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Georgia's surrogacy boom runs on women recruited from Central Asia
An Oxford study published on 16 June maps a quiet labour chain. Clinics in Georgia, short of local surrogates since 2022, now recruit women from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan through Instagram and TikTok. The pregnancies are sold as paid work, and the controls around them sit outside the law.
Kyrgyzstan has passed a full year’s mudflows in six months, and the bill lands on infrastructure
Kyrgyzstan logged more than 240 mudflows in the first half of 2026, already past the 133 recorded in all of 2024. The emergencies ministry ties the surge to heavier, less predictable rain. The deeper story is what a warming climate does to a mountain state that cannot afford to armour its roads, rivers and grids fast enough.
The new charter builds a succession machine, and its first parts are already turning
The constitution that takes effect today brings back the vice presidency, an office abolished in the 1990s and now written as the route by which presidential power would pass. Tokayev says he is not going early. The machine is being assembled anyway, and the first personnel move came this week.
Kazakhstan and the EU signed five agreements in Brussels. The value is in which ones get built
Tokayev flew home from Brussels with a joint statement, a horizontal aviation agreement, a €7.1 billion Airbus order and a pledge to move Kazakhstan up the minerals value chain. After five years of EU and Kazakh frameworks, the signing is the part that comes easily.
What the EBRD Is Bringing to Riga — and What Central Asia Should Watch
The Bank's 35th Annual Meeting opens Thursday. For the region, three things matter: the new Regional Economic Prospects, the Aktau port investment, and the signal on Trans-Caspian financing.
The SCO at 25: A Quarter-Century of Summits, Zero Kilometres of New Railway
The anniversary session in St. Petersburg today will celebrate what the organisation has become. The Central Asian members are more interested in what it might finally build
Twelve Days to Go: What Armenia's Election Is Actually About
June 7 is framed as a geopolitical choice between Russia and Europe — but the campaign reveals a messier domestic reality
Caught in the Net: Central Asia's Sanctions Week
Kyrgyzstan shuts down 50 companies, Kazakhstan sues Rosatom, Georgia's elites move assets offshore — three stories, one pressure front
Between Beijing and Washington: What the Trump–Xi Summit Means for Central Asia
As two superpowers negotiate in Beijing, the region that sits between them is watching — and quietly calculating its next move
Tajikistan and China Sign New Agreements — What Dushanbe Is Getting, and What It Is Giving Up
The latest round of bilateral deals deepens an already significant dependency. The question is whether Tajikistan had a better option.