Author: Nazgul Temirov

The cybersecurity agencies of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance (the U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada and New Zealand) issued a warning on Tuesday that hackers were increasingly exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities to access their targets’ networks. It marks a significant departure from similar advisories issued in 2022 and 2021, when the agencies warned that malicious cyber actors were exploiting older software vulnerabilities more frequently than recently disclosed ones. In a co-authored advisory, the agencies list the top 15 most routinely exploited vulnerabilities of 2023, with CVE-2023-3519 — an issue affecting Citrix’s networking product NetScalers — being the most widely used. Reports around the time…

Brussels/Dushanbe (10/8- 75) Once more Tajikistan comes on the radar screen. Who will be the next president of Tajikistan? How is the ban on the hijab helping the deradicalization of Tajik society? What is the role of the Chinese and Russian influence? And how is the relationship with the European Union coming along? Every year we face a plethora of Tajik issues, for example corruption and drug usage involving officials, now the ban on face veils, or the newest version a ban on black clothes. The desecration of the grave of one of leaders and the promotions of killer squad…

Paris/Jakarta (24/7 – 28.57). “Coffee is the common man’s gold, and like gold, it brings to every person the feeling of luxury and nobility.” – Sheik-Abd-al-Kadir A friend recently opened a coffee shop is called after its owner, Muteeya. Though modest, it embodies the burgeoning coffee culture found in Paris, London, the US, and now Jakarta. The coffee is steaming hot, and soft tunes fill the air. Outside, rain pounds against the window, streaking down and forming small puddles on the street. As I gaze through the glass blurred by water, I take a sip of my warm coffee,…

The report of the death of China’s Belt and Road Initiative [BRI] was an exaggeration, after all. Within days of the US President Joe Biden’s acerbic remark during an interview last week with the Time magazine that the BRI has “become a nuisance graveyard initiative,” a trilateral intergovernmental agreement to commence construction work on the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan [CKU] railway project was signed in Beijing on Thursday.  Chinese President Xi Jinping offered congratulations on the trilateral intergovernmental agreement with Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan and described the CKU as “a strategic project for China’s connectivity with Central Asia, symbolising the three nations’ collaborative efforts under the Belt and…

China and the five states of Central Asia are creating a mechanism to improve responses to natural disasters.  The heads of emergency-response agencies for all six nations signed a cooperation agreement following a meeting in the western Chinese city of Urumqi. The pact establishes a working group to mitigate risks and develop more efficient natural disaster response plans. “This mechanism will serve as a new platform for deepening mutually beneficial and practical cooperation among the six countries,” the Business Kazakhstan outlet quoted a statement by China’s Ministry of Emergency Management (MEM) as saying. “China is willing to strengthen communication and coordination with…

The successful phasing-out of gas imports from Russia risks making Europe dependent on liquified natural gas (LNG) imports, according to a report published by the European Court of Auditors (ECA) today (June 24). Between 2021 and 2022, LNG imports increased from 80 billion cubic meters (bcm) to 120 bcm — reflecting an increase from 22% to 34% of total gas imports including from Russia and pipeline — according to the ECA. By 2023, the largest LNG global exporters to the EU were Norway (30%), the US (19.4%) and North Africa (14.1%), Russia was still responsible for 6.1% of LNG imports alongside 8.7% via pipeline,…

The country’s most important archaeological find has been compared to Machu Picchu. Here’s how to see it At first glance, it doesn’t look like much, just a rectangular meadow in the Pamir foothills of central Tajikistan. But there was a time when this ground reverberated with the thunder of hooves. Occupying a broad saddle, high above the mighty Panj River, this meadow is believed to be an ancient arena for the Central Asian sport of buzkashi, or dead goat polo. The playing field was a centerpiece of a once sprawling settlement, a political and religious capital inhabited for centuries but since lost to…

“Welcome back to Kyrgyzstan,” says Shukur Shermatov, addressing a class of 20 women. He is wearing a traditional felt cap, but there is nothing traditional about this school. It sits inside two rings of military security and the students are women who have been brought home from camps in Syria, where they ended up after living with the Islamic State group. The rehabilitation centre is woven into the mountains of northern Kyrgyzstan, and it is where wives and children of suspected IS recruits spend their first six weeks after being repatriated. Our BBC World Service team are among the first…

Kyrgyz, Tajik working groups hold regular meeting on delimitation, demarcation of state border Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan on Tuesday agreed on the demarcation of 38 kilometers (23.6 miles) of their border. A statement by the Kyrgyz Cabinet of Ministers said that working groups from both countries held a regular meeting on the delimitation and demarcation of their state border on Jan. 10-16. “At this meeting, topographic working groups agreed on 38.35 km of the Kyrgyz-Tajik state border,” the statement said. “Following the meeting, a corresponding protocol was signed. The meeting took place in an atmosphere of friendship and mutual understanding,” it…

The 5th Meeting of the Ministers in charge of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS)is being held at the Ala-Archa state residence on December 7. The event is attended by Minister of Digital Development of Kyrgyzstan Nuriya Kutnaeva, deputy ministers of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Secretary General of the OTS Kubanychbek Omuraliev and the Ambassador of Hungary to Kyrgyzstan. The event was opened with a welcoming speech by OTS Secretary General Kubanychbek Omuraliev and Minister of Digital Development Nuriya Kutnaeva. The Minister of Digital Development of Kyrgyzstan provided information about the country’s achievements in…