This week's episode features a discussion on how people from Central Asia are ending up as part of Russia's war in Ukraine, and the attempts to recruit migrant laborers from Central Asia as well.
On this week’s edition of the Majlis podcast, we discuss how Russian aggression in Ukraine is impacting everyday life in Central Asia.
After investigative journalist reported allegations of corruption against a powerful official, his office was raided and a young employee entrapped in a blackmail scheme. What does this say about the current state of Kyrgyz media?
Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev seems firmly in power now after nationwide unrest threatened his rule. But the decisions he made to keep himself in power will likely discredit him in the eyes of the people.
Order has been restored in Kazakhstan after days of unrest during which the president gave police and the army orders to shoot to kill. The consequences of that order, and of the heavy hand Kazakh law enforcement used to quell the unrest, are starting to become clear.
As anti-government protests spread throughout Kazakhstan with reports of security officials joining the demonstrators or being disarmed, President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev declared that “terrorist groups” with foreign training were behind the unrest. Toqaev used this pretext to request help from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). And, for the first time in its history, the security bloc agreed to send troops.
Turkey from the west, China from the east, Russia from the north, and the Islamic world from the south -- what effect do they have on Central Asia today?
A kind gesture to a neighbor-in-need has irked many Kyrgyz who wonder why their government gave extra water to Kazakhstan when there wasn't enough in Kyrgyzstan.
Turkey's role in Central Asia has been waxing lately after recent visits by top officials. Turkey's global role is also growing, so it is little wonder that Ankara is putting a new focus on Central Asia and that the Turkic states of Central Asia welcome an upgrade in ties with an ascendant Turkey.
The family of Kazakhstan's first president, Nursultan Nazarbaev, is well-known for living extravagantly and acquiring expensive property abroad. This has often been noted in international media concerning Nazarbaev's three daughters, but his brother Bolat might be the wildest example of them all.
A lackluster turnout in the November 28 Kyrgyz parliamentary elections did not prevent controversy from breaking out after the polls closed and the Central Election Commission's vote-tabulation monitor went black. When it returned, cries of cheating rung out, as there were noticeably different vote counts for many of the parties and questions as to why roughly 10 percent of the ballots were ruled invalid.
A rights group says Kadyr Yusupov, a former high-ranking diplomat, was beaten by fellow inmates in prison and is being denied medical attention. Yusupov, who suffers from schizophrenia, was charged with spying and convicted of treason in 2020 on charges activists say are dubious.
Serdar Berdymukhammedov, the son of Turkmenistan's president, made vague promises at the international climate conference in Glasgow about cutting methane emissions. That's unfortunate, because Turkmenistan is one of the worst methane polluters on Earth.
The Kyrgyz Central Election Commission stands out in the region as a body that actually does and acts as it is supposed to.
On this week's Majlis podcast, Muhammad Tahir moderates a discussion on the current situation in Central Asian countries while they prepare for winter and what could be in store for them as the mercury in thermometers continues to drop.
Though some progress demarcating the Kyrgyz-Tajik border has been made since deadly ethnic violence earlier this year, a recent comment by Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov threatens to sour tensions further.
A recent report from RFE/RL’s Tajik Service, known locally as Ozodi, showed the Chinese base in the far eastern corner of Tajikistan, near the area where Tajikistan, China, and Afghanistan meet, has been expanded and new buildings added to the complex.
Token amnesties, tales of torture in prisons, and another activist unjustly sentenced. It is sadly a routine tale from Tajikistan.
Turkmen activists in Turkey have been increasingly vocal in protesting against the authoritarian government in Turkmenistan. And it has caught the attention of Turkmen authorities, who appear to be striking back.