Executive Summary: Beijing pressures the Kyrgyz government to censor voices criticizing the People’s Republic of China (PRC), its companies, and its citizens within the Kyrgyz Republic. As PRC companies have expanded in country—particularly in the mining sector—extensive environmental damage has provoked local protests. Some cultural... MORE

Executive Summary: Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Uzbekistan have formed a plan for the transmission of green energy to the European Union via the Caspian Sea. The use of Caspian routes to transport energy to Europe has increased following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent... MORE

Executive Summary: The issue of domestic violence in Central Asia has increasingly gained attention since a former Kazakh economic minister tortured and killed his wife and was convicted of murder, inspiring reform movements throughout Kazakhstan. Corruption plays a significant role in the condoning of domestic... MORE

Executive Summary:  The enormous rare-earth mineral reserves in Central Asia are intensifying geopolitical competition among China, the West, and Russia and have been complicated by their competing agendas. Beijing wants to develop a monopoly on rare earths, the United States and the European Union want... MORE

Executive Summary: Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has emphasized the development of the country’s rare-earth mining sector as a primary goal of his government due to the country’s massive reserves. Uzbekistan has begun to work with the European Union, United States, and United Kingdom to develop... MORE

Executive Summary: Azerbaijan and Türkiye signed an agreement for cooperation with natural gas, which includes increased export of Central Asian and Azerbaijani gas to Türkiye with Turkmenistan being a primary exporter. Debate over including Iran in these agreements adds uncertainty to the project due to... MORE

Executive Summary: Beijing aims to enforce censorship outside its borders by targeting the gatekeepers of information and manipulating narratives that it does not currently monopolize. Over the past two hundred years, groups like the Uyghurs, Dungans, and ethnic Kyrgyz have fled China for the territory... MORE

Executive Summary: A Kyrgyz mob stormed dormitories housing foreign students in Bishkek, targeting South Asian students and causing hundreds, possibly thousands, of foreign students to evacuate the country. The attack has left the Kyrgyz government concerned about economic losses and the destabilizing effects on the... MORE

Executive Summary: Bishkek has sought to attract workers from other countries to fill the void of a million Kyrgyz workers abroad, a substitution that has sparked xenophobia and violence, most recently on May 17 and 18. The tense situation has been exacerbated by Kyrgyzstan’s weak... MORE

Executive Summary:  The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan met for bilateral negotiations in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in April, following the start of the delimitation of the two countries’ shared interstate border. Both sides emphasized that though they still have their differences, some progress has been... MORE