One debated question is whether the executive branch can install a new first assistant during a vacancy. Most recently, the executive branch has asserted that it can. For instance, in July 2025, John A. Sarcone III indicated that he was serving as Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York after he was named Special Attorney to the

By itself, the Novorossiysk decree does not remake the system, but it allows the observer to see what has already begun to shift. It clarifies the asymmetries already in play in Kazakhstan’s geoeconomic position, and it underscores the urgency of a systemic response. The decree does not so much act as an immediate threat as it activates a diagnos

The forthcoming renegotiations over Kazakhstan’s major oil fields offer an opportunity for cautious rebalancing. Revisions to local content rules, taxation structures, and dispute resolution mechanisms could incrementally restore state influence, provided they are framed to maintain commercial confidence. Concurrently, a portion of National Fund

Against this backdrop, the once legal-technical re-negotiations over Tengiz, Karachaganak, and Kashagan are situated within a tectonically shifting geopolitical matrix. Trans-Caspian connectors, digital corridors, and regulatory frameworks are coalescing into a new infrastructural logic. The decree has little practical effect for now, but it points

Structural Exposure and Strategic Compression The fiscal layer exposes the shifts. Revenues from Western-operated concessions are routed into the National Fund, which reinvests them into foreign debt instruments, often issued by the same economies that operate Kazakhstan’s extractive infrastructure. Kazakhstan’s export of physical assets and re