Sanctions Deliver a Growing Blow to Russia’s Oil Economy

Kazakhstan is gradually increasing its oil exports through Azerbaijan, strengthening the country’s role as a key transit energy hub in the Caspian region and reflecting broader changes in Eurasian energy logistics.

Kazakhstan has taken a step that its leadership portrays as a historic recalibration of the state. In a nationwide referendum held on March 15, voters overwhelmingly backed a new constitution that reshapes the country’s political architecture and embeds a sweeping narrative of Kazakh statehood stretching back more than a millennium.

A series of drone strikes on Russian oil pipeline infrastructure in the Black Sea have disrupted shipments of Kazakh crude via the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), exposing the vulnerability of one of Central Asia’s most important export routes amid the war in Ukraine.

On January 29, former Armenian President Robert Kocharyan announced his intention to return to power in Armenia. He explained his decision by saying he wanted to 'the country from the crisis into which Pashinyan's team had led Armenia.