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Azeri Light clears $97, half again the oil price written into Baku's budget
Azerbaijan's export blend was priced at $97.61 a barrel on Wednesday morning, up $4.72 or 5.08% on the day, APA reported; the 2026 state budget was drawn at $65.

The OPEC Fund lends Dushanbe $30 million for 82 km of the road to China
The Vienna-based fund will finance the first stage of the Rushan to Varzesh reconstruction in Gorno-Badakhshan, 82.2 of 235 km on the corridor that runs from Dushanbe through Kulma to the Chinese border, Asia-Plus reported on Wednesday.

Mongolia's premier hears Moscow's fuel pledge in Vladivostok while 165 rural stations run below normal
Nyam-Osoryn Uchral met Russia's energy minister Sergei Tsivilev at the Eastern Economic Forum and heard that Russia keeps Mongolia's supply stable under their intergovernmental agreements despite its export restrictions, Montsame reported on Thursday. At home, the ministry's own count says 200 of 365 rural stations were working normally on 30 August.

Turkmenbashi's refinery burned 2 days after the president approved its repair
On the evening of Sunday 30 August, as the grid failed across 4 provinces, a unit at the Turkmenbashi refinery complex caught fire, Chronicles of Turkmenistan and turkmen.news report; Chronicles says it burned until 06:00. On Friday 28 August the cabinet readout on the state site had recorded the president approving capital repairs at the complex and 'everything necessary' being done for its power supply. By Wednesday the state site had said nothing about the fire or the blackout.

Mongolia's parliament returns on 7 September to rewrite this year's budget
The Speaker's Council called an extraordinary session of the State Great Khural for 7 to 14 September with one item on it: the amendment to the 2026 budget. The 2027 draft filed on 31 August, the one that suspends the spending rule, is not on the list.

Khachatryan gets 2 months in the jail that already holds Kocharyan
A Yerevan court ordered Gagik Khachatryan, the former finance minister and tax chief, held for 2 months, Sputnik Armenia and Kommersant reported on Wednesday morning. He goes to the Yerevan-Kentron detention centre, where Robert Kocharyan has been since last week, and the Human Rights Defender has opened an inquiry over a video of him that circulated online.

Kazakhstan brings Tleuberdi back from Vienna to run its foreign ministry
Mukhtar Tleuberdi, foreign minister from 2019 to 2023 and ambassador in Vienna since then, was appointed foreign minister again by decree on Wednesday. His is the first ministerial name of the government whose prime minister the Kurultai approved on Monday, on day 3 of the 10 days the law allows.

Russian exchange petrol prints a record $86 under the price Bishkek fixed
AI-92 rose 4.36% to 75,477 roubles a tonne on the St Petersburg exchange on Tuesday, a level Kommersant reports as a record, while AI-95 and diesel fell. At the central bank's rate for the day that is about $874, within $90 of the $960 reference price Kyrgyzstan wrote into its subsidy decree last week.

Tbilisi asks a court to send its pardoned Russian back to Russia
The Migration Department filed a petition with Tbilisi City Court on Tuesday to expel Denis Kulanin to Russia, 2 days after the same court allowed him to leave for a third country. He is still in the migration centre with a ticket to Yerevan he cannot use.

A 4-hour blackout crosses four Turkmen provinces without an official word
Power failed across Ashgabat and the Ahal, Mary, Lebap and Balkan provinces at about 17:30 on Sunday, 30 August, and came back district by district over the next 7 hours. Three independent channels have described it since; the government has described nothing.

Ulaanbaatar's 2027 budget suspends its own spending rule for a year
The government sent parliament a 2027 budget on Monday with 41.3 trillion tugriks of revenue, 43.6 trillion of spending and a 2.3 trillion deficit, and asked to switch off the spending ceiling of the Fiscal Stability Law for the year. The exemption is justified by one-off money: state-company and Oyu Tolgoi dividends, domestic securities and last year's carry-overs.

Armenia's former tax chief is carried into court on a stretcher
Gagik Khachatryan, who ran the State Revenue Committee and then the finance ministry under Serzh Sargsyan, was taken from his home by Investigative Committee officers on Tuesday and delivered to court lying down. The detention is the milestone the new case opened on 29 August had been pointing to.

Turkmenistan's exchange bulletin returns with a $7.3 million week
The state commodity exchange published a weekly trade report for the last week of August: 8 transactions, just over $7.27 million in foreign-currency sales and 8.2 million manat in domestic deals. Buyers came from the UAE, Turkey and Afghanistan.

A pardoned Russian's ticket out of Georgia expires in a migration cell
Denis Kulanin, released from a protest-case sentence by presidential pardon on 28 August, spent 1 September in Tbilisi's temporary migrant detention center while a ticket to Yerevan bought for him went unused. The migration service wants a court-ordered deportation, and voluntary exit is blocked until a judge rules.

Dushanbe and Yerevan agree to convene their economic commission
Rahmon and Pashinyan used the SCO sidelines in Bishkek to line up the next session of the Tajik-Armenian intergovernmental commission on trade and economic cooperation, with business forums to follow. No documents were signed.

Armenia opens a new case against the man who ran its taxes and treasury
The Investigative Committee announced a new criminal case against Gagik Khachatryan, a former finance minister and former head of the State Revenue Committee, and said he would be detained. Prosecutors want 210 properties, stakes in 29 companies and 33 billion drams, about $85 million, forfeited.

The SCO leaves Bishkek with 28 documents and two new centers
The 25th anniversary summit closed on 1 September with 28 signed texts, the Bishkek Declaration at the top: charter amendments that add two new bodies to the organization's structure, a roadmap for settling more trade in national currencies, and sectoral programs running to 2030.

Tashkent and Beijing set a $30 billion target
Mirziyoyev and Xi met in Bishkek on Monday and agreed to lift bilateral trade from about $18 billion to $30 billion, by the Uzbek president's press service.

Xi promises Mongolia fuel as its August petrol book closes 8.4% short
Xi Jinping affirmed in Bishkek that China will keep supplying Mongolia with petroleum products through the market's instability. At home, the prime minister's task force closed August with petrol arrivals 8.4% short of orders, and diesel delivered in full.

Charter amendments top the SCO's anniversary pile in Bishkek
The organisation's heads of state met in Bishkek today over a Bishkek Declaration and more than 20 documents, charter amendments among them. The final texts were still unpublished as this edition went to print.