Forget about privatization. With the state’s takeover of TNK-BP by Rosneft, Russia is headed for a nosedive into dirigisme economy and the accompanying headaches of stagnation.

TASHKENT – Tuesday, October 18, 2011 – The latest in a series of corruption scandals in Uzbekistan is only a symptom of a much more widespread malaise, experts say. The state news agency carried a report on Tashkent airport last week, saying some of the staff there had been convicted of extortion and forgery. Reports [...]

In a surprise to many international political activists, Uganda’s planned investment more than double in February compared to the previous month, helped by the passage of a presidential election that many believe was held fairly, the state-run Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) recently stated. The east African country, which discovered commercial hydrocarbon deposits in its west [...]

Haitian police led ex-dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier out of his hotel and took him to court today without saying whether he was being charged with crimes committed under his brutal regime. His longtime companion has continued to deny that he had been arrested. A contingent of police led the former dictator known as “Baby Doc” through [...]

Over a decade and a half after the commencement of membership negotiations, 2011 may see Russia’s long awaited entrance into the WTO. Endorsed by the EU and many individual European governments, Russia’s accession to the WTO does not come without concerns from current members and the world community. While this is an important Russian step [...]

The Warsaw Stock Exchange aims to be Poland’s only power trading market, Chief Executive Officer Ludwik Sobolewski said today when asked about the government’s plans to sell its stake in the Polish Power Exchange, or Polpx. The Polish government, the largest shareholder in Polpx with a 22 percent stake, is willing to sell its shares [...]

Democratic Republic of Congo is seeking political stability, battling economic woes and stubborn rebel insurgencies as it gears up for elections due next year. The polls for the presidency and parliament, due to start in November 2011, will be the second since the official end to the 1998-2003 war, which drew in six foreign armies [...]

The long-standing and ongoing boom in commodity prices has given natural resources investors much to cheer about. It’s also revived a leviathan once thought tamed: resource nationalism or “indigenization”. Following a benign period of global deregulation, liberalization and privatization – the “Washington Consensus” of the post-Cold War era – Tim Woods reports that natural resources [...]

The team at 1minutetosavetheworld have published a blog documenting the follow-up from South Korea’s Lee Myung-bak administration last year setting an ambitious goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent below “business-as-usual” projections through 2020 under its low-carbon, green growth vision. Shin Hyon-hee documents in the Korea Herald that the voluntary target, announced on the [...]

Against all odds, Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) has just concluded one of the most successful presidential elections in recent African history, bringing a country which has teetered on the edge of crisis for more than a decade a step closer to implementing a democratically elected civilian government. The process has been described as “the most [...]