Uzbekistan, isolated from the West since the Andijan massacre in May 2005, clearly regards the European Union as its best hope for rapprochement as a means to promote its interests within Europe. As a result of the German presidency of the Council of the EU,... MORE

Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Masimov visited Baku on April 4, his first foreign tour since being appointed as head of the government in January. The trip followed the “EU Troika–Central Asia” meeting of foreign ministers in Astana on March 29, which was part of belated... MORE

With only one week left until Kyrgyzstan’s two main opposition blocs, “United Front” and “For Reforms,” plan to stage a large-scale demonstration to remove Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev from office, neither the president nor the opposition are willing to start negotiations. Meanwhile, Kyrgyz experts and... MORE

Kazakhstan is apparently facing Russian pressure to stay out of Western-supported energy projects and maximize the transit of Kazakh oil and gas via Russia. In recent days, President Nursultan Nazarbayev and other officials seem suddenly to be turning a cold shoulder to proposals for Kazakh... MORE

During a visit to Kazakhstan on March 30, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov and Kazakh officials signed a protocol to keep Kazakh crude oil shipments flowing via the Atyrau-Samara pipeline at 15 million tons per annum. Fradkov also said that Kazakhstan was seeking to increase... MORE

Even before the late Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov was buried last December, foreign government delegations were scrambling to meet with his successor, Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov, either to get reassurance that earlier energy contracts would be honored or to angle for new ones to exploit the world’s... MORE

On March 27 a joint meeting of representatives from the Secretariat of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and members of the OSCE Center in Dushanbe discussed security measures with the Tajik government. Saidmumin Yatimov, Tajikistan’s first deputy foreign minister, described the... MORE

Following the death of Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov on December 21, his successor, Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov, is carefully opening his country’s Internet access to the outside world. Under Niyazov, Turkmenistan had long been isolated from the World Wide Web. According to the Internet World Stats directory,... MORE

Yesterday, March 28, Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev announced his willingness to conduct a national referendum to reaffirm his legitimacy and support among the population. He also declared that he had sacked a number of key government representatives, including First Deputy Prime Minister Danoyar Usenov, who... MORE