Latest Central Asia News
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... as Central Asia bracesfor militant returnees
By Jacob Zenn On December 4, 2012, the deputy chairman of Kazakhstan's National Security Committee, Kabdulkarim Abdikazymov, said that Jund al-Khilafa was a "real threat" to Kazakhstan's national security. Similarly, on November 26, 2012, the chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Defense and Security of Kyrgyzstan, Tokon Mamytov, warned that "there might be ...
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EU hopefuls face starkchoice on Customs Union
By Robert Coalson Moscow seems to be growing frustrated with Ukraine's efforts to pursue closer ties with the European Union while simultaneously seeking benefits reserved for members of the Russia-led Eurasian Customs Union (ECU). "You cannot be a little bit pregnant," Russian Foreign Ministry official Aleksandr Gorban said on January 1, referring to the choice facing ...
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Afghanistan tries to lure investments
By Farangis Najibullah and Zarif Nazar Foreign forces are preparing to leave the country, capital is fleeing, and it's the Afghan government's job to stop it. To meet its objective, the Afghan Finance Ministry has drafted a package of incentives to assure companies and individual that their investments in Afghanistan will be safe after the expected withdrawal of Western troops ...
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Russias gas grip worries US senator
By Margarita Assenova United States Senator Richard Lugar has urged the Obama administration to break Russia's energy monopoly in Europe and called on congress to lift limitations on deliveries of liquefied natural gas (LNG) deliveries to North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies in Europe. His critical report, "Energy and Security from the Caspian to Europe", and ...
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Rate of US-Russian nuke disarmament slows
By Carey L Biron WASHINGTON - Although the United States and Russia have massively reduced their collective number of nuclear weapons since the heyday of the Cold War, the rate of that reduction is slowing, the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) warned on Monday. Further, these two countries alone continue to account for more than 90% of the worlds total nuclear arsenal, 15 times ...
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Cold winds from Janaozen
By Alexandra Kazakova Last year's violence in the town of Janaozen has created a significantly more oppressive environment in Kazakhstan, according to human rights defenders and analysts interviewed by IWPR. The activists were attending a conference in Almaty on December 13, three days before the first anniversary of the bloodshed. On December 16, 2011, police shot dead at 16 ...
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Gazprom moves on helium demand
By John Helmer MOSCOW - Blimps long ago lost their value as a means of cargo transportation, military reconnaissance, or anti-aircraft defense; whilst the helium that fills them - more safely than the combustible hydrogen gas which brought down the Hindenburg in 1937 - is sharply increasing its value in other applications. But the United States, which is currently producing most of the ...
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Russia plays alongwith Sakhalin pipeline project
By Sergei Blagov Russia's gas monopoly, Gazprom, has apparently ruled out the possibility of building a subsea Sakhalin-Japan natural gas pipeline. However, the continuation of talks on this ambitious project is thought to remain a valuable bargaining instrument in Russia's difficult negotiations with China on gas prices. On November 8, the head of Gazprom's ...
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South Stream start riddle
By Ron Synovitz and Rikard JozwiakRussia's Gazprom said construction would begin last week on the underwater section of its South Stream pipeline, which will carry natural gas beneath the Black Sea and into the European Union. But is this really the case? Gazprom CEO Aleksei Miller announced last month that the final investment decision for the project had been reached. Miller ...
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Russia closes gates to Siberian gas city
By Claire Bigg Ever wanted to visit the northern Siberian city of Novy Urengoi, Russia's "gas capital"? You may have missed your chance. Novy Urengoi has slapped harsh new access restrictions on both Russians and foreigners, a dramatic move that has sparked mixed reactions. Officials say they want to protect the affluent city from unbridled immigration, a surge in crime ...
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ONGC Videsh eyes stake in Kashagan
By Georgiy Voloshin On November 26, Kazakh media reported that the US oil company ConocoPhillips was planning to sell its 8.4% stake in Kazakhstan's Kashagan oil field on the Caspian Sea. In the context of continuously falling revenues (in the third quarter of 2012, ConocoPhillips lost about 14% of its profits, earning slightly over US$15 billion), its top managers decided to ...
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ECO summit brings no change
By Anar Valiyev Last month, Baku hosted the 12th summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO). The presidents of Azerbaijan, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, as well as the prime minister of Turkey attended the event. ECO was established in 1985 as a regional, inter-state economic organization for the countries of the Middle East and Central Asia. Seven new states - ...
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A Wolfe loose as Miami meets Moscow
A Wolfe loose as Miami meets Moscow Back to Blood: A Novel by Tom Wolfe Reviewed by John Helmer MOSCOW - The value difference and profit opportunity between a genuine piece of art and a fake are so large there's no deterring entrepreneurial forgers. Until now, the cleverest schemes have, ethnically speaking, been the specialty of Englishmen, Americans, and well-known art auction ...
