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![]() Catherine PutzThe Diplomat |
Chinese leader Xi Jinping and the five Central Asian presidents are expected to all attend the summit in Astana.
Turkmenistan's Foreign Ministry called the decision to partially ban arrivals from the country a "hasty step."
Local authorities say the statue, Central Asia's largest Lenin monument, will be moved into a nearby park.
The stated reason is a high rate of visa overstays in 2023 DHS data. But that data has been interpreted without any context or compassion.
A delegation from Uzbekistan, led by the country’s Migration Agency, made stops in South Korea and Japan to explore expanded opportunities for Uzbek...
Atambayev was released from jail in 2023 and promptly flew to Spain. He hasn't returned to Kyrgyzstan since.
When Sharifa Madrakhimova received her passport via mail from Dublin, with her Irish visa affixed inside, the document had been rendered invalid by...
Rustam Emomali is also the chair of Tajikistan’s National Assembly and the son of the country's president. His recent trip to Moscow is stirring...
The head of the Kyrgyz presidential press service aired an unfounded allegation on Facebook that the detained journalists were being paid by Bolot...
According to Kloop, its employees have been denied access to lawyers.
A recent presidential decree instructs the Foreign Ministry to explore the possibility of a visa-free regime for U.S. citizens, paired with an easing...
While protests against Canadian mines, or Russian businesses, occur in Central Asia, “Chinese projects overwhelmingly receive the vast majority of...
As DOGE takes aim at the Peace Corps, the sudden cancellation of the June departure of new volunteers to Kyrgyzstan “is particularly cruel and...
A 2018 amendment had opened the door to criminal prosecution, and up to 15 years in jail, for “liking” or reacting online with an emoji to content...
Homeland Security Secretary Noem determined that "permitting Afghan nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to the national...
Central Asian governments have been meek in the face of Moscow's repeated targeting of the region’s citizens.
“As the importance of Victory Day in Central Asia decreases, it is needed even more in Moscow to promote and validate the war in Ukraine.”
Four people were detained in Osh on April 19 in connection with a case of mercenary recruitment.
“When the international community ignores a country like Turkmenistan, it sends a message that some lives – and some struggles – matter less.”
An offensive 20-year-old rap song may land a Kazakh satirist in jail for seven years. But there's more to the case than a rude song.
A Russian contact offered the man up to $1,000 to recruit his passengers into traveling to Russia to work in the conflict zone.
An interview with Tleubike Yuldasheva, Ziuar Mirmanbetova, Raisa Khudaibergenova, and Zhangeldi Zhaksymbetov.
Trade between the U.S. and Kazakhstan is limited and heavily skewed toward energy, which has been exempt from the new tariffs.
If leaked documents listing active and terminated projects are accurate, almost all USAID programs in Central Asia have been cut.
A day after RFE/RL won a temporary restraining order against USAGM’s freezing of its funding, the agency has backed off. But it may be, at best, a...
Since February, there have been four separate reports of UAV fragments landing in a Kazakh region that borders Russia.
A discussion on religious freedom abroad invariably circled back to the present political turmoil in the United States under the second Trump...
RFE/RL leadership has pushed back on the decision by its parent organization, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, to cancel its grants, calling the move...
The 2024 harvest saw a shortage of pickers, government backtracking on positive legislation, and issues stemming from the cotton cluster system;...
On the run since 2018, former immigration lawyer Danhong “Jean” Chen was recently detained in Kyrgyzstan and extradited to the United States.
But a proposed increase from 1.4 million tons to 2.2 million tons is just a drop in the bucket compared to the volumes Kazakhstan exports via...
The presidents of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan are expected to meet for their first-ever trilateral summit on March 31.
The effort, however, comes at a time when major global powers – namely the U.S. – are pivoting away from the kind of U.N.-centered cooperative...
Pulat Bobojonov, who has been minister of internal affairs since 2017, was moved to an adviser post in the presidential administration.
Moscow doled out permanent entry bans on Foreign Minister Iwaya Takeshi and eight other top officials and business leaders in retaliation for Japanese...
31 plots in Uzbekistan’s prime gold mining region Navoi went up for auction last month, sparking rumors and discussion about China’s growing...
“We need to ask why there hasn’t been much change to advance women’s human rights and end injustice?”
Natalie Gonnella-Platts and Albert Torres explain how consistent travel ban exemptions undercut global efforts to pressure the Taliban.
According to Turkish officials, the gas flow is planned to start on March 1, with Turkmen gas reaching Turkiye via a swap deal involving Iran.
The powers-that-be in Washington, elected and unelected alike, are parroting the same language used by Central Asian and Russian autocrats about...
Dinara Kutmanova and her son, once at the forefront of the Kumtor nationalization movement, were charged with abuse of office and fraud. They'd been...
Without guarantees that observers would be accredited, and an apparent lack of engagement by Dushanbe, the OSCE has chosen to cancel its monitoring...
Given the classified nature of the trial, the details of the alleged plot are unknown.
Planned originally for 2024, the summit is now scheduled for April 2025 in Samarkand – setting it apart from earlier China- and U.S.-Central Asia...
The Russian prime minister recently complained about "unfounded claims and illegal statements by high-level representatives of Kyrgyz government...
Six police officers were sentenced to three years in prison in relation to the torture of 44 foreign nationals in the dark days of Qandy Qantar 2022.
Trump's executive orders on aid and immigration have effectively frozen the Afghan SIV program, stranding thousands of Afghans in the process of...
The hydropower project in Kyrgyzstan has tapped into the region’s thirst for cooperation.
Given Trump’s past approaches, it’s entirely possible that the new U.S. president will demand that Central Asia’s governments “do more” with...
The Taliban authorities say that around 3 kilometers of the pipeline has been completed, out of more than 770 km needed to bring Turkmen gas to the...