China’s Long-Term Strategy vs The West’s Civil War and Short-Termism While the effectively bankrupt West is tearing itself apart and undermining its society, economy and science, China is not just getting on with it, but forging ahead. A good starting point in understanding what is happening now, with all the…
Read MoreIn August, the Fund had a slightly negative performance of 2.5%, after positioning itself for a QE3 announcement of then unknown timing. The Fund’s overall constructive positioning, however, was of modest proportions, with only a 62% net long exposure, i.e. quite a low “long bias” by the Fund’s historical standards.…
Read MoreThe Caspian Basin’s large oil and gas reserves have not only been long coveted by the United States, Europe, China and India, but are also seen as the means by which the region can be lifted out of poverty. At the same time, the desire for influence in the Trans-Caucasus…
Read MoreMOSCOW. (Ian Pryde for RIA-Novosti) – Last Thursday, Russia’s President Putin arrived in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, for the start of a week-long visit to Central Asia, which will focus on energy. But the visit is not just about oil and gas. Electricity generation and transmission and atomic energy…
Read MoreMOSCOW. (Ian Pryde for RIA Novosti) The inauguration of Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov on February 13 as the new president of Turkmenistan was notable for his speech announcing greater access to the Internet and mobile telephony – a welcome breath of fresh air after Saparmurat Niyazov’s outdated personality cult. But in an…
Read MoreThe steadily improving relations between Russia and China reached a new high earlier this year when the two countries signed 29 bilateral agreements on energy, telecommunications, IT, banking and money laundering during President Vladimir Putin’s March visit to Beijing. In some quarters, these new agreements cemented fears of a strategic…
Read MoreKazakhstan has a long common border with China to the east and has been exporting Caspian oil to China’s north-western province Xinjiang by rail since the 1990s. In 2005, Kazakhstan exported about 30,000 barrels per day to China via the Alashankoy rail crossing – a far cry from the 200,000…
Read MoreBISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan – The bomb attacks in the Uzbek capital Tashkent in August once again appeared to raise the spectre of Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism in Central Asia. But to see Islam as the only – or even the driving – force in Central Asia is a grave error to…
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