Russian President Medvedev will meet the Armenian leader Serzh Sargsyan in Astana this weekend. The diplomatic bandwagon rolls on but the Russian leadership is now realising that finding a peaceful solution to the Karabakh conflict is not easy.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan dismissed once again prospects for damage to the Turkish economy from global economic troubles and said the Turks should not cut spending, although this did not mean they should waste their resources either

Russia is continuing with diplomatic efforts to keep the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement process on track. There are however also other issues on the Russia-Azerbaijan agenda.

Medvedev is also expected to meet the Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan in Astana later in the week.

Within the next 3-4 years Karabakh will not only ensure its energy independence but also to become electric power exporter

Armenia is a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation but Azerbaijan is not and Aliev will not be at the Astana summit.

“Bummer!” – this is how the Azeri president would have qualified the Russian president’s straight-from-the-shoulder remark on Nagorno-Karabakh in his interview with Russia Today and First Informational Caucasus TV channels and Echo of Moscow radio company with regard to Saakashvili’s military speculation in August 2008.

The Georgia-Russia War of August 2008 lasted only five days. By the end nothing much had changed on the ground. Yet the political fallout from the war has implications in the rest of the Caucasus and beyond.

The war internationalised the Caucasus Region

“We will show the appropriate reaction if any further step is taken,” Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu told reporters. He said the Greek Cypriot administration does not have the right to embark on oil and gas exploration in the Mediterranean unless the Cyprus issue is resolved and a government representing the entire island is formed.