... intervene in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Its participation will boil down to making declarations on the necessity to hold political negotiations and adhere to the ceasefire conditions. The CSTO will continue to conduct regular military exercises in Central Asia and will also develop its crisis response mechanisms.
In October 2017, the CSTO adopted the Collective Security Strategy 2025, which includes an expanded list of challenges to be addressed. Now the organization is able to respond to a wide ...
... geographical position of most former Soviet countries made their collaboration inevitable.
Andrey Kazantsev, the Director of the Analytical Centre of Institute of International Studies, MGIMO University and RIAC expert, spoke about the situation in Central Asia. He stated that decline in economic migrants’ remittances affected Tajikistan’s and Uzbekistan’s economies. At the same time, Kyrgystan, the member of the EAEU, didn’t experience such negative impact. The expert also ...
... socioeconomic change, as well as changes in its domestic and foreign policies. One of the most pressing problems today is the threat of religious extremism spreading through Turkmenistan, which could seriously affect security both within the country and in the Central Asian region as a whole.
A Nation of Tribes
In Soviet times, Turkmenistan was ranked alongside Tajikistan as the most backward republic in the USSR on all key socioeconomic indicators. Turkmenistan has large natural oil and gas reserves, and export ...
On October 20, 2016 the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the National Research University Higher School of Economics, the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy and the German Friedrich Ebert Foundation (Friedrich Ebert Stiftung) held an international seminar “The Silk Road Economic Belt: In Search of EU’s and China’s Common Interests in the Field of Security.”
This workshop is the fourth in a series of international events, aimed at analyzing various...
Working Paper #28 / 2016
The Working Paper is prepared by the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) as part of the “Russia’s Interests in Central Asia” project.
The goal of the publication is to outline the possibilities of cooperation between Russia and China in Central Asia by analyzing the interests of the two countries in relation to the interests of the Central Asian states themselves....
... on politically-motivated charges. Now, he has been released and made the face of Uzbekistan's anti-ISIS campaign, a move that has been met with success, according to Noah Tucker in his report on public and state responses to ISIS messaging in Central Asia. Uzbekistan’s shift in strategy to measured promotion of Islamic expression and practice has been effective in countering extremist arguments, which can be seen in online social media, says Tucker. He notes instances of Uzbeks posting ...
A recent address by senior State Department official Daniel Rosenblum signaled a shift in the direction of American policy in Central Asia, reflecting some critical economic, political and security developments in the area. The June 9th speech comes after an unprecedented five-country tour of Central Asia-- Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan-- by ...
On June 23, 2016, RIAC held a
seminar
on fighting terrorism in Central Asia and Afghanistan. Talatbek Masadykov, former political affairs officer at the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, spoke to RIAC website editors about solving the Afghanistan problem, the validity of criticism of the Eurasian ...
Russia is among few prominent players in the Central Asia due to the creation of EEU. However, not all countries in the region are involved in integrational processes. Afghanistan remains one of the key counties with solid capacity for regional development but the country has been struggling with ...
... “Development of the Situation in Afghanistan in 2016” held at the Russian International Affairs Council on April 18, 2016.
The three issues that cause the biggest concern are:
— the spread of instability from Afghanistan to the north and to the Central Asian states that border Russia;
— Russia’s transformation from a transit country into a market for Afghan heroin, which kills 25,000 Russians every year;
— the formation of Islamic State (DAISH) Infrastructure in Afghanistan,...
