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The arithmetic of gratitude
OpinionOpinion12 Aug

The arithmetic of gratitude

On 15 August Ulaanbaatar's drivers stop queuing by their plate numbers and start driving by them. Peter Lidovsky on a city that has scheduled its relief and its restriction for the same morning.

Afghanistan signs up to buy the gas it agreed to carry
EnergyBrief12 Aug

Afghanistan signs up to buy the gas it agreed to carry

Türkmengaz and Afghan Gas have signed a memorandum under which Afghanistan will purchase TAPI gas for its own needs. The transit country is becoming a customer, at a price not yet negotiated.

The corridor through Armenia acquires a second cargo
AnalysisAnalysis12 Aug

The corridor through Armenia acquires a second cargo

Ilham Aliyev says the project to run power lines to Nakhchivan across Armenian territory is ready, and that large electricity exports will follow. A route agreed as a road and a railway is being loaded, on one side's drawings, with a grid.

Inflation reaches 13% in the country that counts petrol by the litre
EconomyBrief12 Aug

Inflation reaches 13% in the country that counts petrol by the litre

Mongolia's July consumer prices rose 13.0% year on year, and the central bank called its monetary policy committee into an extraordinary session for Wednesday afternoon. The fuel ledger, meanwhile, is declared full for August, on Ulaanbaatar's arithmetic alone.

The injured are recounted before the dead can fly home
EnergyBrief12 Aug

The injured are recounted before the dead can fly home

Uzbekistan's working group reached Nizhnekamsk on Tuesday evening. The special flight it came to organise still has no date, and the official counts of the wounded moved twice in a day.

Nine hours over Novorossiysk, and the tanker due Thursday stays dark
EnergyBrief12 Aug

Nine hours over Novorossiysk, and the tanker due Thursday stays dark

Russia's largest Black Sea port spent the night of 11-12 August under a combined drone attack that ran past nine hours. The crude tanker due at the CPC terminal on Thursday morning has meanwhile been silent on AIS for more than 40 hours.

Russia's first answer on the Black Sea moratorium comes from a Duma deputy
Turkish FactorBrief11 Aug

Russia's first answer on the Black Sea moratorium comes from a Duma deputy

Turkey's proposal for a moratorium on maritime strikes drew its first Russian pushback on Tuesday, at parliamentary level.

Kazakhstan sets its state chatbot a target of 150 services
EconomyBrief11 Aug

Kazakhstan sets its state chatbot a target of 150 services

The Tuesday cabinet in Astana spent its session on digital government and came out with dates. eGov GPT goes from 50 services to 150 by the end of the year, every public service centre becomes an artificial intelligence office by December, and the action plan for the whole programme is due within a week.

Mongolia's ministry publishes the Moscow promise, and Russia says nothing
EnergyBrief11 Aug

Mongolia's ministry publishes the Moscow promise, and Russia says nothing

The claim that Russia will send Mongolia an extra 25,000 tonnes of petrol this month moved on Tuesday from a minister's social account to his ministry's own website. No Russian institution has confirmed it.

Moscow answers Armenia's trade complaint with a calendar
PoliticsAnalysis11 Aug

Moscow answers Armenia's trade complaint with a calendar

Nikol Pashinyan named the Russian import restrictions at the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council on Friday. Russia replied on Tuesday. The reply came from the foreign ministry, and it carried three dates.

Uzbekistan's answer to eight dead workers is a special flight
SecurityBrief11 Aug

Uzbekistan's answer to eight dead workers is a special flight

Tashkent's response to the deaths of eight of its citizens at Nizhnekamsk arrived on Tuesday as logistics. A working group flew to Kazan, the emergencies ministry said the bodies would come home on a special flight, and no Uzbek government text named who fired the drones.

The shipping war’s damaged ships head for the yards
Turkish FactorBrief11 Aug

The shipping war’s damaged ships head for the yards

Two of the vessels hit off Novorossiysk this month now have names and destinations: the container ship LDR Yasar is under damage assessment in Samsun, and the dry cargo carrier Gulluk is sailing to Istanbul for repairs.

Rosatom signs for 100 megawatts of Kyrgyz wind
EnergyBrief11 Aug

Rosatom signs for 100 megawatts of Kyrgyz wind

Rosatom’s wind arm, the Russian-Kyrgyz Development Fund and the Eurasian Development Bank have signed for a 100 MW wind farm at Kok-Moinok in the Issyk-Kul region. The signature is five days old; the full public record of it assembled only this week.

Kazakhstan’s economy grows around its shrinking oil
EconomyAnalysis11 Aug

Kazakhstan’s economy grows around its shrinking oil

Seven-month GDP growth of 4.1% arrived on Tuesday morning with a second number attached: oil output down 8.9% year on year, at 53.2 million tonnes. It is an official, national-perimeter production number that takes in the crisis weeks, and it lands while the July numbers that would price them stay unpublished.

A drone strike on Tatarstan kills eight Uzbek workers
SecurityBrief11 Aug

A drone strike on Tatarstan kills eight Uzbek workers

Ukrainian drones struck Nizhnekamsk in Tatarstan on Monday and killed at least 13 people, among them 8 Uzbek construction workers and a 30-year-old Tajik. Tashkent formed a government commission the same day and flies a working group to Russia today.

Russia agrees to send Mongolia 25,000 more tonnes of petrol
EnergyBrief11 Aug

Russia agrees to send Mongolia 25,000 more tonnes of petrol

Industry and mineral resources minister Damdinnyam Gongor met Russian energy ministry leadership and executives of Rosneft and Gazprom Neft in Moscow on Monday, and came away with a promise of 25,000 additional tonnes of AI-92 and 5,000 tonnes of jet fuel by 31 August. By his account, that ends the case for rationing.

Central Asia agrees to meter the Syr Darya
EconomyBrief10 Aug

Central Asia agrees to meter the Syr Darya

The Interstate Commission for Water Coordination approved the development of a plan for automated water accounting across the Syr Darya basin at its 94th session in Turkestan, the Chronicles of Turkmenistan reported on Monday, citing Report.az.

Tashkent’s IT zone gets English law until 2100
EconomyBrief10 Aug

Tashkent’s IT zone gets English law until 2100

Uzbekistan’s Senate approved the constitutional law on Enterprise Uzbekistan, an international digital-technologies centre in Tashkent with a special jurisdiction built on elements of English law and a lifespan written to the year 2100.

Nine trips in a year: Mongolia’s fuel envoy starts in Moscow
EnergyBrief10 Aug

Nine trips in a year: Mongolia’s fuel envoy starts in Moscow

The minister running Mongolia’s fuel crisis named his route on Sunday: Moscow first, then Kazakhstan, then Beijing. The itinerary carries its own message: whatever China agrees to supply, the system still runs through Russia.

The Washington peace marks its first year in phone calls and freight
PoliticsBrief10 Aug

The Washington peace marks its first year in phone calls and freight

Nikol Pashinyan spent the anniversary of the 8 August 2025 Washington summit on the phone, first with Ilham Aliyev, then with Donald Trump. The operative line came in the second call: construction of the TRIPP corridor is to start “in the near future”.