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2 I Contents bne March 2025
Senior editorial board
Ben Aris
editor-in-chief & publisher I Berlin +49 17664016602 I baris@bne.eu
Clare Nuttall
news editor I Glasgow
+44 7766 513641 I cnuttall@bne.eu
William Conroy
editor Eurasia & SE Europe I Prague
+420 774 849 172 I wconroy@intellinews.com
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COMPANIES & MARKETS
4 Kaliningrad becomes an energy island after Baltic States cut Russian grid connection
5 Central and Eastern European banks defy expectations with robust 2024 earnings, says RBI
8 “Unchained” Trump is main risk to broadly positive Emerging Europe growth prospects
10 China enhances position as Central Asia’s economic overlord
11 Russia’s Mir cards remain an open question in India
12 Germany’s Russian LNG imports surge over 500% in 2024, via other countries
13 Ukraine eyes key role in Azerbaijani gas transit to Europe
15 Russian gas supplies to Europe via TurkStream hit new all-time high in January
16 Business attacks Erdogan
18 Iraq and Switzerland sign tax treaty to boost economic cooperation
19 AI consuming more electricity than Kyrgyzstan, conference hears
20 Croatian Telecom to spin off mobile infrastructure
21 Czech National Bank could become the first European central bank to add Bitcoin to its reserves
22 Hungarian e-commerce platforms falling behind regional peers on local turf
23 Forest fires drive up Ukraine war emissions
24 Serbia’s second renewables auction attracts global investment
26 Azerbaijan positions itself as a key player in the global hydrogen economy
27 Saudi philanthropic foundation launches AI platform to track global climate change
COVER FEATURE
28 Ukraine doesn't have any rare earth metals, and the strategic minerals it does have are not worth trillions of dollars
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