On October 4, Kyrgyzstan held parliamentary elections—the first in the country’s history in which the authorities used voters’ biometrics to obtain quick and reliable polling data. While the definitive results will only be released 20 days after the vote (by October 25), the Kyrgyzstani Central... MORE

The Central Asian republic of Turkmenistan is considering abandoning the socio-economic system, in place since independence over 20 years ago, that the government has used to placate the population. At a meeting of the Council of Elders, on September 10, several members of this government... MORE

On September 4, a group of armed men linked to former Deputy Defense Minister Abduhalim Nazarzoda attacked police checkpoints in Dushanbe and Vahdat. Nazarzoda and his followers fled to the Romit gorge, some thirty miles to the northeast of the capital city. Following a counter-insurgency... MORE

Russia’s Armed Forces and security bodies have concluded the primary military exercise of the combat training year. The strategic-operational exercise Tsentr 2015 was the largest of the year, modeling an intervention in Central Asia under the umbrella of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). The... MORE

On August 20, the National Bank of Kazakhstan (NBK) came forward with a surprise announcement. The central bank’s chairman, Kairat Kelimbetov, made official the immediate shift to a floating exchange rate of the tenge, the national currency. Since its introduction into circulation in late 1993,... MORE

Speaking this week (September 15) in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, at a summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO)—the Russian-dominated regional defense alliance—President Vladimir Putin detailed his understanding of regional and global security threats. The CSTO summit was notably held in former Soviet Central Asia, in... MORE

The collapse in the size of transfer payments from Central Asians working in the Russian Federation—they are down more than half from last year—is having a domino effect in the region and pushing Eurasia into what will, more than likely, be a political perfect storm.... MORE

Following years of pressure, the government of Tajikistan has finally banned the Islamic Renaissance Party (IRPT), the region’s only faith-based party. In an August 28 statement, the Ministry of Justice declared that the “Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan is no longer a republican party” (Khovar,... MORE

Russian parliamentarians have requested that the government increase its control over Central Asian migrants, due to a supposed infiltration of these communities by Islamic State fighters. Militants disguised as labor migrants had allegedly snuck into Russia in order to destabilize the country (Izvestia, July 6,... MORE

Dual armed attacks shook Tajikistan, on the night of September 4, as militants allegedly connected to former deputy defense minister General Abduhalim Nazarzoda fired on a police station and a weapons depot in and around Dushanbe. The resulting firefights with government forces ended with 22... MORE