Turkmenistan’s President Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov attended the high profile Galken 2008 military exercises held in the Kelete training range on May 5. Turkmenistan conducted these exercises with an “antiterrorist dimension” both to boost its international image as a neutral country taking the threat of terrorism seriously... MORE

Since January Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, Prime Minister Igor Chudinov, and Minister of Energy Saparbek Balkibekov have been extensively promoting privatization of Kyrgyzstan’s hydropower sector. Little information about potential investors in the sector or the privatization conditions, however, has been revealed to the public. Even... MORE

Amangeldy Shabdarbayev, Chairman of Kazakhstan’s National Security Committee (KNB), has confirmed continuing concern about the infamous case of Rakhat Aliyev, while trying to give a positive image of the KNB working closely with the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) to tackle serious security threats. Aliyev... MORE

The Kremlin has moved to strengthen ties with Uzbekistan, Central Asia's most populous nation, through the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) as well as major energy projects. CSTO Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha was in Tashkent from April 27 to 29 to meet top Uzbekistan... MORE

Of all the post-Soviet Central Asian “Stans,” Tajikistan has had the roughest path toward stability and prosperity. The year after the USSR collapsed in December 1991, Tajikistan descended into a brutal civil war. By the time it ended with a UN-brokered agreement in 1997, fratricidal... MORE

Dushanbe Mayor Makhmadsaid Ubaidullayev called on the city’s residents to donate half of their May and June income for the construction of the Rogun hydropower station on the Vakhsh River. According to Ubaidullayev’s calculations, these donations would amount to over $10 million and become a... MORE

Most commentary on Turkmenistan’s energy future has focused on the possibility of its being able to sell gas directly to Europe instead of having to go through Russia to do so. Thus, international attention has been focused on the projected Nabucco or trans-Caspian pipeline that... MORE

On April 24 Kyrgyz president Kurmanbek Bakiyev signed a decree ceding 620 hectares of Kyrgyzstan's northeastern territory to Kazakhstan. The process has been unfolding gradually since 2001, but Bakiyev was only recently able to pass the decree in parliament. What began as a deal between... MORE

Nearly four months after a pricing dispute shut down Turkmen natural gas deliveries to Iran, the pipelines are again open. The bad news for Tehran is that the new price per thousand cubic meters (tcm) is nearly twice what it paid Ashgabat in 2007. On... MORE

On April 22 Uzbek President Islam Karimov visited Astana to meet with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Both leaders agreed to boost bilateral economic cooperation by creating a common trade area at the borders. Karimov's harsh criticism of Nazarbayev's Central Asia Union (CAU), however, raised eyebrows... MORE