Latest Articles about Central Asia
AMENDMENTS TO KAZAKH MEDIA LAW DRAW WESTERN CRITICISM
This year Kazakhstan's Journalists Day was marked by a massive protest rally in Almaty on June 24. The rally was unprecedented in scale and united almost all media outlets regardless their political views. The demonstration was organized by the Union of Journalists of Kazakhstan, the... MORE
NAZARBAYEV’S CASPIAN SECURITY DEALS: WHAT CAN MOSCOW OFFER?
Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev has placed Caspian security high on his agenda, not only as a means of promoting foreign assistance programs but also in generating further help from Moscow. On June 21 a three-day joint special exercise involving Kazakhstan and Russia, ended in the... MORE
UZBEKISTAN ACCEDES TO COLLECTIVE SECURITY TREATY ORGANIZATION
Uzbek President Islam Karimov joined the presidents of the Collective Security Treaty Organization’s member countries -- Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan -- in Minsk on June 23 for a meeting of the CSTO’s top political body, the Collective Security Council. At the meeting,... MORE
ENERGY SECURITY DOMINATES SUMMER SUMMIT SCHEDULE
In mid-June, the heads of one North American, some Eurasian, and most European states travel non-stop, seeking to patch holes in the laboriously spun networks of cooperation. Russian President Vladimir Putin last week shook hands in the Kremlin with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi and... MORE
CHINA EYES RUSSIA, CENTRAL ASIAN STATES AS SOURCE OF CHEAP ELECTRICITY
To feed its growing energy demands, Beijing views Russia and Central Asia as potential sources of low-cost electricity, prompting Russian officials to boost electricity exports to China. Central Asian states, notably Kyrgyzstan, are also attracted to China's massive energy market. China seeks to import electricity... MORE
TURKMEN GAS PRICE HIKE: IMPLICATIONS FOR RUSSIA AND EUROPE
On June 21, the government of Turkmenistan announced that it proposes to steeply raise the price of gas it sells to Gazprom: from $65 per 1,000 cubic meters at present to $100 in the second half of 2006. The volume of deliveries would remain constant... MORE
OIL TANKER SHIPMENTS — THE SHORT-TERM DEFAULT FOR TRANS-CASPIAN OIL
The agreement to connect Kazakhstan with the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil transport system, signed by the Kazakh and Azeri presidents on June 19, brings the Caspian basin's eastern shore into the East-West energy corridor. This move took eight years of American political and energy diplomacy to accomplish,... MORE
KYRGYZ POLITICIANS BEGIN TO BREAK TIES TO CRIMINAL WORLD
Organized criminal groups in Kyrgyzstan have significantly weakened since the death of criminal kingpin Rysbek Akmatbayev on May 10. According to Deputy Minister of Interior Omurbek Suvanaliyev, today Kyrgyz law-enforcement agencies are able to curb criminal organizations and thwart the merger of the political and... MORE
KAZAKHSTAN-AZERBAIJAN OIL TRANSPORT AGREEMENT: NOT YET HISTORIC, BUT MIGHT BECOME SO
On June 16 in Almaty, Presidents Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan and Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan signed a framework agreement to create a trans-Caspian "Kazakhstan-Azerbaijan oil transport system" that would feed Kazakh oil into the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. The agreement is being described as "historic" by the... MORE
KARIMOV GAMBLES ON RUSSIA, CHINA, AND GERMANY
Uzbekistan's President Islam Karimov has staked much on his efforts to strengthen and sustain relations with both Russia and China. He predictably talked up Uzbekistan's ties with China during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Shanghai on June 15-16. Nonetheless, behind the scenes Karimov... MORE