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Ukraine imports gas from Europe
By Oleg Varfolomeyev As Russia refuses to cut gas prices for Ukraine and proceeds with its South Stream pipeline project - aimed at diminishing Gazprom's dependence on Ukrainian gas pipelines - Ukraine has announced plans to further cut Russian gas imports. Even more notably, Ukraine began buying gas from the German company RWE this month. The Ukrainian government believes this ...
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Crime pays in Kyrgyzstan
By Chris Rickleton BISHKEK - One morning last year in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Dilnoza awoke to find her brand-new Toyota Corolla missing. She knew immediately whom to call, and it wasn't her local police precinct. Dilnoza sought the help of a private security agency. And after six days of searching, the firm's operatives tracked down and recovered Dilnoza's car, which was ...
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Russia-Uzbekistan rowjeopardizes bilateral ties
investigation, O'zdunorbita continuously violated national legislation by illicitly operating 48 base stations in various parts of the country, including 24 stations based out of Tashkent. On July 17, Uzbekistan's Communications Agency suspended the company's operating license for 10 days. On July 30, the Tashkent city court further extended this suspension for a period ...
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Kazakhstan wipes blood off the map
on October 27 and, if it passes the bureaucratic hurdles, would officially remove the name Zhanaozen from the map. Nurbol Telegenov, the head of the province's internal policies department, told RFE/RL's Kazakh Service that the final decision would be made in Astana. Hot topicTelegenov noted, however, that the proposal had already become a hot topic of discussion. ...
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Tajikistans new roadsboost civil military links
By Mark Vinson On October 27, Tajikistan's President Emomalii Rahmon formally inaugurated the Shahriston tunnel along the Dushanbe-Khujand highway. The 5,253-meter tunnel cuts the time required to drive between the capital of Dushanbe and Tajikistan's second-largest city, Khujand (Leninabad), from eight to less than four hours. The Chinese-built project began six years ago and ...
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China Russia and Obamas second coming
By M K Bhadrakumar Barack Obama's four-year second term in office as the president of the United States will be setting the tone of the final countdown on China's emergence as a superpower. The power dynamic in Asia-Pacific becomes a crucial template in this historic process. While the US can count on Japan and Australia as time-tested allies, its cogitations with China and ...
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Kazakhstan US sign new energy plan
By Richard Weitz The latest meeting of the Kazakhstani-US Energy Partnership Commission took place in Washington on October 15-16, 2012. The two delegation heads, Kazakhstan's Minister of Oil and Gas Sauat Mynbayev and the US Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman, signed a Joint Action Plan for 2012 - 2013 that promotes cooperation in four broad categories: nuclear security and ...
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Eid al-Adha a Russian holiday
Eid al-Adha, a Russian holiday? By Chris Monday Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest writers to have their ...
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All Central Asian roads lead to Muscovy
All Central Asian roads lead to Muscovy By Himar Arjun Singh Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest writers to have their say. Please ...
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Russias Korea projects gather dust
By Stephen Blank In August 2011, Russia signed what appeared to be a momentous agreement with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea - DPRK), an accord that marked Kim Jong-il's last great foreign policy accomplishment. North Korea's Supreme Leader's last major foreign policy initiative was the August summit in Moscow, where he announced his willingness to ...
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Tamerlane through Central Asian eyes
Tamerlane through Central Asian eyes The Legendary Biographies of Tamerlane: Islam and Heroic Apocrypha in Central Asia by Ron SelaReviewed by Dmitry Shlapentokh This well-researched book focuses on what seems to be a very narrow subject - the written history of Timur (Tamerlane), ruler of a vast Central Asian empire in the late 14th century, with Samarkand as the capital. Similar to ...
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Gazprom closes on South Stream goal
By Margarita Assenova Russia is moving rapidly to start building the South Stream natural gas pipeline before the end of the year. On October 29, Serbia became the first Gazprom partner to announce its final investment decision on the construction of South Stream. Bulgaria will follow suit on November 9; Hungary and Slovenia are expected to adopt similar decisions by November 15. The ...
Tajikistan Focus
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Tajikistan making sacrifices for the future
A massive hydroelectric dam in southern Tajikistan may be the key to the future energy independence of the country and its development, but it comes at a staggering cost and with doubts over its viability.
Tajikistan is an ancient land and one of the oldest states in human history, having been founded by the Samani dynasty in the 9th century, long before territories such as Great Britain or other European nations became unified states. Yet for all this, Tajikistan has remained impoverished and sidelined throughout much of its existence. Read more
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