In our weekly briefing: Restrictions easing, COVID denialism persists, foreign suitors come visiting in hope of business, and the latest annual horse jamboree.
Turkmenistan's new president is continuing his father's traditions: Building white elephants, censoring the internet, and booting people out of their homes.
President Ilham Aliyev's visit to Moscow days ahead of Russia's invasion of Ukraine appears to have resulted in an agreement not to compete with one another on gas exports.