In a 21st century take on The Great Game, Russia, Iran and the US vie for influence in the Central Asian region. This week saw Kazakhstan’s President Nazarbayev in Moscow to discuss Russia’s plans for a resurrection of its nuclear industrial complex. Kazakhstan possseses the world’s second largest reserves of uranium, according to Qatar based Gulf Times.
David A. Merkel, until recently Director of Aegean, Caucasus and Central Asian affairs on the US National Security Council has warned of the need to engage with Turkmenistan and to head off efforts by Gazprom to gain control of its enormous natural gas reserves, reports Eurasia.net. While Kyrgyzstan and Iran continue to make friendly noises towards each other after the Kyrgyz parliament’s speaker’s recent Iranian tour, relations with the US are dogged by controversy over the airbase at Manas. On Monday the Kyrgyz Prosecutor General’s office demanded the extradition of a US serviceman who shot dead a Kyrgyz citizen at the base last December. In the meantime, Kyrgyzstan has ratified the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s counter-terrorism agreement and announced that the grouping’s next summit will be held in the country in August.
As Uzbekistan apparently blocks access to the news and comment site Registan.net, Moscow based site Ferghana.ru carries an interview with human rights activist and journalist Ruslan Sharipov as he prepares to return home, having spent the last two and half years in the US. At the same time scores of Andijan refugees return home to face an uncertain future, amid fears that they may have been pressured into re-entering the country. Some weeks after the US State Department’s indictment the Uzbek human rights situation, Insitute for War and Peace Reporting reflects on whether the report will make any difference on the ground.
In a sign that governments across the region remain intensely wary of Islamism, the government of Tajikistan, home to the region’s only official Muslim party, is embarking on a religious crackdown. It is set to demolish 148 unregistered mosques in the capital Dushanbe, according to Associated Press, via Taiwan’s China Post. This comes just days after the country’s former spiritual leader Hoji Akbar Turajonzoda called for an amnesty for prisoners who fought against the government during the civil war of 1992-1997. Meanwhile, in a gesture that would seem to bring him closer to the country’s Persian - and it could be argued, Muslim roots - President Emomali Rakhmonov announced, on the eve of the traditional new year’s celebration of Noruz, that he would be dropping the Russian suffix -ov from his name.
In a sign that he may be keen to dissociate himself from the legacy of his all-powerful predecessor Saparmurat Niyazov, Turkmenistan’s President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov restored pensions to more than 100,000 citizens, according to Associated Press, via the International Herald Tribune. He has also brought back maternity payments. Turkmenistan’s economy grew by 13% last year.
Stay tuned to Central Asia Now for weekly news digests. Keep an eye out for our fortnightly analysis slots by regional experts.
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Comment by Trifon 11.06.08 @ 4:36 am