Tashkent’s Rise Reshapes Central Asia’s Business Landscape
Tashkent is changing faster than it can adjust to its own growth. The city is already pressing against the limits of its existing airport; a vast new city designed for up to two million people is being built alongside it, and a separate financial jurisdiction drawing on English common law...
Kyrgyzstan Sanctions Risks Reshape Business
Kyrgyzstan is stepping up action against companies that could expose its banks and wider economy to Western sanctions. On August 18, the authorities moved to forcibly liquidate another 19 legal entities, while major banks are closing the accounts of dozens of clients deemed too risky. Bishkek has not formally joined...
Opinion: A Century Apart, Two Official Visions of Uzbek Womanhood
A century ago, in 1926, the Russian-language Uzbek newspaper Pravda Vostoka published an appeal to the “working women of the Soviet East” written by Clara Zetkin – a Marxist and a women’s rights advocate from Germany. In its appeal for women’s unveiling, it asked where the mullahs had been while...
Camel Farming Expands Across Central Asia as Climate Pressures Mount
Camels are gaining renewed economic importance in Central Asia as farmers seek new markets for their milk and governments look for livestock better suited to increasingly dry conditions. In Kazakhstan, camel numbers are rising and producers are developing markets for shubat, a fermented camel milk drink, and powdered camel milk....
Astana Finance Days 2026 to Draw Global Investors to Kazakhstan
Astana will host the ninth Astana Finance Days on September 9–10. This year, organizers expect more than 5,500 participants from over 80 countries, and the geography of the guests reflects the markets Kazakhstan has increasingly looked to for capital: the United States and Europe, China and Hong Kong, the Gulf...
Kazakhstan Mini-Refineries Eye Russia After Rail Export Restriction Lifted
Kazakhstan has lifted a railway export restriction on petroleum products from mini-refineries. For small plants, many of which operate well below capacity, the decision restores an opportunity to sell their products outside the country. Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ), the national railway company, revoked the restriction following an August 7 decision...
Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan Dispute Cause After Regional Power Failure Hits Almaty
A major power failure affected parts of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan on August 14. In Almaty, electricity went out at 2:38 p.m. local time in four districts, disrupting transport and traffic in Kazakhstan’s largest city. Traffic lights stopped working and some businesses closed. The metro suspended service, and passengers...
Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan Give Conflicting Accounts of Four-Country Blackout
Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan have given differing accounts of what triggered the August 14 blackout that cut electricity across swathes of Central Asia. Three days later, the initiating event remains unresolved, and the times released by the two sides do not fit neatly into the same sequence. Kazakhstan’s national grid operator...
Taliban Troubles, Security Service Strife and the Deportation Divide
Short Stories from the Region
