Another CA News Rundown...

... and the Kyrgyz stuff is still over at the New Eurasia Kyrgyzstan Blog. Had the pleasure of meeting some of the new lot of Peace Corps volunteers yesterday at a charity American Football Game (photos to come, possibly), which was great - one more month of training and they'll be sent out to their permanent locations throughout the country. So, good luck to them all and don't forget that a good number of them are bloggers - where technology permits... (see the side bar on the New Eurasia Kyrgyzstan Blog for links to some of them and Sean Thompson has a fuller list on his blog, email me if you'd like to be added). So, on to the news...

Regional

• Sergei Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister, arrived in Tashkent on October 21 to discuss, in the words of RIA Novosti, "regional integration, the political situation in the region, the fight against terrorism and drug-trafficking, and measures to enhance global strategic stability and disarmament. Lavrov's visit followed his stay in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, where he had talks about bilateral relations and the usual thorny problem of Caspian Sea delimitation.
• "Your move" seems to be the tone of a piece from EurasiaNet entitled "United States Goes on Political Counter-Offensive in Central Asia", which posits that Rice's recent visit to the region and Rumsfeld's forthcoming tour are part of US efforts to keep Russian and Chinese influence in check - the Great Game is soldiering on, in the minds of analysts at least...
• Mercifully, a slightly less paranoid view comes from Mikhail Troitskiy, writing for ISN, who points out that Moscow's current relations with the Central Asian republics is far more precarious than many reports would make out. Whilst during the mid-1990s Russia was seen as pursuing a policy of "voluntary disengagement" in the region, this article argues that Russia's "disengagement capacity" is now relatively limited in comparison to the US or China, making the Kremlin far more vulnerable to events in the region. Worth a read.

Kazakhstan

• Somewhat surreally, Gazeta.kz reports that the Vatican (a democratic, modern organisation if ever there was one) is supporting Kazakhstan's bid to hold the OSCE Chair in 2009. The apparent logic is that Kazakhstan has been a shining example of promoting religious and inter-cultural tolerance. Which is more than can be said for the Catholic Church...

Kyrgyzstan

• An unfortunately eventful week - more over at the New Eurasia Kyrgyzstan Blog.

Tajikistan

• News From Russia reports that Tajikistan is to continue to depend on Russia to protect its borders, using advisors from Russia to provide support to local Tajik border guards who have taken over duties for the protection of the border with Afghanistan. Russia will also continue to station its 5,000-strong 201st Motorized Rifle Division in the republic, having signed a deal in March of this year that permitted Russia to found a permanent military base in Tajikistan.
• Meanwhile French troops are leaving Tajikistan, reports Gazeta.kz. The airforce troops will leave the country by November 6, having been part of coalition efforts to stablise Afghanistan in the runup to the elections. However, 150 soldiers and two transport planes S-160 "Transall" will remain in Dushanbe.

Turkmenistan

• Business Week reports that Turkmenistan is looking to increase the price of gas it supplies to Russia to USD50 per thousand cubic metres as of 2006, and then to USD60 for the same amount in 2007. The republic struck a 25-year deal with Russia in 2003 to supply gas at USD44 per thousand cubic metres.
• Reporters Sans Frontieres has names Turkmenistan as one of the world's news "black holes, placing it in 165th place out of 167 for countries where freedom of expression and privately-owned media are both notably asbent. Shamefully, the UK only managed 24th place, and the US 44th. Denmark did significantly better, taking first place.

Uzbekistan

• The Uzbek authorities continue to make the news for all the wrong reasons, with Reuters reporting on the use of psychiatric "treatment" to silence dissenters, citing the forcible treatment of human rights activist Elena Urleava with psychotropic drugs.
• Women's rights in the republic have also come under the spotlight with claims from the UN Development Fund for Women that bigamy is still being practiced despite an Islamic ban, reports Interfax.
• The UK's Press Gazette has an article on the Uzbek authorities' decision to ban BBC reporter Jenny Norton from returning to the republic after she recorded details of the Andijan massacre back in May.

Reports, newswraps, etc.

• IWPR's Reporting Central Asia No. 415 came out October 15 and has reports on Condoleezza Rice's visit to Kyrgyzstan, plans to curb protests in Kyrgyzstan, the conviction of a leading opposition politician in Tajikistan and a look at potential Turkmen-US relations.
• Reporting Central Asia No. 416 is also available (22 October) and has reports on the political fallout after Kyrgyz deputy Tynychbek Akmatbaev's murder during a visit to a prison, discontent amongst Kyrgyz parliamentary deputies over plans to remove their immunity from prosecution, and what's going on in Turkmenistan after the latest round of officials are sacked by Turkmenbashi.
• AlertNet's weekly Central Asia News Wrap (Oct 21) is available.
• RFE/RL's latest Central Asia Report, Vol 5, No. 40, October 21, is available.