Kazakhstan plans to cooperate more closely with Russia’s defense industries in order to modernize its own armed forces by 2015. The timing of this announcement enabled Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Defense to counter negative publicity surrounding the crash of a MiG-31 on February 16, which resulted... MORE

On February 20 the Kyrgyz government unanimously rejected participation in the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative, founded by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in 1996. This decision followed almost a year of negotiations between the Kyrgyz government and the international community.... MORE

The collapse of communism in the USSR in 1991 and the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States a decade later offered the Pentagon basing possibilities impossible even to conceive of during the Cold War. The chief beneficiaries were Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, which were... MORE

The election of Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov as Turkmenistan’s new president, widely expected since he became acting president after the death of Saparmurat Niyazov in December, has already witnessed diplomatic overtures by a number of countries keen to develop closer ties with Turkmenistan. Russian President Vladimir Putin,... MORE

Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov was inaugurated as Turkmenistan’s new president at the Ruhiyev palace in Ashgabat on February 14. Reporters noted that 2,487 members of the Halk Maslahaty (People’s Council) and foreign guests, including heads of states and governments from 30 countries, attended the ceremony. The Russian... MORE

At a February 14 press conference, former Kyrgyz prime minister Felix Kulov announced his decision to join the forces opposed to President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. Following the Kyrgyz government’s December 2006 resignation, Kulov’s move was predictable. However, many people doubt his ability to lead the opposition... MORE

On February 8 Tajikistan’s President Imomali Rakhmonov held bilateral meetings with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Rakhmonov was in Damascus as part of his current tour of the Middle East, which is aimed at encouraging economic relations between Tajikistan and the Arab world. However, his arrival... MORE

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s February 2 visit to Ukraine appeared to be an ill-timed event that triggered controversial speculations in light of the recent gas row between Belarus and Russia and the lingering standoff between Moscow and Kyiv on energy issues. But under the circumstances,... MORE