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The UK sanctions 4 Georgians for Kremlin disinformation and names Tskhinvali’s leadersKazakhstan’s inflation slows to 9.3% in September as the tenge opens the week at 447.73Turkmenistan reports 6.3% growth for 9 months and a budget collected to 100.1% of planFour German party foundations stop work in Georgia after Tbilisi rejects their grants

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Barki Tojik books a 2.45 billion somoni profit made of currency gains while owing 8.36 billion to the plants that power it
EconomyAnalysis10 Sept

Barki Tojik books a 2.45 billion somoni profit made of currency gains while owing 8.36 billion to the plants that power it

The 2025 accounts of Tajikistan's power utility, published by the energy ministry and read by Asia-Plus on Thursday, show a net operating profit of 2.45 billion somoni, $265 million, after a loss of 1.6 billion in 2024, and the line that made the difference is 2.93 billion somoni of net income from foreign-currency operations. Beneath it sit 29.3 billion somoni of accumulated losses, 23.26 billion of financial obligations and 8.36 billion owed to the generators, Rogun among them. The auditor kept its warning.

Azerbaijan's state bank pays $140 million for 51% of Davr Bank, 40% above the price it announced in May
EconomyBrief10 Sept

Azerbaijan's state bank pays $140 million for 51% of Davr Bank, 40% above the price it announced in May

The International Bank of Azerbaijan bought 51% of Tashkent's Davr Bank on Thursday in 6 trades on the Tashkent stock exchange for 1.646 trillion soums, $139.5 million at Gazeta.uz's conversion. In May the price was given as more than $100 million. Neither report explains the difference.

Saida Mirziyoyeva adds the Tashkent financial centre to the presidential administration she already runs
EconomyBrief10 Sept

Saida Mirziyoyeva adds the Tashkent financial centre to the presidential administration she already runs

A presidential decree reported on Thursday appoints Saida Mirziyoyeva, head of the presidential administration and the president's daughter, managing director of the Tashkent International Financial Centre, the jurisdiction with its own regulator, court and a tax regime to 2076 that came into force in July. She keeps the administration.

Washington's Iranian-airline sweep lands in Kazakhstan as a ticket agent and in Tbilisi as 6 airlines
EconomyBrief10 Sept

Washington's Iranian-airline sweep lands in Kazakhstan as a ticket agent and in Tbilisi as 6 airlines

The US Treasury's designation of 27 Iranian airlines and their foreign enablers on Tuesday named one Central Asian company, Tour Invest of Kazakhstan, as Mahan Air's general sales agent. On Thursday Georgia's Civil Aviation Agency said 6 of the newly listed carriers fly between Georgia and Iran and that Tbilisi will act in full compliance with the sanctions regime. Astana had said nothing on the record by evening.

The Black Sea drone war reaches Baku through the crew of a Turkish salvage tug
SecurityAnalysis10 Sept

The Black Sea drone war reaches Baku through the crew of a Turkish salvage tug

Two Azerbaijani sailors died on Wednesday when drones hit the tug Tedy twice off Odesa during a salvage operation for an Istanbul company, on a passage the Turkish trade press reports as bound for Constanța. On Thursday Russia's defence ministry reported a strike on “a tug escorting” two cargo ships bound for Odesa, Baku named its dead and told its citizens to keep away from war zones, and Ankara, which proposed a shipping-security mechanism 8 days ago, had added nothing to it by evening. The cost of the middle position in this war has moved from hulls to crews.

Kyrgyzstan's appeal court drops the seizure-of-power article against Tashiev and 7 others, and cuts their probation to 2 years
SecurityBrief10 Sept

Kyrgyzstan's appeal court drops the seizure-of-power article against Tashiev and 7 others, and cuts their probation to 2 years

Bishkek City Court on Thursday moved the “letter 75” case from article 326 of the Criminal Code, violent seizure of power, to article 195, obstruction of the exercise of electoral rights, and sentenced all 8 defendants to 4 years with 2 years of probation supervision in place of prison. The prosecution had asked for 9 years for each of them. The defence is going to the Supreme Court.

Five Years Ahead: A sky bought for thirty years
OpinionOpinion10 Sept

Five Years Ahead: A sky bought for thirty years

Six Chinese fighters at Karshi-Khanabad commit Uzbekistan's air force to one supplier for the life of the airframe. The five-year question is what arrives with them: the missiles, the technicians, the software, the credit and the habit.

