The conduct of Kazakhstan's recent parliamentary elections got a tepid review from an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe-sponsored observer mission.
The mistaken, late December Turkish airstrike that left 35 Kurdish civilians dead highlights an apparent shift in US policy toward Ankara. The change could end up undermining efforts to promote democratization in the Middle East and North Africa.
You might call it the train in vain. And it has troubling implications for a US plan to stoke East-West trade via a New Silk Road, as well as keep American and NATO troops well supplied in Afghanistan.
Amid the release of a report detailing the widespread and systematic use of torture in Uzbekistan, the US Defense Department may make a major donation to Tashkent’s security establishment. Under the plan currently being considered, Uzbekistan would obtain equipment that the Pentagon deems redundant or outdated for use by the American military.
Kyrgyzstan’s president-to-be, Prime Minister Almazbek Atambayev, and his political allies seem intent on calibrating the cash-strapped country’s foreign policy so that it aligns with Bishkek’s dire economic needs. This is likely to force Kyrgyz officials into a delicate balancing act in which they are challenged to keep the country’s two largest trading partners -- Russia and China – happy.
When NATO representatives meet with their Afghan and Central Asian counterparts in Istanbul on November 2 to discuss the “New Silk Road” project, they will try to play up its mutual economic benefits.
It may still be only on the drawing board, but Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s proposed Eurasian Union, an economic bloc of former Soviet republics, already is stirring concern in Armenia about the future of Yerevan’s independence from Moscow.
When it comes to dealing with the United States and NATO on security issues in Central Asia, Russia is acting tough while operating from a position of increasing weakness.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s recent article for the Russian newspaper Izvestia discussing the creation of a new Eurasian Union continues to draw reactions from media and politicians. Originally written Oct. 3, the article emphasizes Putin’s proposal for the Eurasian Union, an economic grouping focusing on integration between Russia and former Soviet republics.
