Tolkun Namatbayeva | Bishkek | June 23

AFP -

The United States and Kyrgyzstan signed a deal on the transit of non-military cargo to Afghanistan that will effectively keep open a US air base Bishkek had ordered closed, officials said.

Kyrgyzstan had troubled Washington by ordering the closure of the US airbase at Manas, a key transit point for operations in Afghanistan, at a time when US President Barack Obama was ordering an intensified campaign against the Taliban.

"The US and Kyrgyzstan agreed on the opening of a centre for the transit of goods to Afghanistan at the Manas airport," a source in the Kyrgyz government told AFP, confirming that an agreement had been signed on Monday.

The source added that the base -- which had previously been used for ferrying troops to Afghanistan and the refuelling of military aircraft -- would from now on only be used for the transit of non-lethal goods.

"The status of the airbase has changed. It will now transport non-military cargo to Afghanistan," the official said.

The agreement should be debated Tuesday by the Kyrgyz parliament ahead of ratification, the government source said, while parliament officials confirmed that it would examine the issue in an extraordinary session.

Did you see that article back in February that predicted this Iranian revolution? No? Neither did I. As far as anyone can tell this revolution was unexpected. When millions of people in Iran take to the streets to shout “death to the dictator” – meaning President Ahmadinejad – and when hundreds of demonstrators are injured with many killed by roving militias, something of great significance is occurring. Too bad the world was unprepared for this.

In the United States it is easy to blame the press. After all, this trouble in Iran was brewing right during the middle of American Idol, when the US takes time out to vote for the least objectionable amateur singer. The UK was equally preoccupied this year what with all the fuss over Susan Boyle. It was only a week before the election in Iran than most people who follow the news in the US or Europe even heard about Moussavi vs. Ahmadinejad. But you had to search for the news – the main stream press coverage was spotty or non-existent.

Shabtai Gold | Geneva | June 15

DPA - Child rights activists have hailed the move by several big-name companies to boycott Uzbek cotton over allegations of child labour - but warned it was just the first step against such abusive practices.

'Every year Uzbekistan is turned into a giant labour camp,' said one activist from the Central Asian republic, recalling conditions in the cotton fields.

Children work in freezing cold temperatures and in searing heat, witnesses said. Their jobs tend to clash with school, so they end up losing out on education while the state benefits by an estimated billion dollars annually, for a product dubbed 'white gold.'

Key companies, including Asda Wal-Mart, the British Tesco, Marks and Spencer and Gap, the clothing retailer, have all agreed in recent months to pull out of Uzbekistan as the evidence of forced child labour in return for meagre salaries mounted.

Ryskeldi Satke | Central Asia | June 1

http://en.jetigen.org - Ryskeldi Satke

The problem of afghan drug trafficking (heroin and opium) through Central Asia to Russia and Europe has become one of the most serious and difficult tasks for the Governments of Central Asian States for 17 years since the dissolution of the USSR with deteriorating situation every few years especially since the beginning of large-scale military operations by coalition forces of NATO and the United States since 2001 in the Afghanistan. Increased flow of the afghan heroin and opium to former soviet states characterized by complexity of the political,social and economic diversities in Central Asia.

May 26

BBC -
State television in Uzbekistan says a suicide bomber has killed a police officer and wounded several people in the eastern city of Andijan.

It said that earlier up to three men used guns and explosives to attack a police checkpoint at nearby Khanabad.

The reports said another officer and a gunman were injured, and that the attackers managed to escape.

They are said to have come from Kyrgyzstan. The two countries closed their border after the first attack.

The motive for the attacks is not clear, but Uzbek media have speculated about a possible failed terrorist operation.

The Ferghana Valley, where Khanabad is located, has been the scene of several attacks by militant groups in the past.

Nick Mathiason | May 24

The Observer - It is considered one of the most exploitative industries in the world. In Uzbekistan, gangs forcibly remove hundreds of thousands of children from schools, order them to pick cotton in the searing heat and live in squalid conditions on pitiful wages.

Blended by manufacturers thousands of miles away, Uzbeki state-controlled cotton is sold to the world's biggest retailers, making the repressive regime the third biggest exporter of "white gold" and earning the government $1bn.

But, in what has been described as a major breakthrough, a decision by some of the world's biggest clothing businesses has forced the Uzbeki government in recent weeks to sign International Labour Organisation conventions that commit the country to stop using child labour in its state-sponsored industry.

