EurasiaChat

In our podcast this week, hosts Aigerim Toleukhanova and Alisher Khamidov discuss the connection between dangerous air pollution, unusually cold weather, and the regionwide energy crisis. Experts agree on some straightforward causes and solutions, but Kyrgyzstan’s president has his own theory and a proposal.  Kazakhs often wonder if they’ll be the Kremlin’s next target. So, many were pleased at ho...

In our podcast this week, hosts Aigerim Toleukhanova and Alisher Khamidov discuss growing public discontent over Central Asia’s chronic energy crisis. Why aren't authorities better prepared? One reason is that energy subsidies keep prices too low to fund infrastructure upgrades. But governments are reluctant to raise prices, afraid of provoking unrest like what happened in Kazakhstan earlier...

In our podcast this week, hosts Aigerim Toleukhanova and Alisher Khamidov discuss the ongoing crackdown on political dissent in Kyrgyzstan and the president's shadow parliament, which he has empowered to muffle the elected parliament. Kazakhstan’s presidential election provided few surprises; the incumbent won over 80 percent of the vote. But “against all” took second place in a showing of pu...

In our podcast this week, hosts Aigerim Toleukhanova and Alisher Khamidov discuss the Uzbekistan president’s surprising response to new evidence of forced labor. Coal-mining deaths are nothing unusual in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, but the governments are beginning to hold investors responsible. And a Russian who fled to Kazakhstan lands himself in trouble for offering tips on how to pick up hot lo...

In our podcast this week, hosts Aigerim Toleukhanova and Alisher Khamidov discuss why Russia’s war on Ukraine is prompting people in Central Asia to learn local languages . They also look at the challenges of border demarcation in the Fergana Valley and how the Kyrgyz government’s secretive negotiations with Uzbekistan have invited blowback .  Plus, Peter Leonard interviews Nurbek Bekmurzaev, who...

In our podcast this week, hosts Aigerim Toleukhanova and Joanna Lillis discuss how Tajikistan is rounding up journalists following a violent crackdown in the Pamirs earlier this year. Meanwhile, Kazakhstan is detaining Karakalpak activists from Uzbekistan – and Tashkent is mum on the constitutional changes that prompted unrest in July.  But it was the Russian and Turkish presidents stealing headli...

In our podcast this week, hosts Aigerim Toleukhanova and Joanna Lillis discuss how Russians fleeing conscription are upending life in Central Asia and placing Kazakhstan in an awkward position.  Also, we hear an update from Peter Leonard, our Central Asia editor, on the political drama after the recent fighting between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, the worst inter-state violence in Central Asia since...

In the first episode of our new podcast: When Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin visited Central Asia this week, it was clear the Chinese president held the upper hand. Xi made a strong statement of support for Kazakh territorial integrity and sovereignty, while Russia's leader struggled to explain his faltering war in Ukraine. It was a watershed movement in the region's independent history,...