Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent diplomatic push into Central Asia yielded high-minded rhetoric but few substantive gains, as Kazakhstan resisted Kremlin pressure on trade and labor, foreign policy expert Paul Goble told Kyiv Post.
Faced with limited returns in Astana, Putin dedicated a significant portion of his post-visit press conference to lecturing Armenia – a move Goble described as a sign of Moscow’s anxiety over its fading influence in the former Soviet space.
The remarks came as Moscow has intensified pressure on Yerevan over its pro-European course. Russia has warned Armenia that it could lose preferential fuel and energy arrangements if it continues its EU path, while the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union has raised the possibility of suspending Armenia over its European ambitions.
While Moscow hoped to secure critical concessions during the high-level talks, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev used his diplomatic experience to protect Astana’s strategic autonomy, Goble said.
International Glance
Dmitry Medvedev,
Trump’s Board of Peace for Gaza has raised no money into its official World Bank fund four months after launch and multibillion-dollar pledges, the Financial Times reported. Instead, donors have sent limited contributions to a private JPMorgan account that is not subject to the same independent oversight, with none of the promised US support being deployed for rebuilding on the ground yet.
In a historic first for Germany, nearly 700 students at the University of Leipzig voted almost unanimously on 19 May to demand that their university sever all ties with Israeli academic institutions over the genocide in Gaza.





