Retailers that have pulled out of the central Asian state include Tesco, Asda Wal-Mart, Marks & Spencer and Gap.

Shaun Walker | Moscow | May 19

The Independent -

In a region not known for the modesty of its presidents, Tajikistan's Emomali Rahmon has issued an unusual edict: he wants all of his portraits taken down immediately. Local officials in the poverty-stricken country will now need prior approval before hanging posters, photographs or even carpets that feature Mr Rahmon's image.

According to Mr Rahmon, the personality cult in the country has got out of hand and from now on, any official or public venue wishing to hang a photograph of the President must clear it with his office first. Most irritating of all, said Mr Rahmon, were the local officials who hung pictures of themselves together with the President, trying to bask in reflected glory. Portraits of Mr Rahmon, with his puffy face and swept-back shock of dyed-black hair, adorn government offices and billboards across the country.

"In order to prevent showing-off in the ranks and eliminate misunderstandings among the population, I order that portraits and carpets with the images of local officials together with the President of Tajikistan be removed from all offices, public places and from along roads," said Mr Rahmon in a directive. He also asked authorities to remove "thank you notes" left by citizens at public monuments, expressing their gratitude to the President.

It is unclear whether his edict is part of a genuine effort to reduce the cult of personality that has flourished in the country, or simply a desire to stop local officials muscling in on his limelight. A glance at Mr Rahmon's official website suggests that the President has not had a sudden attack of shyness.

M K Bhadrakumar | Apr 27

Asia Times - Last week, the Barack Obama administration made its first major move in the geopolitics of Eurasia with the appointment of Richard Morningstar as the special envoy for Eurasian energy. The brilliant, devastatingly effective diplomat of the Bill Clinton administration is back on his old beat.

Curiously, despite its extensive ties to Big Oil, the George W Bush administration's performance in energy politics reads dismally. Russia's Vladimir Putin outsmarted the United States in the Caspian. Enter Morningstar. He served the Clinton administration as special advisor to the president and secretary of state on the former Soviet Union, special advisor on Caspian basin energy diplomacy and ambassador to the European Union (EU). He was a key figure in pushing through - against great odds - the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, which stands out as an enduring achievement for US energy diplomacy in the post-Soviet period.

Moscow should take note that a formidable adversary has re-entered the arena. With a career background in EU affairs and Caspian energy diplomacy, Morningstar's appointment signifies that Washington is going to take a shot at the Nabucco gas pipeline project. Resolute action to get the project going includes lining up funding, securing the necessary gas supplies, beating back Russian countermoves and least of all rallying European support. Nabucco has the potential to rewrite Russia-EU relations and consolidate the US's trans-Atlantic leadership. The 3,300 kilometer-long pipeline from the Caspian via Turkey to Austria would reduce the EU's growing dependence on Russian energy.

Apr 22

Asia Times - Putin gets to work on Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan is demonstrating unprecedented outspokenness and persistence in standing up to Russia to defend its own interests, notably in efforts to evade the close embrace of energy giant Gazprom. In Moscow, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is taking notice.

Germans in groundbreaking Turkmen deal

German energy giant Rheinisch-Westfaelische Elektrizitaetswerk has entered what could become a breakthrough agreement with Turkmenistan on offshore gas field development and gas deliveries. Alongside a public clash on a pipeline explosion, it is a sign of a new era in Turkmenistan's policies.

M K Bhadrakumar | Apr 18 | Asia Times

The global downturn is spreading to Central Asia. It may lead to a marked shift of fortune in the Great Game for control of Caspian energy reserves. On the surface, the intensity of the rivalries may appear to have subsided, as the principal protagonists - Russia and the West - brood over the precarious state of their own finances and prioritize fixing their domestic economies.

But the slowing down of the Great Game bears a deceptive appearance. China gains out of any changing equations. Of all the major economies of the world, it is in China that the government's 4 trillion yuan (US$585 billion) stimulus package may have begun showing results, which puts the economy in a "better-than-expected" shape, as Premier Wen Jiabao said on Thursday.

China's prospects as the first major economy to recover gives it a crucial role to lead the world economy as a whole and the Central Asian region in particular. Following up on a $25 billion loan to Russia that China dished out in February, it has agreed to lend $10 billion to Kazakhstan. China expects both the recipients to reciprocate by bolstering their energy supplies to China.

