Clare Nuttall in Astana
Fri, 2nd Jul -- Astana seems an empty place in winter when the Siberian cold drives the population inside. But in June the Kazakh capital's streets are a hive of activity as gangs of workmen frantically resurface roads and prepare new buildings for the dual birthday celebrations for Astana and President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Clare Nuttall in Aralsk, Kazakhstan
Fri, 23rd Jul -- Fifty years ago the water disappeared from the shores of the Aral Sea, leaving behind it an ecological and economic wasteland plagued by toxic dust storms. Slowly, thanks to a new dam separating the sea into two, it has been creeping back in the northern Kazakh section.

Samantha Shields in Tbilisi
Thu, 15th Jul -- The shift in the geopolitical landscape caused by the US "reset policy" on relations with Russia and Georgia's struggle to tempt back the foreign investors it lost during the war with Russia and global economic crisis mean the country's star as a bastion of reform has dimmed since its glory days following 2003's Rose Revolution.

Clare Nuttall in London
Fri, 9th Jul -- After a first close on $100m in June, the Kazakhstan Capital Restructuring Fund will soon start investing into financially distressed companies in the Central Asian country.

Tim Gosling in Moscow
Wed, 30th Jun -- The economic crisis has put emerging markets in the driving seat of the global recovery and the end of the global economic model that recognizes the US and Europe unquestionably at its core is coming more and more under discussion.

Gabor Hunya of Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies
Wed, 30th Jun -- The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, or WIIW, has released its 6th annual study of FDI in CEE. Not surprisingly, FDI fell heavily in CEE to levels not seen since 2005, but in much of the region FDI is already starting to recover.

Ben Aris in St Petersburg
Tue, 29th Jun -- The Eurasian Development Bank, set up by the governments of Russia and Kazakhstan as a sort of IMF-cum-EBRD of the east and tasked with fermenting mutually beneficial investments into things like cross-border infrastructure, has found itself on the frontline of the crisis in the region.

Robert Anderson in London
Mon, 28th Jun -- Once Austria's RZB wins the approval of shareholders in July to merge with its affiliate Raiffeisen International, it can begin to unlock "enormous synergies," according to Patrick Butler, RZB's board member for financial institutions and investment banking.

Hans Engel, Stephan Lingnau and Friedrich Mostböck of Erste Bank
Tue, 22nd Jun -- Emerging markets have outperformed many a global equity index in the past quarters. Especially, the broader European emerging market indices (eg. Stoxx Eastern Europe) have yet again been among the winners in the year to date. The question now is: how long can this last?

Clare Nuttall in Almaty
Tue, 22nd Jun -- If the Kazakh economy grows by 4% in 2010, as forecast by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Halyk's CEO, Umut Shayakhmetova, expects the banking sector to grow by 8-10%.

Tim Gosling in Moscow
Mon, 7th Jun -- Russian bank Uralsib has come up with a new strategy that aims to profit from mounting fear of a second wave to the crisis. As the euro falls and the ruble stutters from falling oil prices, the bank is offering customers the option of abandoning money altogether and opening accounts denominated in gold.

Clare Nuttall in Almaty
Tue, 15th Jun -- Long-held plans to expand Uzbekistan's Talimarjan power plant are at last being brought to fruition. The $1.28bn project will help the country achieve energy security and generate additional electricity for export, and - investors hope - set new standards for clean energy generation in Central Asia.