When reporters asked if Sauat Mynbayev co-owns a company that made millions from gas and oil deals with Kazakhstan while he was the country’s oil minister, there was a one sentence reply.

Two former Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc executives pleaded guilty to U.S. charges that they orchestrated international bribes at the engine maker for more than a decade.

Mukhtar Ablyazov, the fugitive Kazakh billionaire wanted on corruption charges in several European countries, has agreed a deal for Belgian citizenship and immunity as the legal net tightens around him in neighboring France.

Russian policy based on its misreading of the West, and especially on its misunderstanding of its own neighbors, can only frustrate.

An escalating diplomatic and trade dispute between Kazakhstan and its smaller central Asian neighbour Kyrgyzstan is hurting companies as far away as London, and pressure is growing on Russia to step in and reconcile its allies.

For close to a year, the U.S.-Russian focus has centered around whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia in an effort to undermine Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.