Telegram went dark across Kazakhstan and nobody will name the cause
The messenger failed nationwide on Thursday morning, nine days before the parliamentary vote. The state operator says its own network was fine, the ministry says technicians are looking into it, and after service returned the operator answered the question directly: we do not know.
Kazakhstan's parties debated as teams for the first time, and no one printed the promises
Seven parties put up two speakers each on Jibek Joly on Wednesday night, in the first team debates Kazakhstan has held. Adilet took 60.6% of the viewer poll that closed with the broadcast. The round in which each party made one concrete pledge has not been reproduced by any outlet that covered it.
Russia now cancels a migrant’s work patent with nobody deciding to
Since 10 August the Russian interior ministry has run a service that automatically invalidates a foreign worker’s patent when the monthly tax advance goes unpaid.
Armenia’s parliament asks Azerbaijan to pay for the pylons
Ilham Aliyev said on Tuesday night that Azerbaijan’s project to run power lines to Nakhchivan across Armenian territory is ready. Yerevan answered on Wednesday from the floor of the National Assembly, in two voices, and neither of them refused the line. The government said nothing.
Moscow answers Armenia's trade complaint with a calendar
Nikol Pashinyan named the Russian import restrictions at the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council on Friday. Russia replied on Tuesday. The reply came from the foreign ministry, and it carried three dates.
The Washington peace marks its first year in phone calls and freight
Nikol Pashinyan spent the anniversary of the 8 August 2025 Washington summit on the phone, first with Ilham Aliyev, then with Donald Trump. The operative line came in the second call: construction of the TRIPP corridor is to start “in the near future”.
Armenia brings the Russian import bans to the union's own table
Nikol Pashinyan told the four other governments of the Eurasian Economic Union on Friday that Russian restrictions on Armenian goods are feeding a negative view of the union inside Armenia. He came with figures: $319 million paid in during 2025, $175 million received back.
Three agreements and one grievance arrive at Issyk-Kul
The 47th Eurasian Intergovernmental Council opens in Cholpon-Ata on Thursday with three agreements prepared for signature and a warning from Yerevan already on the record.
A first survey seats two parties in the Kurultai
Eighteen days before Kazakhstan elects its first Kurultai, the one party rating published in the campaign gives Adilet 65.1% and puts every other party except Auyl under the 5% bar.
The premiers follow the presidents to the lake
The EAEU’s heads of government meet in Cholpon-Ata on 6 and 7 August, the Kyrgyz cabinet confirmed on Tuesday, giving the same shore its second summit inside a week. For Nikol Pashinyan it would be a first multilateral room since his reappointment, three days after his cabinet was re-decreed.
Armenia’s cabinet comes back in a day with one new name
Eleven of twelve ministers returned to their chairs on Monday, the day after Nikol Pashinyan’s reappointment; the one new face runs high-tech industry. The parliament’s new speaker is Ruben Rubinyan, the man who has led the normalization talks with Turkey.
A US visa now takes a $15,000 deposit from three Central Asian states
The State Department made its visa-bond rule permanent on 3 August. Applicants from Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan will generally post $10,000, $15,000 or $20,000 to receive a tourist or business visa. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are not on the list.
Pashinyan is reappointed the day his government resigns
Armenia’s new National Assembly convened on Sunday morning; the same day the government resigned by force of the constitution and President Vahagn Khachaturyan signed Nikol Pashinyan back in.
A declaration at the lake, and a refinery on the table
Six presidents signed the Cholpon-Ata Declaration on Friday, and Tajikistan used the occasion to propose a regional refinery - an idea that the region's fuel squeeze has increasingly reinforced.
Ulaanbaatar brings dust storms to the COP17 table
Mongolia and UNESCAP will launch a regional initiative on sand and dust storms at COP17 in August, built with the Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat of China, Japan and South Korea.
Pashinyan calls the union paralyzed
Armenia’s prime minister said on Thursday the Eurasian Economic Union is “de facto paralyzed”, his hardest wording since Russia began closing its market to Armenian goods in May. The union’s core promise, free movement of goods, is now disputed in public by one of its five members.
Bishkek signs its second alliance in two days
Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan signed a Treaty on Allied Relations at Cholpon-Ata on Friday morning, a day after Bishkek concluded a treaty of the same rank with Tashkent. Two alliances in two days make the lakeshore summit a working one.
Bishkek and Tashkent sign an alliance as the summit gathers
Sadyr Japarov and Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed a Treaty on Allied Relations at Cholpon-Ata on 30 July and agreed to create a Supreme Interstate Council. By nightfall Emomali Rahmon and Ilham Aliyev had landed in Kyrgyzstan for the Central Asia–Azerbaijan summit.
Ulaanbaatar counts 4,127 delegates, and rations its traffic
Registration for the UN desertification conference COP17 reached 4,127 delegates, the state agency MONTSAME reported on 29 July, against the more than 2,000 it reported days earlier. The capital will run even-odd licence-plate restrictions from 15 August to 12 September.