Last night's Democratic debate between Senator Barack Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton hit on issues related to Russia, particularly the future of democracy under Putin's likely successor, Dmitry Medvedev. While Clinton caught slack for mispronouncing “Medvedev,” Obama skirted the issue by discussing Russia without naming the likely future president, though both said he was “hand […]
A New York Times article yesterday takes a look at the Kazakh bid for an Oscar last night for “Mongol,” one of a number of films being produced in the country following the flow of funds from oil and natural gas windfalls. While “Mongol” lost out to the Austrian produced film “The Counterfeiters,” the nationalistic […]
Many people have already written some great comments on former President Bhutto's assassination. Here are the links to what I think are the quality discussions: The New York Times has a feature story, plus Biographical Timeline on Ms. Bhutto, some of her own writing, and other details accessible on the linked page. Peter Marton at […]
John CK Daly, a really good analyst on Former Soviet states and energy, has written a new article on the duality of Caspian oil negotiations, currently focused on the Kashagan field. One duality is that of environmental concerns over energy extraction. In April, Antoine Blua at RFE/RL reported Caspian seals dying in great numbers from unknown […]
I ran across this article on the Motley Fool's philanthropy site. Here is the first sentence: Across the world, a profound disaster is unfolding: Over the next 10 years, 1 billion young people in developing countries will be competing for about 300 million jobs. Okay, so these are the choices: create businesses, hire people, or […]
Last week, on December 16, Kyrgyzstani voters went to the polls for legislative elections. Those who have been following the politics in Kyrgyzstan this year will be unsurprised–but perhaps unhappy–to learn that the OSCE had harsh words about the election. Ferghana.ru reports on the OSCE report card, where officials are calling it a “missed opportunity”. […]
According to Interfax, Tajikistan's big hydropower plant in work, is delayed again. This time: no concrete deliveries. Therefore, the plant–scheduled for its ribbon-cutting ceremony on December 21 or 22–is delayed until “late December or early January”. Excerpt No. 1: Power to the People Tajikistan is rich in hydro resources, however, it lacks 3 – 3.5 billion […]
Over 2006 and 2007, Senlis, a European-based think tank with offices in Ottawa, Kandahar, and Lashkar Gul, has been documenting aid progress in Afghanistan–and saying that it's been inadequate. In a November 2007 report, the report stated: The depressing conclusion is that, despite the vast injections of international capital flowing into the country, and a universal […]
Well, that clanking sound you’re hearing in the background: it's the wheels of commerce in the dark. John Helmer over at Asia Times has written a fascinating article on Tajikistan's aluminum company, Talco and its relationship with Norway's Hydro: At current LME [London Metal Exchange] linked prices, the alumina is worth about $50 million; the metal […]
Next year the Great Decisions series at the Foreign Policy Association will have a blog on Russia, which will complement Central Asia reporting here–we are going to press onward. For the purposes of Central Asia reporting though, it's important to note that Russia's electoral process sends messages to Central Asia as well and suggests the […]
With a title like this, I had to write in: they finally filmed a mammal in the Gobi desert that, okay, my fellow tree-huggers, is a really cute cross between a mouse and a rabbit: a long-eared jerboa. BBC has pictures, a story, and a video. It is also an endangered species. We should look […]
Quick one: Since transparency continues to be an issue in Central Asia and elsewhere, I found this article of interest–and it uses the U.S. as an example, but the principles are perhaps universal. Over at How Stuff Works: how to launder money. Now don't go saying I told you what to do here! 🙂 The idea is […]
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