«Will Iran close Hormuz?» — and why the trading desks are asking the wrong thing
A projectile, a threat, and a melting Arctic route quietly rearrange the question every ministry is still phrasing the old way.
Sherif Al-Mahdi
CIS
Geopolitical and economic analysis from Russia, Central Asia, and the Caucasus.
Torugart checkpoint opens six new lanes for trucks
Kyrgyz customs service launched an electronic queue system and ordered accelerated digitization of the inspection complex at the Kyrgyz-Chinese border.
Anna Kuznetsova
AKSA Takes Samarkand's Wires for $357 Million — Uzbekistan Rents Out Another Grid
A Turkish operator absorbs the distribution risk in one of Uzbekistan's largest oblasts. The concession is a wires deal; the physics is a generation deal.
Sergei Petrov
Tbilisi's Quiet Machine: When a Journalist's Cell Becomes State Policy
A detained TV presenter, a jailed ex-premier hinting at coerced confessions, and remittance flows that still point west — Georgia's ruling apparatus is showing its hand.
Natasha Volkov
EDB: Central Asia Driving $71.7B in Transport Projects, 45% in Kazakhstan
EDB Transport Observatory tracks 114 projects across the region; Middle Corridor concentrates $42.8B — the largest single investment pool.
Anna Kuznetsova
A Fuel Depot Burns Near Sulaimaniyah, and the Peg Board Barely Notices
Twenty injured in a northern Iraqi warehouse fire, dozens of tankers destroyed — and the crude curve shrugs. A brief on why the dirham and riyal read exactly what they read yesterday.
Karim Al-Rashidi
Ukraine Counts on $101 Billion in Western Support for 2026–2027
A government program draft submitted to the Verkhovna Rada acknowledges that the country has completely exhausted its own resources.
Anna Kuznetsova
Mirziyoyev Approves $357 Million PPP Project for Samarkand Power Grid Modernization
Turkish AKSA Elektrik won an international tender and commits to attracting $357 million in direct investments over 12 years.
Anna Kuznetsova
Forum in Surkhondarya attracts $10 billion in Chinese investments
The Uzbekistan–China international investment forum in Surkhondarya showcased 95 projects; preliminary agreements were signed for 63 of them worth $6.25 billion.
Anna Kuznetsova
Drone struck Nova Poshta warehouse near Odesa: four injured
Unmanned aircraft hit a logistics facility inside the Epicenter shopping center on the '7th kilometer', sparking a fire.
Anna Kuznetsova
Russian group 'Korni' to perform at opening ceremony of VI World Nomad Games in Bishkek
The opening ceremony will take place on August 31 at Bishkek Arena; tickets are on sale starting at 5,000 to 9,000 som.
Anna Kuznetsova
На трассе Балыкчи — Каракол уложено 125 км асфальта — 89% от плана
На объекте работают 978 рабочих, 402 единицы техники и пять генеральных подрядчиков; общая протяжённость реконструируемого участка — 141 километр.
Anna Kuznetsova
When the Rain Came for Tbilisi, the Mtsvadi Still Burned
Flooding in the city of my birth is a reminder that Georgian cuisine was always built for endurance — not abundance.
Yelena Mirova
Sunken Barges, Floating Licenses, and 822 Reasons to Stay Indoors
Hungary powers its nuclear plant with maritime archaeology. Washington approves itself. The week in brief.
Viktor Shpak
Кызыл-Кия получает 91 млн сомов на дороги и новый цех стройматериалов за $150 тысяч
Полпред президента в Баткенской области проверил модернизацию мукомольного завода и строительство нового промышленного объекта.
Anna Kuznetsova
Lyukmanov to Cairo: what the consensus is misreading about a routine ambassador
The appointment reads as diplomatic housekeeping. It is not. Read backwards from the second decree, and Moscow has told Cairo something specific.
Sherif Al-Mahdi
Касымалиев проверил иссык-кульские объекты ВИК-2026
Глава кабмина осмотрел площадки в Орноке, Чолпон-Ате и на пастбище Кырчын и потребовал соблюдения сроков.
Anna Kuznetsova
Hormuz as Rhetorical Weapon: Washington Reaches for a Chokepoint It Cannot Hold
Trump's claim to police the strait is a domestic performance with foreign consequences — and Tehran already knows the script.
Natasha Volkov
Sunday Long Read: Water, Wages and Weather — the Non-Financial Numbers That Move the Peg
The dirham sits at 3.6725 and the riyal at 3.7500, but the Kingdom's week produced three data points that traders should read as macro signals.
Karim Al-Rashidi
AFU attacked Energodar dispatch service with drones
Mayor Pukhov reported a fire in the unified emergency dispatch service building and damage to a vehicle on Cossack Street — no casualties.
Anna Kuznetsova
Drone debris found in Turkish province of Düzce and Istanbul
The governor of Düzce province reported a suspicious object in a hazelnut grove; in Arnavutköy, debris was seized by gendarmerie and coast guard.
Anna Kuznetsova
Turkey's Cluster Munitions Question and a Peg Board That Ends the Week Flat
A geopolitical file reopens in Ankara, Moscow demands answers, and the Gulf's two anchors close Saturday exactly where they opened Monday.
Karim Al-Rashidi
Миразизбек Мирзахалилов завоевал титул чемпиона Европы по версии IBF
Узбекский боксёр остановил непобеждённого россиянина Чингиза Натырова в четвёртом раунде на турнире в Набережных Челнах.
Anna Kuznetsova
Kumtor Brought Kyrgyzstan Over $5 Billion in Five Years Under State Management
President Sadyr Japarov revealed details of the mine's return: political will, risk, and trust in professionals determined the outcome.
Anna Kuznetsova
Hormuz as American territory: the sentence, and the week that produced it
A president says the strait will be annexed 'soon.' Walk back through the wires and you find a war logic already installed — and a gas pump quietly primed to explain it.
Sherif Al-Mahdi
Uzbekneftegaz Turns to Beijing for Jet A-1 — a Landlocked Refiner's Confession
Tashkent's move to lock in long-term jet fuel from CNAF and Sinopec exposes a domestic distillate gap that a decade of upstream talk was meant to close.
Sergei Petrov
Cairo's 45 Percent Promise and the Fine Print in the Bid Round
Egypt tells investors it wants renewables by 2028 and hydrocarbons by yesterday. Both budgets are real. That is the story.
Natasha Volkov
White House Calls Biden-Era Arms Transfers to Ukraine 'Tragic'
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump is far more cautious than his predecessor on weapons supplies.
Anna Kuznetsova
Egypt's 45% pledge, read from the well backwards
A 2028 renewables target lands on the same desk as a fresh licensing round for fourteen oil and gas blocks. The order of the announcements matters.
Sherif Al-Mahdi
White House Adds Uzbekistan to Chinese Goods Re-export Risk List
A U.S. administration report titled 'The Great Transshipment Scam' classifies Uzbekistan as a 'minor opportunistic target' — a category that includes more than ten countries: Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, the UAE, Panama, and others.
Anna Kuznetsova