Thomas Goltz is one of the best-known writers on the Caucasus region. He is a trained Shakespearean actor, and predictably, legendary for eccentricity and drama.

Naftogaz has been trying to lobby support for the U.S. to proceed with sanctions against Nord Stream 2. But U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has described the pipeline as a “fait accompli”.

Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin’s strident warnings that Moscow would tolerate no talk of membership appears to have again deterred the alliance.

The foundations of Azerbaijan’s pragmatic foreign policy were laid by late President Heydar Aliyev in the early 1990s and, today, this has become Azerbaijan’s brand, i.e., the so-called “multi-vector” or “balanced” foreign policy strategy.

On Sunday, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry acknowledged that Armenia had produced long-demanded maps of minefields in at least one key part of formerly Armenian-occupied regions.

Zelensky raged against U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to abandon sanctions against the pipeline and begged the U.S. leader to meet him before a Russia-U.S summit in Geneva on June 16.