The UN's debt expert asks Dushanbe for the sums behind its projects as the grant era ends in 2027
EconomyAnalysis10 Sept

The UN's debt expert asks Dushanbe for the sums behind its projects as the grant era ends in 2027

Attiya Waris, the UN independent expert on foreign debt, ended a 12-day visit to Tajikistan on 31 August with a statement that reached the English-language wires through Eurasianet on 8 September: the government's actions “are not sufficiently visible to the public”, fiscal decisions “should be a transparent and participatory process”, the state should “prepare a cost-benefit analysis of all the government projects”, and from 2027 the country “will move from grant-based financing to concessional lending”. The latest poverty rate she cites is from 2018. Eight days after her statement, the president read the nation a ledger in which GDP had grown almost 100 times.

Baku moves the start of work on the Trump route to 2027, 6 days before Armenia's court takes up the deal
PoliticsBrief10 Sept

Baku moves the start of work on the Trump route to 2027, 6 days before Armenia's court takes up the deal

Physical work on the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, the road and rail link across Armenia's south between Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan agreed in Washington in August 2025, will begin in 2027 instead of before the end of this year, Azerbaijan's foreign minister Jeyhun Bayramov told journalists on Wednesday, “according to the latest information”. Ilham Aliyev had put the start at the end of this year or the start of next; Nikol Pashinyan had wanted it in 2026. Armenia's Constitutional Court examines the agreement on 15 September.

Kazakhstan's energy ministry says CPC loading stopped on 2 buoys after Tuesday's drone incident and resumed after checks
SecurityBrief10 Sept

Kazakhstan's energy ministry says CPC loading stopped on 2 buoys after Tuesday's drone incident and resumed after checks

Loading at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium's marine terminal near Novorossiysk was halted on single-point moorings 2 and 3 after “an incident with an unmanned aerial vehicle” close to the terminal on 8 September and resumed in normal mode once the cargo systems and the tankers had been inspected, Kazakhstan's Ministry of Energy said on Wednesday. No restrictions were placed on accepting oil from Kazakh shippers, it said. The consortium's own channel has carried no operational statement since 30 July.

Kazakhstan pauses collecting its $5.2 billion Kashagan fine after NCOC takes the bailiff to court
EnergyBrief10 Sept

Kazakhstan pauses collecting its $5.2 billion Kashagan fine after NCOC takes the bailiff to court

Enforcement of the 2.36 trillion tenge ($5.2 billion) environmental penalty against North Caspian Operating Company has been on hold since 7 September, Kazakhstan's Justice Ministry said on Wednesday, because the consortium challenged the state enforcement officer's actions and the Atyrau administrative court called for the file. Collection “will continue in the manner established by law”, the ministry said. The fine itself stands.

China's fuel promise to Mongolia gets a number: 17,000 tonnes for September, and a 20-year frame around it
China FactorAnalysis10 Sept

China's fuel promise to Mongolia gets a number: 17,000 tonnes for September, and a 20-year frame around it

CNPC will ship Mongolia 10,000 tonnes of petrol, 4,000 tonnes of jet fuel and 3,000 tonnes of diesel this month, the industry ministry said on Thursday, 9 days after Montsame reported Xi Jinping's promise of fuel with no tonnage attached. The petrol covers about a sixth of the month's book; the diesel about 2%. The larger object in the readout is a memorandum the two sides now intend to sign: 20 years of crude, refinery feedstock and coal chemicals, with a price formula and a rail chain still to be written.

Ashgabat tells a UN committee that drought is its greatest risk, and lists more cotton as its first short-term task
EconomyAnalysis9 Sept

Ashgabat tells a UN committee that drought is its greatest risk, and lists more cotton as its first short-term task

In its reply to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Turkmenistan's government writes that drought carries the greatest threat to the country's socio-economic welfare, that low-water years on the Amu Darya and the Murghab are becoming more frequent, and that faster glacier melt may raise the demand for irrigation water and leave the Amu Darya basin with a substantial deficit by 2050, with a serious effect on the yield of key crops such as cotton. In the next paragraph, under the heading of the short-term outlook, the same section of the document lists an increase in cotton output as the first task, on the president's instruction of 2025. CAW has read the document, which turkmen.news reported on Wednesday.

