I recently spent a week in Azerbaijan, talking to local activists, experts and Baku-based diplomats about their views on the worsening human rights situation and what the EU could do about it. Many of these discussions were reminiscent of the tens of debates about yet another autocratic Eastern European country – Belarus. Sadly, most conclusions […]

Kazakhstan’s long-standing president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, has had a good beginning of the New Year. Protest by energy-sector workers in Zhanaozen, which left at least 15 people dead in December, petered out in January. Parliamentary “elections” which took place on January 15th went according to the script: the pro-presidential party Nur Otan won, with two smaller […]