In its regional economic outlook report updated in June 2026, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) revised Kyrgyzstan’s forecast downward due to the crisis. recent European sanctions against the republic. According to the EBRD, real GDP has grown rapidly in Kyrgyzstan this year, with growth of 10.1% year-on-year in the first quarter. In the short term, growth is expected to slow slightly but remain robust at 8.7% in 2026 and 7.0% in 2027. Risks loom, but their severity remains subject to debate. “The dominant short-term risk is the 20th EU sanctions package, adopted at the end of April…
Author: Frank M. Everett
The Trump administration appears to operate on two principles. The administration seems to believe that the American people are not paying attention and are stupid.Acting AG Todd Blanche confirmed during his congressional testimony that they were not moving forward with the arms fund, but that Trump and his family would still have lifetime immunity from prosecution for tax crimes. PoliticusUSA provides 100% independent news and opinions. Support us by becoming a subscriber.CNBC reported:The Justice Department will terminate a planned $1.8 billion anti-gun compensation fund that was created to settle a lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump against the Internal Revenue…
Read the original version of this story in Mandarin.Days before the 37th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, several relatives of victims of the crackdown learned they would be barred from visiting their graves this year, they told Radio Free Asia.Members of the Mothers of Tiananmen group representing the families said they had received notice from the Beijing Municipal Security Bureau that, for the first time in more than 30 years, they would not be allowed to enter the premises of Wanan Cemetery, the final resting place of many victims, nor would they be allowed to hold their annual post-funeral…
After receiving a warm welcome in Beijing, Russian President Vladimir Putin landed in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, last week for a state visit and a summit of the Eurasian Economic Union. While the EAEU meeting was full of tensions, notably because of the growing gap between Armenia and Russia, curious about Europe.Putin’s engagements with his Kazakh counterpart, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, have been marked by good nature. The two presidents I planted an oak tree in the “Alley of Eternal Friendship between Kazakhstan and Russia”, which opened in Astana last yearand oversaw the signing of a a dozen chordsthe most important…
Three days before Christmas 2025, while the American people were busy with the holidays, the president announced that he was seeking money from Congress to build a new class of battleships that, unsurprisingly, would be named after Donald Trump.This is how the official press release describes these ships:These new battleships will be the centerpiece of the Navy’s Golden Fleet initiative and will be the first of their kind to provide dominant firepower and a decisive advantage over adversaries by integrating today’s most advanced deep strike weapons with the revolutionary systems of years to come.Designed to outmatch any foreign adversary, the…
It was the exception that proved the rule. On May 29, Prime Minister Balendra Shah addressed the Federal Parliament, two months after taking office on March 27. Shah insists he is a man of “action, not words”. As he repeatedly refused to speak in Parliament – even when it was obligatory under parliamentary rules – pressure continued to grow on the government and the ruling Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) to correct the anomaly. Yet when Shah finally broke his silence, instead of appeasing the opposition parties, his first parliamentary speech ignited a storm. While answering questions from parliamentarians, Shah spoke…
On May 14, Sergei Shoigu, secretary of the Russian Security Council, announcement that Russia and the Afghan Taliban would establish a formal partnership in areas such as security, trade and humanitarian aid. Buried in the announcement was a long-term goal to create agreements on migrant labor between the two countries. Shoigu and other Russian commentators have cited some grievances about the former U.S. presence in Afghanistan, shared concerns about Islamist groups and Russia’s desire to find new allies. The justification put forward is not without merit, but the migrant labor provision points to a different explanation that is easy to…
When US President Donald Trump visited his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping for a two-day summit in mid-May, perhaps no country followed more closely than Japan. Since at least the end of the Cold War, a fundamental principle of Tokyo’s geostrategic posture has been “double hedge,» the implicit strategy of anchoring security in the Japan-US alliance while simultaneously developing strong economic relations, and sometimes interdependence, with China. Over the years, the two sides of the coverage have faced distinct competing pressures that Tokyo has had to continually balance. When it comes to the security alliance with the United States, Japan fears…
In February 2026, Myanmar’s widely condemned “sham” general elections received public support from Ashin Wirathu, founder of the religious fundamentalist 969 and Ma Ba Tha movements and a figure long associated with incitement against gender rights advocates seeking to combat a patriarchal Bamar-Buddhist vision of Myanmar. The approval was not accidental. By lending the junta a claim to religious legitimacy, Wirathu illustrated what Asia Centre’s new report, “Religious Fundamentalism in Myanmar: Post-Coup Repression of Gender Rights,” documents at length: that Buddhist fundamentalism functions in post-coup Myanmar not as a parallel force to military authoritarianism, but as an integral component of…
Debates over the exchange rate in India often proceed as if the price of rupee were just another financial prize best left to market correction and macroeconomic adjustment. In theory, a weakened currency serves a useful balancing function. Imports become more expensive, domestic demand adjusts, exports become more competitive and external imbalances gradually stabilize. It is a classic mechanism, elegant in its abstraction and widely accepted in orthodox macroeconomics. But economies, especially emerging market economies, do not experience exchange rate depreciation in abstraction. They experience it through speculative attacks, fuel prices, transportation costs, electricity bills, food inflation and falling real…