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The Kocharyan case splits between a cell and a ward
Armenia's Anti-Corruption Court ordered 2 months of pre-trial detention for Sedrak Kocharyan on Wednesday morning. His father's custody motion has no hearing date: Robert Kocharyan is in hospital, and the committee is waiting for the doctors to finish.
Kazakhstan's new chamber sits on Friday
President Tokayev signed a decree on Wednesday convening the first session of the 145-seat Kurultai for 11:00 on 28 August in Astana. When the chamber sits, the Bektenov cabinet's resignation falls due.
The port war now runs on both shores of the Black Sea
Russia says it struck cargo vessels and fuel storage at Ukraine's Pivdennyi and Chornomorsk ports on 25 August, extending a campaign against Ukrainian harbours it has run since mid-July. Across the water, Russia's own grain terminals at Novorossiysk are idle for a third week, and moving Kazakh oil through the same sea still costs nearly $400,000 a day.
A Kazakh refinery turns north, and the minister calls the terms normal
Kazakhstan's energy ministry says an arrangement is in place under which the Kondensat refinery in Aksay keeps up to 30% of its petrol and diesel at home and sends the rest to Russia. The tonnage is small. The direction, with Russia's own petrol exports banned into 2027, is the news.
Turkmenistan reports $46.4 million of trade and 15 days of silence on Kabul
Turkmenistan's state news service reported on 24 August that the country's commodity exchange registered 19 transactions worth more than $46.412 million in a week, with buyers from the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Afghanistan. The same service has published nothing about the gas memoranda Ashgabat signed with Kabul on 10 August.
At the drought conference, the money moves and the rule does not
The UN desertification conference in Ulaanbaatar marked its Water Day on 25 August. The Asian Development Bank announced a target the same day: at least $2 billion by 2035 for land restoration across Asia and the Pacific. The one text at that conference that would bind anybody, a drought regime, is deadlocked with three days left.
Adilet takes 110 of 145 seats on 71% of the vote
Kazakhstan's Central Election Commission published the seat distribution for the new Kurultai on 25 August. Adilet takes 110 of the 145 seats on 71.17% of the vote, which is 75.9% of the chamber.
Armenia charges its second and third presidents in one case
Armenia's Anti-Corruption Committee detained six people early on 25 August, second president Robert Kocharyan and his son Sedrak among them. The prosecutor had opened public criminal prosecution against Kocharyan on nine counts the day before, and his lawyer confirmed on Tuesday that the charge had been presented. By mid-afternoon the committee said it had brought a charge in the same case against Serzh Sargsyan, the country's third president.
Kazakhstan cuts its oil plan by exactly what the strikes took
On 25 August Kazakhstan's energy ministry took the 2026 oil and condensate plan down to 96 million tonnes and put the losses from strikes on Caspian Pipeline Consortium facilities at about 3.5 million tonnes. The year opened on a plan of 99.55 million. Subtract the loss from the opening plan and you land within 50,000 tonnes of the new figure. On that arithmetic the ministry is assuming nothing back.
Baku and Tashkent agree to count each other's pension years
The pension agreement signed at Sunday's Tashkent summit lets citizens who worked in both countries stack their service years for eligibility, with each state paying the share earned on its territory. The terms were published on Monday; ratification is still ahead.
Georgia's jailed ex-premier gets a new charge priced at 11 to 15 years
Prosecutors charged Irakli Garibashvili on Monday with taking a 750,000 lari bribe, about $290,000, over classified military-hospital procurement during his premiership. Four days earlier he wrote from prison that his father was being threatened with arrest.
Kyrgyzstan gives itself until Friday to move 11,900 medical students
The health ministry says 10,100 university students and 1,800 college students must transfer out of closed medical schools by 28 August, with online classes starting 2 September. How many have actually moved, the ministry is not yet saying.
Mongolia's Chinese fuel target runs through the miners already burning it
The industry ministry has set a target of covering 30% of Mongolia's domestic fuel consumption from China and named the channel: about 30 Chinese-invested mining companies that already burn some 1.2 million tons of diesel a year. August deliveries in the ministry's count total 11,000 tons.
Kazakhstan's cabinet is ordered out, and it plans the next 3 years
The government President Tokayev has told to resign spent Tuesday morning approving Kazakhstan's economic forecast for 2027 to 2029: growth above 5%, exports rising to $88.5 billion, and 5 trillion tenge of targeted National Fund money. The numbers will outlive the cabinet that wrote them.
Anti-corruption officers reach the Kocharyans before parliament resumes
Armenia's Anti-Corruption Committee searched addresses of Robert Kocharyan and his family on Tuesday morning and took the former president to its offices, a day after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told his son from the parliament floor that the family would return its wealth “piece by piece”. The committee has not named the case.
The price of shipping Kazakh oil eases off its record
The Baltic Exchange's weekly report has the Novorossiysk-to-Augusta Suezmax run settling Thursday at WS532, a round trip earning "just under $400,000" a day, almost 40 Worldscale points off in a week.
Pashinyan asks parliament to found the Fourth Republic
Nikol Pashinyan presented the 2026-2031 government programme to the National Assembly on Monday as a change of state: "the Republic of Armenia is transitioning to the historical phase we call the Fourth Republic", built to deliver peace, freedom and security inside 29,743 square kilometres.
Mongolia's mid-year budget spends the money its provinces never did
The government has asked parliament to raise this year's spending ceiling by ₮998 billion ($277 million), all of it unspent balances sitting in provincial accounts, and says it has saved ₮1.4 trillion elsewhere to pay wages, pensions and energy relief. The deficit it amends had already doubled by July.
Five parties are in, and the observers split over the count
Kazakhstan's election commission gave the Kurultai vote its first official numbers on Monday: Adilet at 71.17%, five parties past the 5% bar, turnout trimmed overnight to 74.08%. By evening the OSCE's mission had assessed more than a third of the counts it watched negatively, while the CIS, SCO and Turkic missions cleared the vote in full.
Two Afghans die crossing the Pyanj, Tajikistan's border service says
Tajikistan's State Committee for National Security says border guards killed 2 Afghan citizens who crossed the river at Fatkhobod in the southern district of Jaikhun, ignored demands to stop and put up armed resistance. The guards recovered 17.3 kilograms of hashish, a Kalashnikov rifle and a Makarov pistol.