Russia

The death of Gorbachev and Queen Elizabeth, the Pope in Central Asia, the war in the Caucasus and the Ukrainian counteroffensive, Xi Jinping's trip: all events that evoke the end of a era, to make way for a world as yet to be described.

The two leaders meet on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit. The Russian leader fully backs China's Taiwan policy, and appreciates Beijing’s “balanced" position on Ukraine. For his part, the Chinese president spreads his wings in Central Asia, the Kremlin’s traditional turf.

Catholics from Central Asia and Russia travelled to Nur-Sultan to take part in the papal Mass. Inspired by the meeting between the world’s religious leaders, the pontiff calls for a Church open to God’s future, never brandishing “the cross of Christ against our brothers and sisters for whom he gave his life!” He ended the service, appealing for peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia in the wake of the latest fighting.

In his first meetings in Kazakhstan, the pontiff was met by the splendour of palaces that former President Nazarbayev built in a capital that has changed names five times in a century. In a country where Cyrillic still prevails, the changing script in Kazakh-language signs are symptomatic of a country caught between a Russo-centric imperial past and a new Turkic-speaking future promoted by current President Tokayev.

A new railway line to bring Mongolian coal to Chinese territory opens. Construction work on a new Russian gas pipeline to supply China through Mongolia is due to start in 2024. The United States is also playing its geopolitical game in the region amid rising friction between Beijing and Ulaanbaatar.

​The Chinese embassy in Ukraine wanted to prevent the creation of a friendship group with Taiwan in the Kiev parliament. Its promoter denounces the 'Soviet' methods of Beijing, which refused to help Ukrainian civilians when the conflict broke out. Broad support among Taiwanese for the Ukrainian cause.

The city's historic building would become the local headquarters of Caritas. An initiative of auxiliary monsignor Nikolai Dubinin. The building was originally used as a shelter for homeless Catholics; confiscated during the Soviet era, it retained its charitable purpose. It would help the many assistance centres opened by Catholics in European Russia, often under legal and logistical conditions that are still rather precarious.

Without “foreign agents” Russia would not be Russia, starting with the metropolitans sent by Constantinople to Christianise Kievan Rus'. Perhaps no country can truly be itself without influences from near and far.

The visit is also an indication that the Chinese president feels confident enough about his status at home on the eve of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of China. Bilateral deals are set to be signed. Kazakhstanis look to China to counter Russia's influence. Beijing is courting a major provider of raw materials and energy, but bilateral relations are not free from tensions.

Belarus is in the grips of an economic crisis, hit by Western sanctions for its support of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In the first half of 2022 Belarusian GDP fell by 6%. The Kremlin's economic aid is deemed insufficient. Belarusian expert: we have gone back 10 years.

A first memorandum was signed in July, but a former junta sought Russian (and North Korean) help in the 1990s and 2000s to develop atomic energy. Tuesday, a nuclear cooperation agreement was signed in Vladivostok during General Aung Min Hlaing’s visit. Myanmar will buy Russian oil and pay in roubles.

A return to Marxism-Leninism lessons of Soviet times updated to current imperial-orthodox ideology. Activist: the effects of war propaganda must be monitored. Many families try to switch to homeschooling.