Central Asia
Kazakhstan in the middle
Kazakhstan, a country too often unfairly treated as a punchline rather than a power, is treading a middle road – that of a “middle power”. The Central Asian nation will host a…
Russia, Ukraine and the wars of the Soviet succession
Nearly one year since the Russian invasion, no end is in sight to the war in Ukraine. It’s become a conflict of grinding, static attrition, largely due to the constraints on…
How Russia loses allies amid the war in Ukraine
Russia continues to lose influence around the world, above all in the post-Soviet space. The Russian-dominated Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) seems to be the last…
The war in Ukraine is pushing Central Asia away from Russia
As the Russian army pulled back the troops after a series of humiliating defeats in north-east Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin flew to Uzbekistan to attend a gathering…
The SCO: an illiberal club of growing global significance
The 22nd leaders’ summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, to be held on 15–16 September, will be the first in-person gathering of the central Asian grouping since 2019…
Full throttle: Australia’s advantages alongside Azerbaijan
Historically, Azerbaijan was known as the world capital of black caviar. More recently, in the years since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the thorny issue of the disputed…
Russia’s effort to escape diplomatic isolation
As a consequence of its actions, Russia faces potentially stifling isolation. Russia will want to show the limits of this isolation through regional frameworks that also enable…
Kazakhstan’s longtime “leader” is out, but the regime he built remains
It has been more than a month since protests over the fuel price hike broke out in western Kazakhstan and spread across the country as demands grew more political. Protesters…
Mongolia suffers under China’s zero Covid policy
Food shortages, inflation, hundreds of thousands of people without an income, and thousands of shipping containers stuck on the border, not to mention rising Covid-19 cases, job…
Fear, loathing and infighting in Kazakhstan
Over the course of barely a week, the normally placid Kazakhstan, best known in the West for being the unwilling object of humour in the Borat films (and perhaps also for being…