For the big day, Putin opted to stage an informal gathering of six leaders from post-Soviet states — Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan — in St. Petersburg. The formal meeting of the barely functional Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is scheduled next week in the Kazakhstani capital of Astana (recently renamed back from Nur-Sultan). The Russian president described the content-free gathering as a “good tradition,” perhaps reflecting on his 50th birthday at the CIS summit in Chisinau, Moldova, when, at the time, his reform agenda inspired hope for meaningful cooperation (Interfax, October 7). Presently, Putin’s wishes are mostly for charting backroads to circumvent Western sanctions, and he has tried his best to eliminate tensions with reform-minded Kazakhstani President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who has preferred to comply with the West’s sanctions regime (Kommersant, October 6). A call from Erdogan Among the few congratulatory telephone ca
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