Kavkaz

Armenia has always made far more devastating claims against Turkey, such as genocide committed against them in 1915, than against Azerbaijan and yet, there would seem to be on the horizon a breakthrough in Armenia’s relations with Turkey while the same is not true in Armenia’s relations with Azerbaijan. Armenians …

The peoples of the North Caucasus and the majority of Russians are going in different directions mentally, increasing misunderstandings and hostility between them and the probability that this trend will lead to a fundamental break between them, Aleksandr Zhelenin says. And what is most alarming, the Rosbalt commentator says, is …

The statement from the First President came just after evidence of elite conflict began surfacing in earnest, with suggestions of a purge of Nazarbayev elites. After two weeks with nary a peep, save a spokesman statement that he had not fled the country, Kazakhstan’s First President Nursultan Nazarbayev surfaced with …

The standard logic of the division of labor between Moscow and Beijing in Central Asia holds that Russia is responsible for security and China is in charge of the economy. Following that narrative, it can be asserted that neither power suffered losses during this month’s tumultuous events in Kazakhstan. The …

Blame ‘free’ market reforms that benefit the rich and powerful at the expense of the working class for the country’s recent protests. The recent protests in oil-rich Kazakhstan have highlighted the devastating effects of rent extraction. The country’s largest sellers of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), including KazMunaiGas, Kazgermunai, CNPC-AktobeMunaiGas and …

When a Russian-led military force intervened earlier this month, it did more than help Kazakh President Qasym-Johart Toqayev restore and strengthen his grip on power following days of protest and violent clashes with security forces. The intervention brought to the fore a brewing competition for spheres of influence in Eurasia …

Freedom of religion and belief and interlinked human rights are under increasing threat in Kyrgyzstan. Forum 18’s survey analysis documents: increasing “legal” restrictions on the freedom of religion and belief; Ahmadi Muslims being prevented from meeting since 2011, and refusal to allow the Falun Gong spiritual movement to exist; state …

Russia’s intervention in Kazakhstan contains a cautionary message for Gulf foreign ministers visiting Beijing this week. The intervention to stabilize the government of Kazakh President Kassym-Johart Tokayev, following mass protests, cemented Russia’s primacy when it comes to security in Central Asia, a swathe of land that is as much Russia’s …

Today, more than 150 years after the end of the Russian-Circassian War ended, and despite all the twists and turns of Russian policy, there are almost exactly the same number of Russian troops in the North Caucasus as there were at the peak of the war there in the nineteenth …

The riots in Kazakhstan may have abated, but the country’s problems remain unresolved, and its leaders’ challenges have never been greater. Dr Neil Melvin, RUSI’s Director of International Security Studies, identifies what these are. Riots prompted by higher fuel prices are not exactly unusual. We have seen them in places …