Edition of 1 September 2026

5 stories filed on this issue date.

Section

SCO Summit 2026 - Putin, Pashinyan hold first face-to-face meeting since Armenia’s elections

The Big Talk of Pashinyan - Who Does He Think He Is Fooling?

Nikol Pashinyan arrived at the SCO summit in Bishkek talking about “multipolarity”, strategic relations with Russia and Armenia's desire to cooperate with everyone. Yet behind the diplomatic language lies a contradiction that becomes harder to disguise: Armenia has legally launched a process toward European Union membership while continuing to enjoy the economic advantages of the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union. How long can Yerevan really sit on two chairs?

By EuroAsia.News · 1 September 2026 · 22:14 · 3 min read

EU
EAEU
Armenia
Russia
EuroAsia

China is a front-runner in the global race to launch central bank digital currencies (CBDC)

Crypto

Digital Ruble vs Digital Yuan - Can Russia and China Build a Sanctions-Resistant Payment Network?

Russia's mass-market digital ruble rollout begins just as China's digital yuan is moving increasingly into cross-border trade. Together, the two systems raise a strategically important possibility: direct digital settlement between two of Eurasia's largest economies without depending on dollar clearing or Western correspondent banks. The technology increasingly exists. The more difficult questions are interoperability, exchange rates, regulation and whether Beijing actually wants to move that quickly.

By EuroAsia.News · 1 September 2026 · 10:53 · 4 min read

Crypto
Economy
Russia
China
Finance
Trade

The Digital Ruble launches. Already a staggering 85% of all transactions in Russia are now conducted without physical currency, surging to 90% or higher in 2026.

Finance

Russia Launches the Digital Ruble - Moscow Moves Ahead of Europe as America Bets on Stablecoins

Russia begins the large-scale rollout of the digital ruble today, 1 September 2026, moving its central-bank digital currency from a controlled experiment into everyday banking. The project puts Russia years ahead of the planned digital euro in public deployment — but follows a fundamentally different model from the United States, which has rejected a federal CBDC and is instead building its digital-money strategy around privately issued dollar stablecoins.

By EuroAsia.News · 1 September 2026 · 09:47 · 4 min read

Digital Ruble
Crypto
Russia
Euro
Economy

EuroAsia

SCO vs G7 - Which Bloc Has the Greater Economic Power?

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the G7 represent two very different concentrations of global power. The G7 remains substantially richer in nominal dollar terms and dominates international finance, while the SCO contains more than four times as many people, enormous energy and mineral resources and — measured by purchasing power — an economy that is already larger. The comparison shows why the economic centre of gravity is steadily shifting toward Eurasia.

By EuroAsia.News · 1 September 2026 · 09:04 · 4 min read

Eurasia
G7
SCO
Europe
Trade
Economy

SCO Summit Bishkek/Tajikistan September 1, 2026

EuroAsia

SCO at 25 - From Border-Security Group to a Eurasian Powerhouse

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation marks its 25th anniversary at its summit in Bishkek with China, Russia, India and the major powers of Central Asia around the same table. What began in 2001 as a security organisation of six states has developed into a Eurasian grouping representing more than 3.4 billion people, around a quarter of the global economy and some of the world's largest reserves of energy and strategic minerals. The central question for its next 25 years is whether that enormous potential can be converted into deeper economic integration.

By EuroAsia.News · 1 September 2026 · 08:42 · 4 min read

Eurasia
Middle Corridor
Nordic Route
Trans Caspian
Energy