Latest Central Asia News
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ONGC Videsh eyes stake in Kashagan
By Georgiy Voloshin On November 26, Kazakh media reported that the US oil company ConocoPhillips was planning to sell its 8.4% stake in Kazakhstan's Kashagan oil field on the Caspian Sea. In the context of continuously falling revenues (in the third quarter of 2012, ConocoPhillips lost about 14% of its profits, earning slightly over US$15 billion), its top managers decided to ...
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Ukraine imports gas from Europe
By Oleg Varfolomeyev As Russia refuses to cut gas prices for Ukraine and proceeds with its South Stream pipeline project - aimed at diminishing Gazprom's dependence on Ukrainian gas pipelines - Ukraine has announced plans to further cut Russian gas imports. Even more notably, Ukraine began buying gas from the German company RWE this month. The Ukrainian government believes this ...
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Gazprom moves on helium demand
By John Helmer MOSCOW - Blimps long ago lost their value as a means of cargo transportation, military reconnaissance, or anti-aircraft defense; whilst the helium that fills them - more safely than the combustible hydrogen gas which brought down the Hindenburg in 1937 - is sharply increasing its value in other applications. But the United States, which is currently producing most of the ...
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Russia-Uzbekistan rowjeopardizes bilateral ties
investigation, O'zdunorbita continuously violated national legislation by illicitly operating 48 base stations in various parts of the country, including 24 stations based out of Tashkent. On July 17, Uzbekistan's Communications Agency suspended the company's operating license for 10 days. On July 30, the Tashkent city court further extended this suspension for a period ...
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China Russia and Obamas second coming
By M K Bhadrakumar Barack Obama's four-year second term in office as the president of the United States will be setting the tone of the final countdown on China's emergence as a superpower. The power dynamic in Asia-Pacific becomes a crucial template in this historic process. While the US can count on Japan and Australia as time-tested allies, its cogitations with China and ...
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ECO summit brings no change
By Anar Valiyev Last month, Baku hosted the 12th summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO). The presidents of Azerbaijan, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, as well as the prime minister of Turkey attended the event. ECO was established in 1985 as a regional, inter-state economic organization for the countries of the Middle East and Central Asia. Seven new states - ...
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Eid al-Adha a Russian holiday
Eid al-Adha, a Russian holiday? By Chris Monday Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest writers to have their ...
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Crime pays in Kyrgyzstan
By Chris Rickleton BISHKEK - One morning last year in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Dilnoza awoke to find her brand-new Toyota Corolla missing. She knew immediately whom to call, and it wasn't her local police precinct. Dilnoza sought the help of a private security agency. And after six days of searching, the firm's operatives tracked down and recovered Dilnoza's car, which was ...
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Tajikistans new roadsboost civil military links
By Mark Vinson On October 27, Tajikistan's President Emomalii Rahmon formally inaugurated the Shahriston tunnel along the Dushanbe-Khujand highway. The 5,253-meter tunnel cuts the time required to drive between the capital of Dushanbe and Tajikistan's second-largest city, Khujand (Leninabad), from eight to less than four hours. The Chinese-built project began six years ago and ...
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Kazakhstan US sign new energy plan
By Richard Weitz The latest meeting of the Kazakhstani-US Energy Partnership Commission took place in Washington on October 15-16, 2012. The two delegation heads, Kazakhstan's Minister of Oil and Gas Sauat Mynbayev and the US Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman, signed a Joint Action Plan for 2012 - 2013 that promotes cooperation in four broad categories: nuclear security and ...
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Kazakhstan wipes blood off the map
on October 27 and, if it passes the bureaucratic hurdles, would officially remove the name Zhanaozen from the map. Nurbol Telegenov, the head of the province's internal policies department, told RFE/RL's Kazakh Service that the final decision would be made in Astana. Hot topicTelegenov noted, however, that the proposal had already become a hot topic of discussion. ...
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Gazprom closes on South Stream goal
By Margarita Assenova Russia is moving rapidly to start building the South Stream natural gas pipeline before the end of the year. On October 29, Serbia became the first Gazprom partner to announce its final investment decision on the construction of South Stream. Bulgaria will follow suit on November 9; Hungary and Slovenia are expected to adopt similar decisions by November 15. The ...
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US Silk Road plans spin fragile thread
By Roman Muzalevsky The visit to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan this month of the US Special Representative for Global Intergovernmental Affairs, Reta Jo Lewis, to discuss Washington's vision of a "New Silk Road" across Central Asia comes ahead of the pull-out of coalition forces from Afghanistan in 2014. It also comes a year after the US launched the New Silk Road Strategy ...
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All Central Asian roads lead to Muscovy
All Central Asian roads lead to Muscovy By Himar Arjun Singh Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest writers to have their say. Please ...
