This weeks news is all about expansion. The joint Russia and India joint military trade is seeing production exports spilling out across Southeast Asia, while expansion trends are evident with improved financial links between Central Asia and the Middle East. Eleven new members of the Eurasian Development Bank is symptomatic of new trade corridors and finance opening up. In Africa, Russia is opening four new Embassies, Iraq is considering BRICS membership, while Turkmenistan has re-joined Russia gas supplies after a ten year hiatus. Elsewhere, we discuss Russia’s embrace of multiculturalism at a time when it has become divisive in the West.