We may be witnessing the signs of a seismic shift in the geopolitics of Central Asia. The region faces a grim economic outlook and it instinctively looks up to China to help it figure a way out. That provides a big opportunity for China to take the region under its wings. The implications are deep for the Caspian energy sweepstakes.

Asyl Osmonalieva | Bishkek | Apr 18

IWPR - Supporters of Islamic banking say it offers a viable alternative to the conventional financial mechanisms used in Kyrgyzstan in these uncertain economic times.

Opponents, however, say granting approval to practices borrowed from the Islamic world is a worrying sign as it suggests this Central Asian state is losing sight of the secular principles on which it is founded .

After a three-year pilot project, the Kyrgyz parliament passed legislation on March 31 this year enabling any bank to apply the principles of Islamic finance if it so wishes.

Instead of a model where the lender assumes financial risk in return for interest on loans, the idea is that banks and their clients form a partnership and share the profits. Interest rates are prohibited under Islamic law’s proscription of usury, and money cannot be lent to venture that go against religious principles, such as selling alcohol or encouraging gambling.

“In this case, the bank is a partner that shares profits and losses with the client, so it will back promising projects because it has an interest in the success of the venture,” said Timur Jusupov, deputy chair of the board of EcoBank, which has been offering some of its loans according to Islamic legal tenets since 2006, when President Kurmanbek Bakiev approved the pilot project.

Apr 13

Gazprom vs. Rosneft in Far East

AND

Pipeline explosion reveals Turkmenistan-Gazprom rift

AND CLOSER TO HOME

Gazprom: A Russian Invasion?

In a deal we expected to get a bit more press, Gazprom (OTC: OGZPY) and Shell (NYSE: RDS) announced a deal on Thursday that will allow Gazprom to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Shell's terminal in Baja California. The gas will then be transported via pipeline to Southern California. From Russia with love.

Asia Times - March 26
"Liquid War: Welcome to Pipelineistan"
By Pepe Escobar

What happens on the immense battlefield for the control of Eurasia will provide the ultimate plot line in the tumultuous rush towards a new, polycentric world order, also known as the New Great Game.

Our good ol' friend the nonsensical "global war on terror", which the Pentagon has slyly rebranded "the Long War", sports a far more important, if half-hidden, twin - a global energy war. I like to think of it as the Liquid War, because its bloodstream is the pipelines that crisscross the potential imperial battlefields of the planet. Put another way, if its crucial embattled frontier these days is the Caspian Basin, the whole of Eurasia is its chessboard. Think of it, geographically, as Pipelineistan.

All geopolitical junkies need a fix. Since the second half of the 1990s, I've been hooked on pipelines. I've crossed the Caspian in an Azeri cargo ship just to follow the $4 billion Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline, better known in this chess game by its acronym, BTC, through the Caucasus. (Oh, by the way, the map of Pipelineistan is chicken-scratched with acronyms, so get used to them!)

I've also trekked various of the overlapping modern Silk Roads, or perhaps Silk Pipelines, of possible future energy flows from Shanghai to Istanbul, annotating my own do-it-yourself routes for LNG (liquefied natural gas). I used to avidly follow the adventures of that once-but-not-future Sun-King of Central Asia, the now deceased Turkmenbashi or "leader of the Turkmen", Saparmurat Niyazov, head of the immensely gas-rich Republic of Turkmenistan, as if he were a Conradian hero.

Read on at Asia Times

Erica Marat | Mar 16

The Jamestown Foundation - On March 13 Medet Sadyrkulov, the former head of the presidential administration, died in a suspicious car accident. Sadyrkulov's car was hit by another vehicle in the early morning on a rural highway. The car burned entirely, suggesting that the "accident" was pre-planned. Sadyrkulov's death follows a chronicle of political assassinations, kidnappings, arrests, and disappearances in Kyrgyzstan that began after President Kurmanbek Bakiyev seized power in March 2005.

Several of Sadyrkulov's supporters, among them his former deputy Elmira Ibraimova and a number of opposition leaders, point to the regime for involvement in masterminding Sadyrkulov's death. Ibraimova in particular has been a fierce critic of the Bakiyev regime since Sadyrkulov's death (www.24.kg, www.akipress.kg, March 13-15).

