On November 25, right before Russia’s observation of Mother’s Day, President Vladimir Putin met with women who were purportedly mothers of soldiers serving in the “special military operation” in Donbas. In a move not seen since the Russian president met with the mothers of those... MORE

On November 11, a summit of the leaders of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) convened in Samarkand, Uzbekistan (Report.az, November 5). This major gathering came amid the OTS’s re-emerging significance as a key regional organization and a critical platform for rapprochement between the Central... MORE

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has finally initiated its highly anticipated railway project to Uzbekistan. On the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit held in September 2022, the official decision was made to begin actively working on the railway (The Diplomat, September... MORE

A major casualty of Russia’s full-scale aggression against Ukraine has been its weakening position and leverage in Central Asia. In truth, this war has plainly demonstrated Moscow’s risky imperial impulses are clearly damaging the region. The most obvious example of the region distancing itself from... MORE

On October 24, dozens of Uzbekistani citizens living in the Russian town of Orel received draft orders as part of the “partial mobilization” announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin on September 21. The Russian government’s intent to shore up as many able-bodied men as possible... MORE

What had been a long-running local conflict between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan regarding the delimitation of borders and the fate of exclaves has now expanded over the past two weeks to include major military units and the targeting of infrastructure deep within the territory of both... MORE

Throughout the Russo-Ukrainian war and a period of tense relations between Russia and Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan has followed a proactive track of transport diplomacy to strengthen its geopolitical and geo-economic position through Eurasian rail trade. The main aim of Tashkent’s diplomacy is to transform itself from... MORE

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” against Ukraine has severely impacted Eurasian transport logistics, particularly cargo traveling along the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) bound for Europe via Russian Railways (RZD). In 2021, China Railway Express (CRE), a subsidiary... MORE

Like most outside powers who have come to Central Asia, China has sought to treat the region as a single whole, a place from which it can extract natural resources and sell its own goods at a profit. The region represents a blank slate on... MORE

The Collective Security Treaty Organization, better known by its initials, CSTO—or by Moscow’s aspiration that it should be an equal counterpart to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)—is now on the brink of collapse, yet another case of the collateral damage Russia has suffered in... MORE