Venable cut ties with Gazprom, the Russian gas monopoly used as a political tool by the country's strong man Vladimir Putin, effective March 31. The DC legal/lobbying firm collected $250K during the year ended April 30, according to its federal filing.

The emergence of the Eurasian Economic Union raises concerns about growing isolation from the west. In the Palace of Independence in Astana, the post-Soviet capital of Kazakhstan, the three heads of state rose to their feet in front of a 1,000-strong audience of senior officials, and somewhat awkwardly gave themselves a round of applause.

Uzbekistan's president on Friday criticised a new economic union clinched last month between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, warning of a loss of political independence for the ex-Soviet countries.



As the agency strives to craft a cuddly new image, we mustn't allow it to whitewash its history of torture and murder. In the latest CIA coup, America's leading spooks have sent the Twittersphere into a frenzy with their chucklesome debut on social media: "We can neither confirm nor deny that this is our first tweet." How droll! More than a quarter of a million people have retweeted what has been described as "the best first tweet possible". No wonder: it's one of the world's most secretive organisations being self-deprecating, light-hearted, even – dare I say it? – cute.

There is an old adage in Kazakhstan: "Happiness is multiple pipelines." For the oil-and-gas rich Caspian country, keeping up good relations with a handful of customers -- namely, Russia, China, and the West -- at all times, without engaging too deeply with a single player, has been a guiding foreign policy principle since it gained independence in 1991.

Rakhat Aliyev, the Kazakh president's former son-in-law, has been detained in Austria while under investigation for alleged crimes including murder and running a crime network in the Central Asian country, his lawyer said.