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EU CENTRAL ASIA STRATEGY

Tajikistan: Rahmon Facing Pressure on All Sides

By Stephen Blank

A buildup of external pressure, combined with growing internal economic stress, makes Tajikistan a Central Asian state worth keeping an eye on. READ MORE

Saved by the BRICs

By Julian Evans

Emerging markets, in particular China, are protecting the luxury sector from the worst of the global economic downturn. READ MORE

The New North: the World in 2050

By John Gray

It is easier to know what cannot be than to foretell what will be. There was never any possibility that Iraq would become a secular democracy: toppling Saddam Hussein meant destroying a secular regime, however despotic, while post-invasion politics was bound to reflect sectarian divisions. Similarly, there was never the remot­est prospect of post-communist Russia becoming a western-style economy; 70 years of Soviet rule had produced a military-industrial rustbelt, lacking the most rudimentary preconditions of a viable market system. READ MORE

One Year After Regime Change: Kyrgyzstan’s Recent Past is Full of Ambiguity

By Erica Marat

As Kyrgyzstan marks the first anniversary of the April 7, 2010 regime change after a year full of dramatic changes, ambiguity about the country’s recent past prevails. The public and political leadership still grapples with interpreting the meaning of April 7 as well as the ethnic violence in June 2010, in southern Kyrgyzstan. Instead, rumors triumph while competing political factions prefer to use this uncertainty for their own purposes. READ MORE

Political nonsense or Rough Shoraz

The name of Rahat changed from Aliyev on Shoraz, the book «The Godfather-in-law» appeared- as a former Kazakh politician trying to put a spoke in the wheel of an established mechanism for the most prosperous state in Central Asia region. Affected everyone, especially, the current leadership of Kazakhstan. READ MORE

Kazakhstan Is Far from the Middle East

By Yermukhamet Yertysbayev

On a recent trip to London, I was asked by several experts whether the domino effect that started in the Middle East could affect Kazakhstan and its neighbors. My answer was a simple no for three reasons. READ MORE

Kazakhstan’s steady progress toward democracy

By Nursultan Nazarbayev

The unrest that has gripped North Africa and the Middle East has been driven by a potent mixture of economics and politics. Citizens have taken to the streets to protest falling living standards, a lack of political power and an absence of opportunities. READ MORE

Russia, Kazakhstan team up to produce rare earth metals

Russia's Federal Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom) and Kazakhstan's uranium producer Kazatomprom signed a memorandum of intent to cooperate in the production and sales of rare earth metals, the market for which is squeezed by Chinese export restrictions, Sergei Kiriyenko, head of Russia's Federal Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom), said on Wednesday. READ MORE

Chinese threat to the former son-in-law of Kazakh President

The situation on the eve of the snap Presidential elections in Kazakhstan to be held on April 3rd can’t be called trivial. Voters are being attracted with various curious statements. A disgraced ex-son-in-law of the President Nursultan Nazarbayev attempts to gain the most attention. Sometime influential Rakhat Shorazov-Aliyev undertook another informational attack from Vienna, where he hides from justice. Snap elections for him became a surprise, having broken the plans to ballot for the post of the Head of the state in 2012. He expressly tries to destabilize the situation around Kazakhstan and inside of it. After the announcement of the date of the snap Presidential elections, Rakhat Aliyev extraordinarily commented on the last state visit of Nazarbayev to China. READ MORE

Building Bridges Between Baltic and Central Asia states

By Arthur Dunn

The European Union has been engaged with the five countries in Central Asia from the very moment they gained their independence in the early 1990s. At the beginning of the 21st century, the globalization process has required a new partnership to be established between them, and Central Asia became one of the objectives of the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy. READ MORE