Author: Ross Watson

Russian military expert Boris Norin, commenting on the current situation in the theater of military operations of the Ukrainian conflict, expressed the opinion that the ongoing bloody attacks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on a number of sectors of the front, in particular in the areas of the settlements of Rabotino, Staromayorskoe and Artemovsk, are not accidental. According to the expert, the tactics of massive attacks in the same directions is an attempt to break through the previously studied sections of the defense line of the RF Armed Forces, which, in turn, indicates that the command of the Armed…

Kyrgyz officials complain that they are unable to quickly pivot away from reliance on economic ties with Russia, no matter what Western governments demand. The West’s campaign of trade sanctions against Russia has put Kyrgyzstan in a bind. Last week, the U.S. Treasury announced it had slapped sanctions on four companies in the country for enabling the circumvention of export bans of dual-use material to Russia. As Alisher Khamidov, a Eurasianet contributor based in Bishkek, notes in the latest edition of our EurasiaChat podcast, this may be the price for Kyrgyz officials failing to properly take heed of months of…

Askhat Zhumagali, chairman of the Anti-Corruption Agency, said that Antikor plans to return $300 million to Kazakhstan from abroad, Khabar 24 TV channel reports . The head of Antikora spoke about the agency’s plans to return assets illegally withdrawn from the country in the Interview program. According to Askhat Zhumagali, the money will go to the state treasury in one of the criminal cases. The head of the department noted that through joint efforts, state bodies have already returned more than 850 billion tenge to the budget of the republic. All finances will go to the construction of schools and…

Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Kyrgyz Republic Edil Baisalov held a meeting with Minister of Employment and Labor of the Republic of Korea Lee Jong-sik, the press service of the Cabinet reported, Azernews reports, citing Kabar. During the meeting, the sides discussed topical issues of bilateral cooperation, interaction in the field of labor migration and the possibility of increasing quotas to attract labor migrants from Kyrgyzstan to Korea. The deputy chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers noted the importance of cooperation between countries in the field of labor migration, emphasizing the high professional potential of the…

Even in a one-party, communist state, ordinary people can exert power. It wasn’t the Communist Party that lifted the Vietnamese out of poverty; the people did it themselves. The country’s free-market revolution was the result of bottom-up pressure from the masses who broke the command-economy so much that the communist government had to accept a private sphere of business. Their pilfering from state-run companies and trading on the black market, and their ability to own more and more surplus produce after the state took its share, meant the government simply couldn’t handle the collectivized economy that had left Vietnam one…

One overriding goal is to get more people to sort their own trash. Last month, Bishkek city hall finally buried a garbage landfill that had been burning continuously for a decade. The news was met with jubilation by eco-activists, who had been pleading for years with the municipal authorities. The landfill was built in 1978 and was designed for a population of around 400,000 people. Kyrgyzstan’s capital is home to more than 1 million and is growing fast. Now, a new pit has been built. City hall wants that one to work in a whole different way. Achieving that will…

The legends and myths of Kyrgyzstan provide explanations for things that may seem hard to explain: the weather or the landscape, or even history. These legends were passed down from generation to generation, changing bit by bit until they reached us today. Since the history of the Kyrgyz stretches so far back, there are plenty of myths and legends. Some legends tell a bit of the history of Kyrgyzstan, like the Epic of Manas, or how Burana Tower was built. The Epic of Manas tells the formation of the Kyrgyz state, and how the great warrior Manas was able to…

How does gender equality look like in Kyrgyzstan? The National Statistical Committee of the Kyrgyz Republic (NSC) jointly with UN Women Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia presented the results of a new publication “Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Gender in the Kyrgyz Republic”. The event brought together representatives of government agencies, civil society, academia and international organizations to discuss progress in achieving sustainable development and gender equality to make informed policy decisions for SDGs implementation and the empowerment of women and girls. Participants discussed  violence against women and girls, unpaid care and domestic work, women’s employment and participation…

Kyrgyz traditional healing practices display a mixture of Islamic and pre-Islamic practices of the Turkic peoples. Like many of the other peoples of Central Asia, before the spread of Islam Kyrgyz worshipped spirits of their ancestors, different animals, mountains, trees, running water, and fire. Along with Islam, especially in its Sufi forms, some of the traces of this ancient practice still can be found in daily lives of the Kyrgyz. Most of the healers today associate their healing power with Islam; however, the healing practice itself and tools they use clearly show its strong connection with pre-Islamic values and practices.…

The month of May holds dark memories for the Pamiris in Tajikistan Berlin (2/5 – 100) For the Pamiri ethnic minority and residents of the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) in Tajikistan, the month of May is a reminder of many dark memories. On 14th May 2022, there was a riot in Khorog, the capital of GBAO, home to the Pamiri ethnic groups with unsimilar ethnicity, language, religion and culture from the rest of the Tajiks. About 1,000 people gathered to peacefully demand the resignation of the regional leader, Alisher Mirzonabatov, affectionately called “The Butcher of the Pamir” and the fair investigation…