Bruce Pannier is a Central Asia analyst and appears regularly on the Majlis podcast for RFE/RL.
The country's elite is airing its dirty laundry on television, in court, and on the Internet. As if that weren't enough, a presidential ex-son-in-law is promising more dirt in an upcoming tell-all book.
Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov has fired several top officials involved in the country's financial sector. Observers say the move may be intended to show he is serious about economic reforms as the country moves to redenominate its currency next year.
Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiev has returned home after a two-day visit to Kazakhstan, where he held talks with President Nursultan Nazarbaev. Energy, water, food, and migrant labor topped the agenda of the talks.
The cutoff is likely to hurt the region's poorest states, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, which traditionally consume lots of Kazakh wheat.
Is Turkmenistan -- home to some of the world's largest deposits of natural gas -- now planning to join the Nabucco pipeline project to bring natural gas to Europe? That is the unanswered question after the European Union "troika" met with officials from the Central Asian states in the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat, on April 9-10.
Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Masimov says Almaty plans this week to either introduce new duties on the export of grain, or impose a complete ban on exports. The decision could have serious repercussions for neighboring states, which have endured one of their worst winters in decades.
The new chief of the National Bank of Tajikistan has admitted that the bank intentionally gave incorrect information to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in order to secure essential loans worth nearly $48 million.
The presidents of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan have sought to make their historical appearances at the NATO summit in Bucharest productive despite being overshadowed by events surrounding Ukraine, Georgia, Russia, and Afghanistan.
The leaders of two authoritarian states in Central Asia are set to make a rare appearance at NATO's summit in Bucharest. What do they have to talk about?
Rakhat Aliev (ITAR-TASS) A military court has found the former son-in-law of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev, Rakhat Aliev, guilty of planning a coup, among other crimes, and sentenced him to 20 years in prison.
People in Kyrgyzstan are wondering how their president is doing. Kurmanbek Bakiev, abroad for more than two weeks, even missed two of his country's most important holidays over the weekend.
As the country marks the third anniversary of the unrest that forced its president to flee, debate continues over whether those events actually resulted in a revolution.
Six years ago, police fired on protesters in Aksy, killing at least five people. Despite calls for those who gave the orders to be brought to justice, very few people involved have gone on trial. So a group of activists, lawyers, and others held their own unofficial trial.
Could a landmark deal between Gazprom and three energy-rich Central Asian states doom European plans to transport gas across the Caspian Sea and away from Russian control?
One of the worst winters in nearly four decades has Central Asians dreaming of spring. But warm weather could bring problems of its own.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko arrived in Kazakhstan hoping to secure new deals for Kazakh energy supplies, but he is set to leave with no agreement for more natural gas or oil anytime soon.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko is on a visit to Kazakhstan this week, ostensibly to help kick off the "Year of Ukraine in Kazakhstan."
An Astana court has ordered the independent newspaper "Law and Justice" to be closed, alleging that errors were made when the newspaper was registered.
For years, Kyrgyzstan has taken a more lenient approach than its neighbors to groups like the Islamists of Hizb ut-Tahrir. It is about to change its ways.
Two years ago today, the bullet-ridden body of Altynbek Sarsenbaev, a leading Kazakh opposition figure, was found on the outskirts of Almaty.
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