The latest James Bond film, "The World Is Not Enough," depicted a fierce battle among oil executives, spies, and villains for control of a lucrative new pipeline linking Caspian oil to world markets. The Hollywood production is clearly a work of fiction.
After years of engaging in increasingly blatant human rights violations, President Askar Akayev's administration has launched a full-fledged campaign to neutralize political opposition. In the days before and after run-off parliamentary elections March 12, the government arrested, or otherwise stripped of political potential, virtually all of the country's opposition leaders.
Just prior to the balloting, officials barred several opposition candidates from competing, including Iskhak Masaliev, Omurbek Subanaliev, and Daniyar Usenov. According to the OSCE, both Usenov, chairman of the opposition People's Party, and Felix Kulov, chairman of the Ar-Namys (Dignity) Party and the former Vice President and mayor of Bishkek, had won a parliamentary seat in the first round.
During Kyrgyzstan's post-election period, most attention has focussed on the demonstrations staged by supporters of two opposition leaders, Daniyar Usunov and Felix Kulov. Meanwhile, a potentially more explosive situation in southern Kyrgyzstan has gone virtually unnoticed by the international community, even though it raises the spectre of interethnic conflict among Kyrgyz and Uzbeks.
Kovalev: I believe there is no clearly formulated strategic standpoint on this. The role of Russia in politics of the CIS provinces is being dictated by the current situation in those countries, their current state of affairs. That doesn't mean, however, that there are not constant factors influencing Russia's position.
There is a growing understanding in present-day Russia that the upcoming presidential elections will not only ratify a change of the guard an act of routine political succession from the old leader to the new one but also mark a clear watershed dividing the different historical epochs. In their search for an ideological framework for the future, many in Russia are looking to the past.
According to government officials, the extra preparation time will allow citizens to take full advantage of the autumn for harvesting, fattening livestock, and preparing feed--with the hopes that the extra work will help the Mongolian people make it through the winter without the major livestock losses and starvation that have plagued the country for the last two years.
On March 21, Kyrgyz citizens had the chance to set aside their concerns and celebrate the spring holiday, Norouz. Christoph Schuepp, who lives and works in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, documented the holiday. A selection of his images comprise this EurasiaNet photo essay.
What happened? The Aral Sea disappeared. Forty years ago, the Aral was the fourth-largest lake in the world. Today the sea, which straddles the border between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, has shrunk by half, creating a vast toxic desert. The Aral and the area around it have suffered an almost complete ecological collapse, devastating the region known as Karakalpakstan.