Mongolia's environment minister counts COP17 at ₮217 billion of budget, ₮38.6 billion of it classified, against $1.4 billion of pledges
EconomyBrief9 Sept

Mongolia's environment minister counts COP17 at ₮217 billion of budget, ₮38.6 billion of it classified, against $1.4 billion of pledges

The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change had ₮217.1 billion approved for hosting the UN desertification conference in August, of which ₮38.6 billion was budgeted for procurement classified as a state secret, minister Sandag-Ochir Tsend said at a press conference on Wednesday, gogo.mn reported. Ikon.mn quoted the same minister putting the conference's investment opportunities and pledges at $1.4 billion, about ₮5 trillion.

Kyrgyzstan's energy minister rules out power rationing with Toktogul at 11.2 billion cubic metres and 4.1 billion kWh of imports planned
EnergyBrief9 Sept

Kyrgyzstan's energy minister rules out power rationing with Toktogul at 11.2 billion cubic metres and 4.1 billion kWh of imports planned

The ministry is not considering restrictions on electricity supply for now, Altynbek Rysbekov told journalists on Wednesday, 24.kg reported at 17:09 Bishkek time. The Toktogul reservoir holds 11.2 billion cubic metres, the target before the heating season is 11.5 billion, and 4.1 billion kilowatt-hours of imports from Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are planned for 2026. The same afternoon China's ambassador said deliveries of jet fuel and diesel to Kyrgyzstan began a month ago and will continue, and gave no figures.

Russia's defence minister tells Dushanbe the Afghan border gets special attention and its drone units get Russian help
SecurityBrief9 Sept

Russia's defence minister tells Dushanbe the Afghan border gets special attention and its drone units get Russian help

Andrei Belousov used a reception for the 35th anniversary of Tajikistan's independence on Tuesday evening to say that Moscow pays special attention to strengthening the Tajik-Afghan border and takes an active part in forming the republic's aviation, unmanned-systems and special-purpose units, TASS and Izvestia reported. A week after Putin met Rahmon in Bishkek, the visit put the Russian defence minister in Dushanbe on the eve of the holiday.

Brent clears $100 for the first time since July, with Azeri Light at $108 against the $65 in Baku's budget
EnergyBrief9 Sept

Brent clears $100 for the first time since July, with Azeri Light at $108 against the $65 in Baku's budget

Azeri Light printed $108.18 a barrel CIF Augusta in Trend's Wednesday-morning table, 66% above the $65 average written into Azerbaijan's 2026 budget. By 10:25 Moscow time the November Brent contract had passed $100 for the first time since 24 July, Interfax reported. Kazakhstan's budget law runs on $60, and its tenge lost 2.5 tenge against the dollar on the same day.

Drones kill 4 in Novorossiysk and set a fuel-oil terminal alight in the port that ships Kazakhstan's oil
SecurityBrief9 Sept

Drones kill 4 in Novorossiysk and set a fuel-oil terminal alight in the port that ships Kazakhstan's oil

An overnight drone attack on Novorossiysk killed four people, a child among them, and injured 29, the governor of Krasnodar Krai said on Wednesday morning. Ukrainian monitoring channels and satellite heat data placed a fire at the fuel-oil terminal inside the commercial port. The city is the sea end of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, the route for more than 80% of Kazakhstan's oil exports, and no statement on loading had appeared on the consortium's channel by evening.

Yerevan lodges a complaint against Russia's produce bans through the EAEU as Pashinyan leaves for Paris
EconomyBrief9 Sept

Yerevan lodges a complaint against Russia's produce bans through the EAEU as Pashinyan leaves for Paris

Armenia has filed a complaint against the restrictions Russia has kept on Armenian goods since May, deputy economy minister Tigran Gasparyan told a briefing on Tuesday, and expects them lifted "with the help of the mechanisms that operate within the EAEU". On Wednesday morning Armenpress reported the prime minister leaving for a working visit to Paris. The Moscow visit the Kremlin announced on Monday has drawn no word from Yerevan's channels.

Kyrgyzstan's parliament confirms Malik Bekturganov as prosecutor general a day before the appeal verdict on Tashiev
PoliticsBrief9 Sept

Kyrgyzstan's parliament confirms Malik Bekturganov as prosecutor general a day before the appeal verdict on Tashiev

The Jogorku Kenesh approved Malik Bekturganov as prosecutor general on Wednesday morning, 24.kg reported at 10:53 Bishkek time. He has run the office as acting prosecutor general since June and was its first deputy from June 2024. On Thursday the Bishkek City Court is expected to rule on the appeals in the “letter 75” case, where his office is asking 9 years with confiscation for Kamchybek Tashiev and seven others.