Sometimes, Zeinulla Kakimzhanov enjoys appearing in Forbes magazine. An English-language profile in 2016, for example, casts him as a man of discerning taste aspiring to rebuild Kazakhstan’s winemaking tradition. Kakimzhanov is not such a fan of the magazine’s Kazakhstan franchise, however. This week, police acting on a criminal complaint filed by the businessman raided Forbes’s Almaty offices and carted away… Read more »
A company from China has reportedly been granted a license to operate a gold mine in Tajikistan in exchange for building a power plant free of charge in the country’s capital. Asia-Plus newspaper reported on April 11, citing an unnamed official with the State Geology Department, that Xinjiang-based TBEA has received the concession to develop the Upper Kumarg mine in… Read more »
Azerbaijani voters go to the polls on April 11 for a presidential election. The outcome of the vote is already known: President Ilham Aliyev will be reelected. But seven other candidates also are on the ballot, and even if they don’t offer Azerbaijanis a viable choice, they are at least providing a source of humor. One candidate, Hafiz Hajiyev, is… Read more »
Uzbekistan has just adopted a new law regulating the functions of its security services, the recently rebranded State Security Service, or SGB. The legislation was adopted by the lower house of parliament on March 15 and then approved by the Senate, the Oliy Majlis. President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed the law into effect on April 5 and the following day it… Read more »
A strategic partnership between Russia and Turkmenistan have recently been made stronger by the ratification of a treaty for the two countries. This is in the lower house of the Russian government as of right now and is slowly making his way up to Vladimir Putin. This bill was in place sole because of him wanting to ensure for the… Read more »
The central Asian region seems to finally becoming together, and stronger as well. The five major players in the central Asian region which are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan all plan to come together about the future of the region. It is expected that the foreign minister of Russia will be in attendance to and they will discuss the… Read more »
One of the top roller-coaster sagas in what, some years ago, I christened Pipelineistan, has yielded a definitive twist. The US$8 billion,1,814-kilometer Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline (TAPI) was officially inaugurated on Friday, in full pomp, and with proceedings broadcast live on Afghan TV, on the Turkmen-Afghan border close to Herat. The daily Report Must-reads from across Asia – directly to your inbox… Read more »
Myanmar’s military is building bases where Rohingya homes and mosques once stood, Amnesty International said on Monday, citing new evidence from satellite imagery. Nearly 700,000 members of the Muslim minority fled to Bangladesh in 2017 after Myanmar launched a brutal crackdown on insurgents that the US and UN have called ethnic cleansing. Myanmar rejects that accusation, saying it was responding… Read more »
A Bangladeshi aircraft has crashed while trying to land at Kathmandu airport in Nepal, killing at least 49 people, officials have said. The US-Bangla Airlines plane made an unexpected turn while landing just after 2.15pm local time on Monday, clipping a fence and bursting into flames, according to the airport’s general manager, Raj Kumar Chettri. The aircraft came off the… Read more »
UN human rights officials have said it is likely that “crimes under international law” have been committed against the Rohingya in Myanmar and called for a body to collect evidence that could be presented in international criminal courts. Speaking to the Human Rights Council on Monday, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, said that “the… Read more »