Kazakh Foreign Ministry spokesman Aibek Smadiyarov said on January 22 that Kremlin-friendly Russian journalist Tina Kandelaki has been banned from entering the country over a post she made online, alleging that the Russian language was being discriminated against in the Central Asian country. Kandelaki had criticized Kazakhstan’s plan to replace the Russian names of railway
A major earthquake followed by a series of aftershocks struck early on January 23 along the China-Kyrgyzstan border, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reported. Kyrgyz Emergencies Minister Boobek Ajikeev said in a video message that the earthquake was felt shortly after midnight in Kyrgyzstan and was especially strong in several districts of the northern Issyk-Kul
Uzbekistan is a friendly neighbor and comprehensive strategic partner of China. The development of multifaceted relations with China has been, and remains, one of the main priorities of Uzbekistan’s foreign policy, the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev wrote in his article, entitled “Uzbekistan and China: millennia-long friendship and cooperation,” published by People’s Daily Online (China)
A round table was held in Tashkent on January 19 to discuss the findings of four expeditions conducted by the Scientific Information Center of the Interstate Coordination Water Commission of Central Asia (SIC ICWC) on the dried bed of the Aral Sea. These expeditions, supported by the UN Development Programme from 2019 to 2023, aimed
A meeting of the National Commission of Turkmenistan for UNESCO was held on January 20. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan, Rashid Meredov, who chaired the meeting, summed up the activities of the Interdepartmental Commission for UNESCO for 2023 and outlined the priority areas for its further work, the Turkmen Foreign Ministry reported. It
Both of the Kazakh parliament’s chambers, the Mazhilis and the Senate, approved on January 19 a presidential proposal to send 430 Kazakh peacekeepers to the Middle East and Africa, RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service reported. Defense Minister Ruslan Zhaqsylyqov said the troops will join the UN Disengagement Observer Force on the Golan Heights, the UN Truce Supervision
A Moscow court on January 19 sent a leader of the Uzbek diaspora in Russia, Usman Baratov, to pretrial detention for at least two months on a charge of inciting hatred with his online posts, RFE/RL’s Russian Service reported. Baratov pleaded not guilty to the charge, which stemmed from a post last month related to
On January 18, in Rome, Kazakhstan’s national oil and gas company KazMunayGas and Italy’s Eni S.p.A. signed the Joint Confirmation Agreement on initiation of the Zhanaozen hybrid power plant construction project. The document was signed by Magzum Mirzagaliyev, Chair of the Management Board, KMG and Eni Chief Executive Officer Claudio Descalzi. The signing took place
On January 18, Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev paid an official visit to Italy. Tokayev held talks with the President of the Council of Ministers of Italy, Giorgia Meloni. During the talks, Tokayev said that Kazakhstan and Italy have established close economic cooperation, as well as fruitful cultural and humanitarian ties. “We are proud to be
A Kyrgyz court official said on January 18 that a member of the opposition Butun (United) Kyrgyzstan party, Chynygul Sherkulova, was sentenced to three years in prison last month on a charge of distributing false information online but allowed to start serving her prison term later, as she has three young children, RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service
