On January 23, the Council of the European Union (EU) agreed to establish a civilian monitoring mission in Armenia’s border areas in order to “ensure an environment conducive to normalization efforts between Armenia and Azerbaijan”. The deployment of the mission has caused mixed reactions in the two countries and frustrated Russia, writes Vasif Huseynov in this op-ed for commonspace.eu.
Mongolia and the United States of America have agreed to establish direct air travel routes.
Meeting in Washington DC on Tuesday (24 January), Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs Richard T. Yoneoka, and Mongolian State Secretary of the Ministry of Road and Transport Development Batbold Sandagdorj, signed a Memorandum of Consultations finalising the first ever bilateral air transport agreement between the two countries.
The Russian parliament has postponed the construction of some key roads in the country due to a lack of money, reported Kommersant on Monday (23 January).
After reviewing the "Highway Operations Plan for 2023-2027", Kommersant found that a number of key road construction projects have been postponed, some to as late as 2027. Many road-building projects that were supposed to commence construction in the coming years have now only had money allocated for their design and planning.
In early January 2023, amid the freezing temperatures and power blackouts of Bucha - the Kyiv suburb now infamous for it being the location of Russian massacres of Ukrainian civilians in early 2022 - there popped up a Kazakh yurt where residents were served free traditional Kazakh food and tea, could keep warm and could charge their electronic devices. Soon after, another yurt appeared in downtown Kyiv.