Kazakhstan’s military and security relationship with Russia, strong and rooted in common interests and approaches expressed through bilateral and multilateral defense cooperation, shows signs of deepening in new ways that reveal some of the most pressing priorities of Kazakhstan’s defense policies. In Eastern Kazakhstan from... MORE

They say that you can’t kill a good idea--or apparently a bad one, either. Moscow mayor and Putin silovik Yuriy Luzhkov has revived one of the USSR’s last and most megalomaniacal projects, a scheme to divert a Siberian river southward to relieve Central Asia’s perennial... MORE

The Kyrgyz government and parliament have been postponing ratification of a contract with the Canadian mining company Cameco Corporation that is due on June 1. Talk has been circulating for the past few years that the Kyrgyz government’s 2003 agreement between Kyrgyz Kumtor Gold Company... MORE

Since 1991 the Kremlin and Washington have sparred over the hydrocarbon riches of the Caspian, the world's greatest untapped regional deposits. While Azerbaijan is now firmly in the Western orbit, both Russia and America are vying for influence in Kazakhstan, but due to U.S. sanctions,... MORE

On May 29 and 30 Admiral Vladimir Vysotskiy, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, visited the Kyrgyz Republic in an effort to bolster military-technical cooperation and display a positive image of Russia’s naval strength. During talks with Kyrgyz officials, Vysotskiy secured agreement on the continued use... MORE

On May 30 the Kyrgyz police arrested a 25-year-old U.S. citizen, Max Chounlamany, a civilian employee at the Gansi U.S. Air Force base at the Manas airport in Bishkek. Chounlamany was accused of accidentally setting fire to an apartment he rented in Bishkek. The investigation... MORE

Recent showdowns between Kyrgyz Parliament Speaker Adakhan Madumarov and members of Ak Zhol, a pro-regime political party, reveal the intensifying rivalry between two camps among Kyrgyzstan’s political circles. The first camp is informally led by Madumarov, Bishkek Mayor and influential businessman Daniyar Usenov and State... MORE

Last month’s meeting between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov was more than a mere photo opportunity. The implications of deeper Afghan-Turkmen bilateral ties could have a positive impact on a number of issues, including Afghanistan’s rising drug traffic, the insurgency and... MORE

Apparently, there was a great deal of political calculation aimed at sobering up adamant western leaders to the hard-line stance of the post-Putin Kremlin in Dmitry Medvedev’s first foreign trip to Astana as Russian President on May 22. Whatever may be the true motives of... MORE