Bruce Pannier is a Central Asia analyst and appears regularly on the Majlis podcast for RFE/RL.
Tashkent's chief imam remains in critical condition after he was stabbed multiple times outside his home last week in the Uzbek capital. Authorities are seeking three men suspected of carrying out the attack. The motive is believed to be revenge, with suspicion centering on Islamic extremists or possible business rivals.
Long the object of great-power ambitions, Central Asia now resists the dominance of any single player. But the failure to form collective partnerships could leave the region vulnerable to the strategies of outside powers.
Russia and the United States were the first to step into the post-Soviet "new Great Game" for resources and influence in Central Asia, but other players have now entered the arena. In the second of a three-part series, RFE/RL looks at the inroads China and the European Union have made in the region.
Russia, the United States, China, and Europe still seek to hold sway in Central Asia, their sights set on energy reserves and security agreements, but the region now resists the dominance of any single player. In the first of a three-part series, RFE/RL looks at the recent ebb and flow of Russian and U.S. influence in the region.
Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Tajikistan agreed on July 30 to coordinate efforts in their fight against Islamist violence which has threatened to spill over into the broader Central Asia region.
Turkmenistan is preparing to take Azerbaijan to international court to resolve a long-standing dispute over ownership of three oil and gas fields in the Caspian Sea. A recent bilateral thaw had fueled hopes of a new era of cooperation that could lead to the construction of a pipeline to bring Turkmen gas across the Caspian to Azerbaijan and on to Europe.
Kyrgyzstan enjoys a reputation as the most democratic state in Central Asia, but that image stands to be tainted by today's early presidential election. The result is essentially a foregone conclusion – the only question being the margin by which current President Kurmanbek Bakiev will win reelection.
Kyrgyzstan’s presidential election on July 23 is unlikely to unseat President Kurmanbek Bakiev. But for the five candidates still in the running, their campaigns give them a platform to speak out on a wide range of issues, from charges of corruption in government to the role of women in Kyrgyz society.
The mysterious death of one of Tajikistan's best-known public figures is focusing attention on what many consider to be the deteriorating security situation in southeastern Central Asia.
It's been an up-and-down year for the Nabucco natural gas pipeline. Just as work on the long-stalled project seems set to finally begin, some shift -- usually at the hand of Russian energy giant Gazprom -- alters the commercial landscape and Nabucco's chances appear to recede. But the pipeline's supporters have just selected a big name in European politics to help push the project toward realization -- former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer.
A deal to restart the flow of Azerbaijani gas to Russia, beginning in January 2010, represents a breakthrough as both Moscow and the European Union court Baku in hopes of tapping its vast gas deposits to fuel favored pipeline projects to Europe.
In 1989, Islam Karimov was named first secretary of the Communist Party of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic. He has remained in power ever since, transitioning to become the president of independent Uzbekistan in 1991. His notoriously repressive regime has left its mark not only on his country but on Central Asia overall.
Washington and Bishkek have reportedly drafted a breakthrough deal that would allow U.S. troops supplying their mission in Afghanistan to continue using a key Kyrgyz facility. Reaction in Moscow is unlikely to be as positive as in Kabul and Ankara.
Today is the first day candidates in Kyrgyzstan can campaign for the early presidential election scheduled for July 23. President Kurmanbek Bakiev's job may not be at risk -- no incumbent president in Central Asia has ever lost an election -- but Kyrgyzstan's image as the region's most progressive and democratic country could be.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization's (SCO) annual summit, held on June 16 in Yekaterinburg, Russia, was intended to focus on the global financial crisis and security issues. But it was the SCO's observer nations that stole the spotlight, with Iran's president making his first trip abroad since his controversial reelection and the Indian and Pakistani leaders meeting for the first time since the terrorist attack in Mumbai in November.
A year ago, Gazprom was sitting on top of the world, but the fortunes of Russia's state gas company have taken a dramatic turn for the worse. While the company still ranks among the world's most valuable, it's worth less than half what it was in 2008, and a number of problems lurk on the horizon.
Iran may be selling huge amounts of natural gas to China and even Europe in the not-too-distant future. Even as Iran signed a multibillion-dollar deal with China to develop part of a massive gas field in the Persian Gulf, a U.S. official said that under the right conditions, Iran could contribute gas to a planned pipeline linking Iran's northern (and maybe western) neighbors to the heart of Europe.
Boasting huge hydrocarbon reserves, Central Asia has become accustomed to the stream of foreign companies and politicians who visit hoping to lock up energy deals. For the most part, European representatives have returned home empty-handed. But with Central Asian states seeking to break Russia's dominance of their energy-export routes, they are hitting the road to court the EU.
The lights are on again in Kabul. And that’s no small change. For years, residents of the Afghan capital endured shortages of electricity, with power sometimes rationed to only a couple of hours a day. But thanks to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Afghanistan’s neighbor Uzbekistan, things are now looking a little brighter.
He was once considered one of the richest and most powerful men in Kazakhstan: the head of a company with access to the world's second-largest reserves of uranium, with lucrative contracts with Russia, China, and India. But now Mukhtar Jakishev finds himself under arrest and possibly in line to join other corporate heads who have landed in Kazakh jails.
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