Tuning In to the Outside World

David Trilling

A boy plays outside his home in central Ashgabat. Satellite dishes abound in Turkmenistan, providing residents access to Russian and Turkish news. Since the Russian state-controlled media's apparent interference in Kyrgyzstan and Belarus this year, observers in Ashgabat suggest the satellites give the Kremlin a quiet lever of power over the country.

David Trilling is EurasiaNet's Central Asia editor.