Sadyrkulov played an important role in Bakiyev's regime. He helped the president to construct corrupt schemes and had a significant influence over cadre politics. Sadyrkulov had a strong influence in parliament and in several ministries. Although he was not able to dictate appointments to ministries, he still took charge of nominating deputy ministers. As Temir Sariyev, a member of the United Opposition Movement (UOM), told Jamestown, Sadyrkulov had access to information that could potentially destabilize the regime.

IHT - It's a long way from Kazakhstan to Kentucky, but the equestrian journey to the Derby may have started among a pastoral people on the Kazakh steppes who appear to have been the first to domesticate, bridle and perhaps ride horses - around 3500 B.C., a millennium earlier than previously thought.

Archaeologists say the discovery may revise thinking about the development of some pre-agricultural Eurasian societies and put an earlier date to their dispersal into Europe and elsewhere. These migrations are believed to have been associated with horse domestication and the spread of Indo-European languages.

At the very least, on the first Saturday in May the winning thoroughbred should be toasted not with a julep but a taste of koumiss, the fermented mare's milk favored by equestrians in Central Asia. It's an acquired taste, so keep bourbon on hand just in case.

Evidence for the earlier date for equine domestication was set to be described Friday in the journal Science by an international team of archaeologists. The report's lead author is Alan Outram of the University of Exeter in England.

The archaeologists wrote of uncovering ample horse bones and artifacts from which they derived "three independent lines of evidence demonstrating domestication" of horses by the semisedentary Botai culture, which occupied sites in northern Kazakhstan for six centuries, beginning at about 3600 B.C.

Tom Lasseter | Bishkek | http://www.mcclatchy

McClatchy Newspapers - When Kyrgyzstan announced last month that it was expelling a U.S. air base after Russia promised it $2 billion-plus in aid and loans, American officials said the decision wasn't final and a U.S. presence was still under discussion.

After the Kyrgyz parliament ratified the accord with near unanimity and the country's Foreign Ministry issued a notice to vacate in 180 days, however, Russia's apparent advance at U.S. expense is almost certain.

The aid package that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's government crafted was grounded in a hard-knuckled, realpolitik approach to this impoverished, landlocked Central Asian country.

Maria Golovnina | Bishkek | Feb 19

Reuters -
Kyrgyzstan MPs approve U.S. air base closure

Kyrgyzstan's parliament voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to approve a government proposal to close a U.S. air base in the Central Asian nation which is a transit point for U.S.-led fighting in nearby Afghanistan.

The decision was passed by 78 votes to 1 against by the legislature dominated by the ruling Ak Zhol party.

The closing of Manas, the last remaining U.S. air base in Central Asia, poses a challenge to new U.S. President Barack Obama's plans to send additional troops to Afghanistan to boost NATO and U.S. military efforts to defeat Taliban insurgents.

It also comes at a time of heightened rivalry between Moscow and Washington for control of Central Asia, a vast former Soviet region still seen by Russia as part of its traditional sphere of interest.

"Once all the procedures are over, an official eviction vote will be sent and after that the United States will be given 180 days to wrap up operations at the air base," Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Kadyrbek Sarbayev told journalists after the vote.

UPDATE 2/20: Kyrgyz president signs law closing US base

Previous thread and background: Manas To Close

Russian geopolitical moves over the last year have been wide-ranging, ominous, and seemingly unconnected. They are often interpreted as evidence of the resurgence of Great Russian chauvinism, which had been dormant since the decline and fall of communism. Many analysts see Russia as bent on reacquiring its empire, and at least suspect a new Cold War is in the offing. But an alternate, less malevolent interpretation might be considered, especially when Russia’s numerous cooperative measures are taken into account, as they often aren’t. Russia likely has a more limited goal: countering the spread of NATO into Eastern Europe.

Tom Lasseter | Tbilisi | Feb 13

McClatchy Newspapers - Some four years ago, as he stood before a cheering crowd of tens of thousands, former President George W. Bush declared that Georgia's pro-western government was "inspiring democratic reformers . . . across the world."

Georgia's ouster of its Russian-linked leadership in the 2003 Rose Revolution and the following year's U.S.-backed Orange Revolution in Ukraine had sent a message that "freedom will be the future of every nation," Bush said.

Today, though, the governments of Georgia and Ukraine are unraveling — symbols not of freedom but, to a large extent, of U.S. foreign policy errors, tarnished American allies and an emboldened Russia that's capitalized on its rivals' weaknesses.