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Russias Korea projects gather dust
By Stephen Blank In August 2011, Russia signed what appeared to be a momentous agreement with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea - DPRK), an accord that marked Kim Jong-il's last great foreign policy accomplishment. North Korea's Supreme Leader's last major foreign policy initiative was the August summit in Moscow, where he announced his willingness to ...
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Protest weary Kyrgyz turn to parliament
By Igor Rotar Despite the predictions of Kyrgyz and international analysts, a swift arrest and sentencing of the three Kyrgyzstani lawmakers who tried to capture the parliament building did not spark serious riots. On October 3, opposition party Ata-Jurt and parliamentary members Sadyr Zhaparov and Kamchibek Tashiyev galvanized a crowd of around 500 protesters in Bishkek who were ...
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Russia struggles to drawTajikistan into Customs Union
By Sergei Blagov Russian officials have reiterated pledges to boost economic cooperation with Tajikistan. Meanwhile, the authorities in Dushanbe seem to remain hesitant on some issues, notably the country's possible membership in the Russian-led economic grouping, the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.When Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to Tajikistan on ...
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Tamerlane through Central Asian eyes
Tamerlane through Central Asian eyes The Legendary Biographies of Tamerlane: Islam and Heroic Apocrypha in Central Asia by Ron SelaReviewed by Dmitry Shlapentokh This well-researched book focuses on what seems to be a very narrow subject - the written history of Timur (Tamerlane), ruler of a vast Central Asian empire in the late 14th century, with Samarkand as the capital. Similar to ...
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Syria Waiting for someone named Obama
Went to town Now, the intriguing part is that it was left to a third party to resort to shrill rhetoric - the United States. The State Department spokeswoman in Washington used harsh language to allege that Moscow was pursuing a "morally bankrupt" policy on Syria. Victoria Nuland said: "No responsible country ought to be aiding and abetting the war machine of the Assad ...
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CIS nations set date for free-trade zone
By Sergei Blagov The latest top-level meeting of the oldest post-Soviet grouping, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), pledged to enact their free-trade arrangements next year. However, the CIS free-trade zone (FTZ) agreement has not been ratified by some signatory nations, while other CIS member states have continued to refrain from joining the deal. During the meeting of the ...
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Kazakhstan to upgrade refinery production
By Georgiy Voloshin On October 2 and 3, Kazakhstan's capital hosted an annual gathering of the Kazenergy Association, which is comprised of 50 of the biggest players in the oil and gas sectors as well as the non-hydrocarbon sector, including foreign and domestic companies. The association was created back in November 2005 and has the status of a not-for-profit membership ...
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Kyrgyzstan flirts with Russian ambitions
By Dmitry Shlapentokh Recent agreements signed between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Kyrgyz Republic counterpart, Almazbek Atambayev, are replete with mutual benefits. Russia affirmed the presence of its military bases in Kyrgyzstan, whereas the tiny Central Asian country Kyrgyzstan received a promise from Moscow over the building of a cascade of hydropower stations and ...
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Russia bridges Middle Eastern divides
By M K Bhadrakumar A multi-billion dollar arms deal with Iraq, a summit meeting with Turkey, a fence-mending exercise with Saudi Arabia, a debut with Egypt's Sphinx-like Muslim Brothers - all this is slated to happen within the period of a turbulent month in the Middle East. And all this is to happen when the United States' "return" to the region after the hurly-burly ...
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Russia Kazakhstan slow to build growth
By Sergei Blagov Russian and Kazakhstani leaders have reiterated plans to further develop bilateral commerce, relying on the free-trade arrangements of their Customs Union. Two-way trade, however, has appeared to advance slower than previously expected. Attended by Presidents Nursultan Nazarbayev and Vladimir Putin, the Inter-Regional Cooperation Forum, held in Pavlodar, Kazakhstan, on ...
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Bishkek hands Putin Kyrgyz independence
By Fozil Mashrab Kyrgyz leaders are expected to play host to Russian President Vladimir Putin today, September 20, when he is due in Bishkek to oversee the signing of inter-governmental agreements covering deals related to the construction of large and controversial hydroelectric power stations, extension of the rental agreements for Russian military bases in Kyrgyzstan, and the writing ...
Mongolia Digest
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Mongolia coal mine sparking international interest
The government, after much deliberation, has announced that it will sell a 30% stake in the state-owned company that owns one of the largest coking coal reserves in the world, generating a flurry of interest in the industry.
Tavan Tolgoi is a huge coal mine in the Tsogttsetsii district of the southern Mongolian province of Ömnögovi. It is an extremely rural open pit coal mine that is hundreds of miles from any form of efficient transport and faces many difficulties because of this, the nearest railway, for example, is over 400 kilometers from the mine, making the transport of coal time-consuming, expensive and laborious. Read more
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