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Moody’s lifts Kyrgyzstan to B2 with a stable outlook, the cabinet saysMongolia’s budget revision goes back to committee as the ruling party sets 20 OctoberTajikistan plans an 800 MW Hutalon dam between Rogun and Nurek at $2.25 billionGeorgia’s 2027 budget reaches committee at 37.56 billion lari and a 2.5% deficit

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Kyrgyzstan moves its fuel wall to New Year's Eve and prices it in dollars
EnergyAnalysis27 Aug

Kyrgyzstan moves its fuel wall to New Year's Eve and prices it in dollars

Decree No. 579, signed by Prime Minister Adylbek Kasymaliev on Wednesday, extends the state's compensation of fuel importers from 30 September to 31 December and fixes the reference purchase prices at $960 a tonne for AI-92 petrol, $1,050 for diesel and $650 for autogas. The wall the market had been watching for the end of September now stands at the end of the year, and the treasury's exposure is written in dollars.

Astana holds an Uzbek scholar on a spying charge, and neither capital will say why
PoliticsBrief27 Aug

Astana holds an Uzbek scholar on a spying charge, and neither capital will say why

Ikboljon Qoraboyev, a professor of international relations at Maqsut Narikbayev University in Astana and a citizen of Uzbekistan, has been in custody since 3 July under article 176 of Kazakhstan's criminal code, espionage, his family told the BBC's Uzbek service. Nearly 8 weeks later no institution in either capital has said what he is accused of doing.

The queue with a warehouse address
OpinionOpinion27 Aug

The queue with a warehouse address

Mongolia's regulator says part of August's fuel shortage sat in storage. Fifty years ago America asked the same question, and took eight years to stop asking.

Baku's media complaint goes on the record: 96 outlets
PoliticsBrief27 Aug

Baku's media complaint goes on the record: 96 outlets

The number that reached the wires this week began as an interview. Azerbaijan's ambassador to Russia counted the Russian outlets running theses about his country at 96 or more, and asked Moscow for a political assessment and concrete measures. The count had circulated for days as a stray figure; now it has an author on the record.

Georgia's jailed ex-premier turns into a recruitment target
PoliticsBrief27 Aug

Georgia's jailed ex-premier turns into a recruitment target

Irma Inashvili publicly invited Irakli Garibashvili to join her Alliance of Patriots: a political prisoner, in her reading, should answer with politics. The ruling party answers his letters from jail with one word, masquerade.

The Kurultai gets its names, and its first bill is about children
PoliticsBrief27 Aug

The Kurultai gets its names, and its first bill is about children

Kazakhstan's five parliamentary parties published their deputy lists ahead of Friday's opening session, and Tokayev has told the new chamber what he wants on its desk first: a ban on social-network registration for anyone under 16.

The EBRD's president reopens the Ashgabat ledger
EconomyBrief27 Aug

The EBRD's president reopens the Ashgabat ledger

Odile Renaud-Basso met Serdar Berdymukhamedov in Ashgabat, and the two sides signed a package of memoranda: a central-bank framework running 2027 to 2032 and a program on the banking system, the Ashgabat-based nCa reported Thursday.

Mongolia opens an artificial-shortage case against a fuel retailer
EnergyBrief27 Aug

Mongolia opens an artificial-shortage case against a fuel retailer

The Anti-Monopoly Office is investigating Sod Mongol Group over petrol held in storage while 7 of its stations stood closed. Its citation has a statutory name: an artificial shortage created by misleading consumers.

The biggest container line stops booking Novorossiysk
EconomyBrief27 Aug

The biggest container line stops booking Novorossiysk

MSC suspended new bookings to and from Novorossiysk with immediate effect after a strike on one of its ships bound for the port. At the grain quay in the same harbor, repairs are now priced at up to four months.

The region's fuel backstops harden into the supply plan
EnergyAnalysis27 Aug

The region's fuel backstops harden into the supply plan

Ukraine's drones stopped Lukoil's NORSI refinery on Wednesday, and Reuters counted the wider score: every big Lukoil plant in Russia now stands idle. For Central Asia's importers, the hedges assembled this summer, Chinese contracts, an Iranian request, third-country cargoes inside a Russian commitment, now read as the base case.

Two months for Kocharyan, ruled around a hospital bed
PoliticsBrief27 Aug

Two months for Kocharyan, ruled around a hospital bed

Armenia's Anti-Corruption Court granted the investigator's motion in full on Thursday morning: Robert Kocharyan, the country's second president, goes into detention for 2 months. The ruling landed while he lay in a hospital ward.

KazMunayGas starts building a yuan book on its home exchange
EconomyBrief26 Aug

KazMunayGas starts building a yuan book on its home exchange

The national oil company opened books on Wednesday for two tranches of yuan bonds on the Astana International Exchange, with settlement set for 2 September.

The US draws its red line as Egypt takes the next COP
PoliticsBrief26 Aug

The US draws its red line as Egypt takes the next COP

Two days before the drought conference closes in Ulaanbaatar, Washington says it will accept no drought instrument at all, and the incoming host wants a legally binding one.

Uzbekneftegaz loses 3.5 billion cubic meters in six months
EnergyBrief26 Aug

Uzbekneftegaz loses 3.5 billion cubic meters in six months

Uzbekistan's state gas company produced 18.3 billion cubic meters in the first half of the year, 16% below last year's pace. June's daily output was the weakest since at least early 2022.

A second travel ban lands while Kocharyan waits for a judge
PoliticsBrief26 Aug

A second travel ban lands while Kocharyan waits for a judge

Day 2 of Armenia's presidential prosecutions brought a travel ban for Serzh Sargsyan, a courthouse transfer for Robert Kocharyan and a first word from Moscow: hope, minus the phone call.

Beijing puts Xi's Bishkek dates in writing
China FactorBrief26 Aug

Beijing puts Xi's Bishkek dates in writing

China's foreign ministry confirmed on Wednesday that Xi Jinping will attend the SCO summit in Bishkek and stay for a state visit to Kyrgyzstan. The Kyrgyz side announced him 37 days ago.

The Kokzhide file opens, and the water tests positive at all five operators
EconomyAnalysis26 Aug

The Kokzhide file opens, and the water tests positive at all five operators

A court order has pried loose the state's own hydrogeology report on Kokzhide, Kazakhstan's largest reserve of fresh groundwater. It shows oil products above permitted levels at wells of every company drilling there.

Five Years Ahead: one ring, four sets of numbers
OpinionOpinion26 Aug

Five Years Ahead: one ring, four sets of numbers

The August blackout found Central Asia's power ring rebuilt in copper and broken in bookkeeping. Which one gets fixed first will decide what the next fault costs.

Dushanbe plans to 2031 and sends parliament a migration bill
PoliticsBrief26 Aug

Dushanbe plans to 2031 and sends parliament a migration bill

Tajikistan's government approved a domestic tourism programme for 2027-2031 at Tuesday's session chaired by Emomali Rahmon, and sent two draft laws to parliament. One of them is titled "On Migration".

Armenia's programme passes with one party's votes
PoliticsBrief26 Aug

Armenia's programme passes with one party's votes

The National Assembly adopted the government's 2026-2031 programme on Tuesday, 63 votes to 24. Every yes came from Civil Contract.