Dushanbe/Brussels | Feb 12

Crisis Group - Far from being a bulwark against the spread of violence from Afghanistan, Tajikistan is looking increasingly like its southern neighbour – a weak state that is suffering from a failure of leadership.

Tajikistan: On the Road to Failure,* the latest report from the International Crisis Group, says that without sweeping reforms to address food security, energy infrastructure and corruption, President Rakhmon’s regime is in danger of collapse.

“Tajikistan’s leaders clearly feel that any reform will destroy their grip on power”, says Paul Quinn-Judge, Crisis Group’s Central Asia Project Director. “Significant improvement is highly unlikely under President Rakhmon”.

Until recently, half of Tajikistan’s workforce has been working abroad. Migrant labour has served not only as an easy way out for the country’s largely do-nothing leadership. It has also created a political safety valve providing jobs for the young, more energetic members of the population who might otherwise have taken their protests to the street. Now work in Russia, Kazakhstan and elsewhere is drying up with the deepening of the world economic crisis. The migrants are coming home.

Feb 11

AFP - The powerful chief of Azerbaijan's air force was shot dead outside his home Wednesday, the highest ranking military official to be killed in the oil-rich republic wedged between Russia and Iran.

Lieutenant-General Rail Rzayev, 64, was gunned down outside his home in the capital Baku as he left for work in the early morning, interior ministry spokesman Sadiq Gozalov told AFP.

"The general was shot and received a heavy wound to the head. He was sent to the military hospital in Baku, where he died," Gozalov said.

Gozalov said police were on the scene investigating and that military prosecutors would be handling the case. He said he had no information regarding a possible motive for the shooting.

Experts said the killing may have been a contract hit linked with Rzayev's role in large-scale military acquisitions Azerbaijan has made in recent years as government coffers surged from oil revenues.

Well, now our strategic presence in Central Asia proper is zero. Manas AFB in Bishkek will close. The Russians are turning the screws. They'll not allow overflights for resupply to our presence in Afghanistan over an FSU territory. That's their prerogative now, especially as they showed they are willing to use violence, in Georgia, to enforce their national interests.

And so we're left with the Port of Karachi and the overland routes from Baluchistan into Afghanistan and the Khyber Pass. And what happens when they get shut down again? Remember, 95% of military resupply is done via shipping and then overland travel. You just can't fly enough in.

This is a serious blow to American power in the region. And don't let anyone tell you otherwise. I'm not surprised it happened at all. I'm just surprised it took so long.

Then again, we really don't have any vital strategic national interests in Central Asia, so I never saw the point of having a base in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. But what do I know, I'm just a DFH.

UPDATE 2/5: Kyrgyzstan says U.S. air base decision is final ~ tina

Nabi Abdullaev | Feb 4

Moscow Times - Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev announced Tuesday that his country would close a U.S. air base supporting NATO's military operations in Afghanistan.

But a U.S. military official denied that the base would close and called the announcement "political positioning."

Bakiyev spoke shortly after President Dmitry Medvedev said Russia would provide Bishkek with a $2 billion loan and $150 million in nonrepayable aid.

"Kyrgyzstan will close the U.S. military base in Manas after Washington refused to negotiate better compensation," Bakiyev told reporters late Tuesday after holding talks with Medvedev in the Kremlin.

Jan 17

AFP - Kyrgystan will order the closure of a US military airbase used to support operations in Afghanistan "in a matter of days" under pressure from Russia, a senior Kyrgyz official told AFP.

"The presidential decree on the annulment of the agreement with the United States is already prepared. In a matter of days it will be published in the Kyrgyz media," the official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The official said Russia had urged Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev to announce the closure of the base in exchange for financial help to the cash-strapped Central Asian nation.

Russian officials have discussed extending Kyrgyzstan a 300-million-dollar (225-million-euro) loan as well as 1.7 billion dollars of investment in the energy sector of the ex-Soviet republic.

M K Bhadrakumar | Dec 20

Asia Times - The focus on the fate of al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan disguises the full range of the bitterly fought geopolitical struggle in the region. The maneuverings over Afghan supply routes mask a crucial bid by the United States to expand its influence into the Russian, Chinese and Iranian backyards in Central Asia. Inevitably, this will force Moscow and Tehran to join hands; missile sales between these countries are a harbinger of things to come.

Adding fuel to the fire: US intends to open diplomatic post in Crimea