Resources Archive

THE EU TESTS ITS LEVERAGE — Piero Fassino, the European Union’s new special envoy for Myanmar, a.k.a. Burma, is likely to have an uphill battle to persuade that country’s neighbors to go along with new EU sanctions against the Burmese regime. Last week, the European Union drew up a list of sanctions specifically targeting Burma’s ruling junta, including blocking their exports of Burmese gems — a key source of revenue for the leadership — plus a Europe-wide travel ban, and curtailment of other trade. The aim is to pressure the junta to improve on the so far modest concessions made […]

The early-November visit to Azerbaijan of the newly elected President of Turkey, Abdullah Gul, highlighted the strategic importance of the Turkey-Azerbaijan relationship and the two countries’ common economic and security interests. As such, it attracted much attention in the Azerbaijani media, where analysts happily noted that Azerbaijan was the first country visited by the Turkish leader since he assumed his post in July. As Azerbaijaini political scientist Rustam Mammadov suggested in the wake of the trip, Gul’s visit even had implications for the complex political situation unfolding in the Middle East. Speaking to the News – Azerbaijan agency, Mammadov said […]

At the end of October, President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan signed several controversial amendments to the country’s Law on Subsoil Use. The new legislation permits the government to unilaterally change contracts for companies involved in extracting the country’s mineral resources if Kazakh officials deem such alterations necessary to uphold their nation’s economic and security interests. On Oct. 8, President Nazarbayev had reassured visiting Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi that his government would honor the original terms of its contract with the ENI SpA-led consortium that was developing Kazakhstan’s offshore Kashagan oil field — providing its members did likewise. On Oct. […]

MOSCOW — After 26 years of serving as a captain in the Soviet Army, Nikolai Petrovich never imagined he’d be selling mushrooms past dark on a cold Moscow street corner. Petrovich, 75, says he remains a fervent supporter of President Vladimir Putin and that his $350 monthly pension check would normally suffice, if not for price hikes that have made this capital the most expensive in the world. “The government gives me some money, but prices have gone up so much, it’s not enough,” he says. “We must make some extra on our own.” Nearby about a dozen fellow retirees, […]

By now, after years of skyrocketing fuel prices, the news that the price of a barrel of oil is hitting $100 doesn’t exactly cause panic. When you consider that a barrel of crude cost just $11 in 1998, and double that at the beginning of the decade, the truly astonishing development is that our lives have changed so little as a result of the higher prices. And yet, as some oil exporting countries swim in the riches of our gas money, the consequences of $100 oil are not always what you — and they — might expect. Soaring prices at […]

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso — Leaders of West African nations could barely contain their glee in mid-October when the World Trade Organization announced it had upheld a previous ruling declaring the United States has not done enough to cut back its subsidies to cotton farmers. The ruling stems from Brazil’s 2002 complaint to the WTO that U.S. farm supports depress world prices and create undue harm to Brazilian cotton farmers. Brazil’s president Luiz Ignacio Lula Da Silva was visiting Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, when the ruling was made public. He continued to portray the issue of cotton subsidies in terms of the […]