The continuing rise and fall of the water surface of the Caspian Sea has puzzled scientists and worried fishermen and tourist operators for centuries. Now, prophets of doom and gloom predict a point of no return, indicating that the Caspian Sea could be threatened by the same fate choking its counterpart to the east, the Aral Sea.

The East’s counterpart to the European Union, the Russia-dominated Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), seems determined to avoid political pitfalls and focus exclusively on economics. At the May 25 summit in Moscow, leaders of its member states agreed to speed up the block’s consolidation rather than seek swift expansion.

Overlapping high-level meetings saw both China and the EU separately working on economic cooperation measures with five Central Asian countries. But that doesn’t mean that Russia has been sidelined, argues Charles van der Leeuw.

As the West considers expanding sanctions to include other countries, some believe this could actually work to consolidate alliances with Russia.