Bruce Pannier is a Central Asia analyst and appears regularly on the Majlis podcast for RFE/RL.
Ashgabat's abysmal image has improved a bit under President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov. But will he continue with a reform agenda? How he handles the fifth anniversary of the start of one of his predecessor's worst crackdowns might provide a clue.
November 26, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Registration has ended for Kyrgyzstan's political parties and campaigning begun for next month's parliamentary elections.
November 22, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- The CIS is coming to Turkmenistan, but is Turkmenistan coming back to the CIS? That is one of the big questions as the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat, hosts a meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States for the first time in nearly 15 years.
Newly leaked audio tapes appear to show that officials in Kazakhstan aren't averse to a bit of arm-twisting when it comes to political party fundraising.
November 8, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- The Kazakh authorities' public enemy No. 1, Rakhat Aliev, has gone on trial along with more than 20 co-defendants.
October 27, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Turkmenistan marks Independence Day today, the country's first without the late President Saparmurat Niyazov, or "Turkmenbashi," who died in December 2006. RFE/RL looks at what has changed and what remains the same as Turkmenistan marks 16 years of independence.
October 24, 2007 -- Kazakhstan has blocked four opposition news websites in a move that media freedom advocates called "political censorship" in a country increasingly seeking to portray itself as an emerging democracy.
The president says a new constitution will bring stability after a couple of rocky years since the "people's revolution" that brought him to power. But will it improve democracy, or simply strengthen his hand?
<P>October 20, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Kyrgyz voters will head to the polls on October 21 to vote in a referendum on a new constitution. </P>
Uzbek President Islam Karimov's visit to Turkmenistan this week is the lastest sign of thaw in a relationship long described as decidedly icy.
President Kurmanbek Bakiev's new political party seeks to be the first to win an outright majority in parliament since Kyrgyzstan gained independence. Will it change the balance of power laid out in the new constitution?
October 16, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- The heads of state of all five Caspian littoral states -- Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Iran, Russia, and Turkmenistan -- arrived with pressure mounting to finally solve the problem of whether the biggest inland body of water is a sea or a lake.
Russia is scheduled to launch a Proton rocket from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome, but a ban imposed after an earlier rocket crash and disagreements over compensation threaten to derail the mission.
October 9, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- An amnesty for almost 9,000 prisoners took effect in Turkmenistan this week, but hopes that President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov would release some high-profile government opponents and former government officials appear to have gone unrealized.
An Italian-led oil consortium, heavily criticized by authorities in Almaty, seems to have averted the threat of having its contract revoked. The Eni-led group looks set to maintain its contract to develop the massive Kashagan oil field.
Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov's planned address at the UN General Assembly is seen as symbolic of his efforts to end Turkmenistan's years of isolation.
Regional leaders are making official state visits to their neighbors at a rate not seen since the early days after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiev (right) with his Tajik counterpart, Emomali Rahmon, in Bishkek (official site) Tajik President Emomali Rahmon wrapped up his official visit to Kyrgyzstan today. The visit was fruitful as the leaders of Central Asia's "water baron" countries discussed increasing their cooperation and addressed the complicated issue of their common border.
Kurmanbek Bakiev gave his annual address to the nation amid a growing conflict between the country's parliament and the Constitutional Court.
Rakhat Aliev faces yet more accusations (file photo) (OSCE) September 18, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Two men wanted by Kazakh police voluntarily returned on September 17. The two were, until recently, bodyguards for Rakhat Aliev, once one of the most influential people in Kazakhstan and President Nursultan Nazarbaev's son-in-law.
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