Bruce Pannier is a Central Asia analyst and appears regularly on the Majlis podcast for RFE/RL.
A huge increase in liquefied petroleum gas prices in the western Kazakh city of Zhanaozen on January 1 sparked a large protest that rapidly spread to other areas of western Kazakhstan and the country's main cities. And the protesters are not backing down.
It looked like Kyrgyzstan had partially solved its looming electricity problem this winter thanks to imports from neighbors. But despite good intentions, it might not be so easy.
Central Asians from western Kazakhstan to southern Tajikistan are suffering from power and energy shortages that have caused hardship and emergency situations affecting the lives of millions of people.
Turkmenistan might be getting one of its natural-gas customers back. Turkmen Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov was in Tehran from October 26-28 for a meeting of the foreign ministers from the countries bordering Afghanistan plus Russia.
The preliminary results of Uzbekistan’s presidential election have been announced and, to no one’s surprise, incumbent President Shavkat Mirziyoev has won another five-year term in office.
Tajikistan is the only neighbor of Afghanistan not trying to come to an understanding with the Taliban. Why is Dushanbe taking this unique stance and what will it mean going forward?
Afghan government forces are on the run in the northern part of the country with nearly 200 troops fleeing into Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to escape Taliban assaults in recent days. Central Asian governments find they now have fighting on their doorstep.
A Taliban delegation made an unusual appearance in Ashgabat on February 6 after visits to Iran and Russia. Little information is available about the trip -- and there's near silence from the Turkmen government – so it's unclear what issues were discussed during the mystery visit.
Elections for Kazakhstan's lower house of parliament will be held on January 10, the same day Kyrgyzstan will have a presidential election and a referendum to decide on a presidential or parliamentary system of government.
Kazakhstan’s Bozzhira Canyon offers magnificent scenery to those relative few able to go see it in a remote area in the western part of the country. But a new proposal to build a luxury hotel in the canyon as some Kazakhs saying such a project would ruin the very beauty people come to see.
A Russian Defense Ministry official announced last week that his country would be deploying a new air-defense system to Kyrgyzstan in a move that raised eyebrows as some wondered what threat it is protecting against.
A young cardiologist who told the story of his tormented life as a gay man in Turkmenistan has disappeared after being summoned by police. His family has also vanished in a country where homosexuality is still considered a crime.
Deadly violence along the Kyrgyz-Tajik border came as their presidents plan to meet nearby to discuss border demarcation and tensions.
People in Turkmenistan have for many years remained stoic in the face of hard times. But recent economic woes are wearing down their patience, and some people appear to be doing and saying things they never did before.
For years now, the Turkmen government has spent state funds on projects that have little, if any, value for the general population.
RFE/RL's Qishloq Ovozi blogger Bruce Pannier has spent the last two weeks traveling Kyrgyzstan to get a read on the atmosphere in the run-up to the vote. In this report, Pannier distills some of the most essential questions about this weekend's poll.
Another figure from the days of Tajikistan's 1992-97 civil war is on the run. One thing that does seem clear is that this conflict has little, if anything, to do with Islam or international terrorism, as the Tajik government's most senior figures are claiming.
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