A year has passed since March 24, 2005, Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan, when crowds seized the main government building in Bishkek and President Askar Akayev fled the country. The popular euphoria over the ouster of the corrupt regime quickly changed to anxiety as tensions rose... MORE

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev's March 19 visit to Uzbekistan was one of his first foreign trips after his reelection as president in December. This priority stresses the political importance of Tashkent for Astana as an economically significant neighbor, although it would be premature to regard... MORE

Kyrgyzstan has launched a series of military exercises aimed at testing and enhancing its anti-terrorist capabilities. Commencing on March 10, and scheduled to finish in late March, these two-stage command and staff exercises involved the use of the security agencies and emergencies department, clearly rehearsing... MORE

Visiting Kazakhstan on March 14, U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman announced that he was conveying to President Nursultan Nazarbayev "the desire of the United States" to expedite the signing of the agreement on trans-Caspian oil transport from Kazakhstan through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline (press release, March... MORE

One year after Kyrgyzstan's March 24 Tulip Revolution Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev faces outspoken criticism of his regime from both political and non-governmental sources. Although the current political situation in Kyrgyzstan largely resembles the final years of former president Askar Akayev's regime, when the general... MORE

In a televised address to the nation on March 1, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev elaborated at great length on the country's economic priorities, promising a solid package of social benefits to a large section of the population and reiterating his ambition to place Kazakhstan among... MORE

Uzbekistan's President Islam Karimov has set an ambitious agenda to strengthen Uzbekistan's armed forces, despite recent bilateral problems with Washington. The precise nature of what Karimov wants to improve, how this will be implemented, and the perception of U.S. foreign policy goals in the region... MORE

The March 26 parliamentary election in Ukraine will be contested by an unprecedented 45 parties and blocs, but this impressive number is misleading. Opinion polls show that over 30 of them have nothing to hope for, while four to six parties will be struggling to... MORE

Tajikistan's government, committed to the improvement and gradual reform of the armed forces and security services, sent a worrying signal this week by rescinding its experiment with contract servicemen within its army. This may be interpreted in some quarters as a gambit on the part... MORE

The chairman of Russia's state oil company Rosneft, Sergei Bogdanchikov, has completed a round of discussions in Kazakhstan with Kazakhstan's Prime Minister Daniyal Akhmetov, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Baktykozha Izmukhambetov, and the KazMunayGaz state oil and gas company management. During the concluding news conference... MORE