The Power Vacuum Creating New Trade Routes Across Eurasia
Iraq Shuts Down Khor Mor Gas Field Amid Security Threats Eurasianet is an independent news organization that covers news from and about the South Caucasus and Central Asia, providing on-the-ground reporting and critical perspectives on… The results of Armenia’s parliamentary election in June dealt Russia’s bid to reassert its grip on the South Caucasus a serious blow, and the reverberations are not confined to Moscow, Washington and Brussels.
For Beijing and Tokyo, both of which have quietly builtstakes in the regionas an overland bridge between Asia and Europe, the election’s outcome, which reaffirmed Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s authority, carries real geoeconomic weight.
Pashinyan’s decisive victory represents a clear popular rejection of his Kremlin-aligned opponents and a significant failure for Moscow’s attempt to install friendlier leadership in Yerevan.
It is also, by extension, asetback for Tehran.
Iran was once a fervent supporter of Armenia due to shared hostility towards Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan’s secular majority Shi’a society is a direct repudiation of Tehran’s heavy-handed authoritarian Islamist governance.
Iran and Russia alike have a defense and security agreement and a regional partnership that relies heavily on the same opposition to Western and Turkish influence that Armenian voters just repudiated.
With Russia badly weakened by the war in Ukraine and Iran preoccupied with its lingering confrontation with the United States and Israel, bothtraditional powers in the South Caucasusare more constrained than at any point in decades.
That vacuum matters enormously for Asian economies that have spent the last several years searching for trade routes that do not run through Russian or Iranian territory.
Since 2022, China has poureddiplomatic and commercial energyinto the Middle Corridor – the trans-Caspian route linking China to Europe via Central Asia, the Caspian Sea, the South Caucasus, and Turkey – deliberately bypassing sanctioned Russian rail lines.
Beijing has treated this corridor as a hedge for its Belt and Road ambitions: a way to keep goods moving westward even if Russia remains a sanctioned partner.
It could also be a long-term strategic lifeline in the event of a conflict with the West.
| Product | Price | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Brent Crude | $102.14/bbl | +0.34% |
| WTI Crude | $96.90/bbl | +0.21% |
| EN590 Diesel | $846/MT | +0.18% |
| Jet Fuel A-1 | $1090/MT | +0.55% |
| Mazut M100 | $450/MT | -0.15% |
| Bitumen 60/70 | $470/MT | +0.08% |
| Sulphur Gran 99.5% | $470/MT | -0.44% |
| Urea 46% Gran | $650/MT | +1.12% |
| NPK 16-16-16 | $460/MT | -0.28% |
| Nat Gas TTF | $15.42/MMBtu | +0.92% |
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