designating new targets/entities at least...

The complex politics of Caspian gas

For the countries bordering the Caspian Sea, gas has always been a major economic resource and, in most cases, one of the biggest contributors...

Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan railways upgrading the Middle Corridor

Much has been reported in the last few years about the steady progress across Central Asia and the Caucasus in establishing the so-called “Middle...

Supplying Russia and Iran, Armenia emerges as a new sanctions black hole

For the past two years, Armenia has been attempting to demonstrate its shift towards the West, all the while maintaining its geopolitical role as...

G7 Foreign Ministers condemn Tehran’s export and Russia’s procurement of Iranian ballistic missiles

The foreign ministers of the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized powers condemned on September 14 "in the strongest terms" Iran's sales and Russia's purchases...

G7 Summit focuses on Ukraine support and shattering Russia’s wartime economy

Despite last week’s expert punditry (itself almost indistinguishable from AI) on the latest G7 decisions as exhibited by the “instant experts” on global issues...

Washington orders new sanctions against Russia’s Wagner Group in Africa

 On May 30, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ordered new sanctions measures to counter Russia’s destabilizing activities in...

New wave of U.S. sanctions target Russia’s foreign suppliers and industrial base

On May 1, the U.S. Department of State together with the U.S. Treasury Department unveiled a wide-ranging new list of anti-Russia sanctions covering an...

U.S. and U.K. take new steps to reduce Russia’s revenue from metals

On April 12, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, in coordination with the United Kingdom, issued two new prohibitions in order to disrupt the...

Russia sanctions remain a powerful tool to support Ukraine’s defense

Western leaders should not dismiss the two-year long sanctions campaign (as opposed to the 2014 Crimea sanctions) as unsuccessful simply because the Kremlin has...

New U.S. Russia sanctions widen scope, adding 500 new targets

The U.S. State Department released a comprehensive list of new sanctions measures on February 23, clearly the culmination of months of preparation in order...

Investors Forum brings the Middle Corridor into EU-wide focus

Huge investment numbers were thrown around in Brussels January 29-30 at the Global Gateway Investors Forum for the European Union – Central Asia Transport...

Record-high American LNG exports reinforce EU energy security drive

US liquefied natural gas, or LNG, exports reportedly hit monthly and annual record highs in December, positioning the United States to potentially become the...

Russia’s powerful economic levers over Armenia

Armenia's relations with its strategic partner Russia are getting worse and worse and its leaders seem to desire a shift in geopolitical orientation towards the West....

Meeting conditions for Georgia’s EU accession is a tall order for Tbilisi

The European Commission’s provisional endorsement of Georgia’s EU chances contained a not-so-subtle message couched in diplomatic jargon: Tbilisi must forge a stronger national consensus...

New US actions against corruption and Russian malign influence in the Western Balkans

On November 16, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, known by its acronym OFAC, designated eight individuals and six...

US slaps new separate sanctions on Iran, Russia and Hamas

On October 18, the US Department of State announced new separate sanctions packages against Iran and Hamas; they are not directly connected. A number...

Zelensky Athens visit eclipses Mitsotakis’ informal Western Balkans Summit

Receiving a full house of Western Balkan leaders, as well as several EU luminaries, in Athens on an evening when much of northern Greece...

US-UK Strategic Sanctions Dialogue inaugurated

Building on the unique economic and security partnership between the two nations, the US Department of State hosted a senior UK government delegation for...

Silicon Valley Bank financial contagion contained – for now

The world’s top policymakers and international financial leaders acted effectively in the days following the collapse of California’s Silicon Valley Bank. They appear to have dealt positively with the risk of wider global financial contagion.

Putin’s New START withdrawal has broad implications

Vladimir Putin continues to persuade Russians that the West provoked his imperialist war of aggression against Ukraine. His announcement that he would no longer...

Sanctions, sanctions everywhere

On February 24, 2023, the US Government alongside G-7 leaders announced via a White House statement a new set of trade and economic measures...

Providing Ukraine with advanced Western fighters is a logical step towards battlefield success

While Ukraine may have weathered the storm of Russia’s initial onslaught and retaliated with a force and determination largely thought to have been beyond...

A Belarusian politician, fraudster and businessman kept money in Credit Suisse

It was the last summer day of 2008. An Audi was waiting in line to leave Belarus for Poland. Petr Kalugin, a House of Representatives deputy,...

Latest Kosovo unrest less than meets the eye

Most observers of Balkan developments will agree that a Kosovo crisis of various flavors seems to emerge with some regularity around the holiday season...

EU Tirana Summit: Enlargement must go on

The summit's generic one size fits all “membership perspective” statement was seen as good news by most after the topic of EU Enlargement had become a highly controversial subject.

Major Japanese auto companies giving up on Russia

Toyota and Nissan, two major Japanese automakers with substantial manufacturing capacity, pulled out of Russia after both claimed that carrying out any future business...

Sanctions expand as Russia approaches major default

No American President ever travels to Europe without a bag full of so-called “deliverables” and US President Joe Biden duly arrived in Brussels last...

Pressed by sanctions, Russia narrowly escapes default

While the global sanctions campaign against Russia is not yet a month old, investors and sanctioneers held their breath this week as Russia struggled...

Russia sanctions – Now comes the hard part

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine moves into the third week, a broad network of financial, travel and trade sanctions has been established in fairly...

As the global sanctions net tightens, weak spots emerge

After the second phase of heavy western economic sanctions on Russia was announced in the final days of February, new coordination mechanisms are being...

EU Russia sanctions close in on finance, trade, aviation, media

Russia’s military advance across Ukraine has galvanized global public opinion to the point that timid EU governments and the Brussels bureaucracy have been forced...

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