Russia Reform Monitor: No. 1944
Putin's plan to make friends and influence people;
A shift in energy direction
 
Putin's plan to make friends and influence people;
A shift in energy direction
 
As talks between U.S.-led global negotiators and Iran over its nuclear program resume this week in Geneva, the most welcome shift on the Iranian nuclear front may be occurring thousands of miles away in Washington.
Ukraine suffers more afflictions than Job. Most Western attention focuses on responding to the military confrontation with Russia and then on the economic and political consequences of two decades of oligarchic misrule. However, Ukraine also inherited at independence a genuine crisis in health and demographics, the product of catastrophic policies of the Soviet era compounded by the continuing stress of the post-Soviet transition.
How Putin does political business;
The EU goes wobbly
 
Big gains for DPP in Taiwan;
China accelerates artificial island-building in South China Sea