Angry demonstrators in Cairo most definitely don’t have the right to vote in Azerbaijan. But officials in Baku seem to be acting these days as though they do.
A line of 150 trucks waits to enter Kazakhstan. It takes so long to clear customs here that each rig usually only makes two round trips a month. And yet, contrary to appearances, documentary discrepancies suggest the checkpoint is a smuggler’s paradise.
Welcome to Khorgos, soon to become Russia’s new trade border with China.
For over three decades, the US Helsinki Commission has promoted the former Soviet states’ compliance with international human rights norms. Now the commission appears to be expanding the scope of its mission to include economic affairs.
A corruption crackdown is picking up speed in Kyrgyzstan. Forty-two new criminal cases involving the alleged theft of state assets are now underway against formerly high-ranking government officials. Among the looted assets are hundreds of millions of dollars in Russian economic assistance.
It seems that clemency is a dirty word for Kyrgyzstan’s kingpins and power brokers. In early September, Kyrgyzstan’s provisional government offered amnesty to anyone suspected of large-scale embezzlement in either the state or private sector.
Abduljali Karimov runs a fruit stand in Hushyori, a village 45 kilometers north of Dushanbe, on the main road to Tajikistan’s second largest city, Khujand. In April, a new neighbor moved in next door: a tollbooth. Since then, he says prices in his mountainous hamlet have been on the rise.
Kyrgyzstan’s provisional government is offering a deal to suspected white-collar criminals: repay the funds you are believed to have embezzled from the state and charges against you will be dropped.
After seven years of legal wrangling, trial postponements, and efforts by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev to control its political implications, the multimillion-dollar "Kazakhgate" bribery scandal is over.
A recent survey by Integrity Watch Afghanistan (IWA) shows a sharp expansion in corruption in Afghan society. Most Afghans now see the payment of bribes as a routine part of obtaining government services.
The more digging that takes place around Red Star Enterprises Ltd and Mina Corp, companies at the center of a US congressional probe into Pentagon contracting practices in Kyrgyzstan, the murkier the companies’ corporate structures and affiliations get.
