Russia’s trade and investment with Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia is increasing as the region becomes more integrated with the larger INSTC multimodal logistics network throughout to the Middle East, East Africa, and South Asia. Discover the Caucasus as a strategic business and logistics hub connecting Russia and Asia. Explore transport corridors, trade opportunities, and investment potential in this critical economic region.
Russia’s Rosatom Renewables has placed a tender for wind power evaluations for energy projects in all the CIS countries, including Russia, as well as Georgia and Vietnam. The combined resources will provide 300 million MW to Eurasia’s energy requirements.
Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran have agreed on digitalising their road freight transport connectivity, in moves that make cross-border transits more efficient and are likely to lead to driverless drone trucks being utilised for trilateral road freight journeys in the near future.
The North Caucasus Investment Forum showcased an up and coming region of southern Russia that is creating a specific transport corridor from the Russian heartland to the Middle East and Central Asia. We deep dive the economic progress and provide a thorough analysis of developments in this enigmatic and little understood region.
Russian President Putin has met with Abkhazia’s President Badra Gunba in Moscow. Abkhazia is a semi-autonomous Black Sea state with a contested geopolitical status, limiting access to global financial institutions, multilateral development banks, and Western capital markets. However, Russia and Abkhazia are putting into place a 5 year development plan aimed to increase Abkhazia’s GDP by 60% in 2030 and to raise income levels to similar values as Russia. We discuss these plans and the implications.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has met with the South Ossetian President, Alan Gagloev, in Moscow. South Ossetia is a semi-autonomous, partially recognised state in the north Caucasus that ceded from Georgia in 2008. The South Ossetian economy is heavily reliant on Russia, however a new strategic development plan has been agreed that aims to increase the countries GDP by 60% by the end of 2030. We examine the details.
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Russia has begun exporting aluminium to Armenia via rail and Azerbaijan transit in signs that bilateral relations between the two South Caucasus nations is returning to normality after years of hostility.
The latest Russia-Azerbaijan Intergovernmental Commission has been held in Zangilan, in the Azerbaijan’s Eastern Zangezur region, to inspire attention in developing the recent Armenian deposed area. Also discussed were connectivity issues with Iran’s Rascht-Astara railway, with construction currently suspended due to the Iran war.
Despite reports to the contrary, the Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has addressed the Armenian Parliament this week and stated that relations with Russia were at their highest-ever level. While political differences remain, the two countries are closely intertwined in trade with Russia responsible for 37% of Armenian exports.
Russia’s Rosmorport is negotiating the construction of a maritime hub in Abkhazia, servicing the Black Sea region. Other investors from Africa and Asia are also involved in the project, which would reduce Abkhazia’s dependence on Russian ports and provide additional Black Sea logistics alternatives.
Azerbaijan is targeting an increase of Russian tourist visitors during 2026 and is hoping to attract upwards of 750,000 arrivals over the year. Russian tourist are becoming sought after they abandon European vacations due to the unfriendliness and opt for eastern destinations. Russians also now spend more overseas than European tourists do as the Eurozone economies enter recession and cost of living expenses increase.
Georgia, like several other Caucasus and Eurasian countries, has evaluated its energy security in the wake of the Iranian conflict and is to increase supplies of fuel from Russia. Their situation is vastly different from Europe which is cut off from Middle Eastern supplies, is politically estranged from Russia and is coming under increasing Ukrainian supply chain chokeholds as Kiev wields economic leverage over the EU and is capable of causing immense political support damage.
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