Central Asia Wire
Independent Central Asia Monitor
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Mongolia’s fuel headquarters counts 79 tank wagons of petrol, about 2 days of sales, as Russia’s Moscow refinery stops processing and Novak orders risk scenariosDushanbe and the CNPC venture discuss the China gas pipeline again, 12 years after its Tajik section broke groundA 56-metre bridge and a $940,000 bill: a Kyrgyz committee clears the agreement that puts the Bedel crossing on the road to ChinaArmenia’s parties have until Friday to register for the 25 October local elections, the last scheduled vote before the 2027 parliament is chosen

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  1. Urgench brings in Incheon to more than quadruple its airport
    EconomyBrief18 Aug

    Urgench brings in Incheon to more than quadruple its airport

    Shavkat Mirziyoyev used a Monday stop in Khorezm to unveil a $264 million public-private partnership with Incheon International Airport Corporation that is set to lift Urgench airport's capacity from 300 to 1,300 passengers an hour.

  2. Seven leaders draw lots for the last word before Saturday
    PoliticsBrief18 Aug

    Seven leaders draw lots for the last word before Saturday

    Kazakhstan's seven party leaders draw lots Tuesday morning, live on 24KZ, for the speaking order in Wednesday's final televised debate, the last set piece of the campaign before Saturday's Kurultai election.

  3. Armenia changes its military police chief while Delhi's defence secretary is in town
    PoliticsBrief18 Aug

    Armenia changes its military police chief while Delhi's defence secretary is in town

    President Vahagn Khachaturyan appointed Major General Aram Hovhannisyan chief of the military police on Monday, on Nikol Pashinyan's recommendation, the second security appointment inside a week. The same day, the general staffs of Armenia and India exchanged a new cooperation framework.

  4. In Chon-Gara the border swap becomes citizenship paperwork
    PoliticsBrief17 Aug

    In Chon-Gara the border swap becomes citizenship paperwork

    The Uzbek and Kyrgyz interior ministries met in Kadamjai on Monday and built the machinery for moving people, property and citizenship across the territories the two states are exchanging. In Chon-Gara, a village now under Kyrgyz jurisdiction, registration has already begun.

  5. The tanker is inside the port and nothing shows it loading
    EnergyBrief17 Aug

    The tanker is inside the port and nothing shows it loading

    Aegean Dream’s port call log now reads arrived, Novorossiysk, Sunday 20:45 UTC. Every other signal reads dark: no live AIS fix since 10 August, ballast draught on the last one, no loading recorded, no departure.

  6. The queue ended, and the money ran out
    EconomyBrief17 Aug

    The queue ended, and the money ran out

    Mongolia’s fuel rationing lapsed on schedule, and on the first working day without it the industry ministry’s briefing produced a different shortage: importers lack the cash to order the next consignments, and a price rise of about 200 togrog is, in the ministry’s words, unavoidable. The AI-92 cap stays.

  7. The commander who said they could hang him has surrendered
    SecurityBrief17 Aug

    The commander who said they could hang him has surrendered

    Juma Khan Fateh gave up on Monday, ending nearly a week of fighting between his men and Taliban forces across the river from Tajikistan’s Darvaz district. He was flown to Faizabad, the terms are not public, and the mine workers trapped by the fighting have not been accounted for.

  8. Bishkek admits the generators tripped and rejects the blame
    EnergyBrief17 Aug

    Bishkek admits the generators tripped and rejects the blame

    Kyrgyzstan’s energy ministry answered Kazakhstan’s account of Friday’s four-country blackout at midday on Monday: yes, two Toktogul hydrogenerators briefly disconnected, and no, that does not make Kyrgyzstan responsible for what followed. The same morning, at home, the cabinet chief was tearing into the ministry for 26 emergency outages in 18 months.

  9. A $10.7 billion corruption claim surfaces inside the Kashagan arbitration
    EnergyBrief17 Aug

    A $10.7 billion corruption claim surfaces inside the Kashagan arbitration

    Kazakhstan is arguing in its closed arbitration against the Kashagan consortium that about a dozen contracts worth some $10.7 billion involved self-dealing, unjustified cost increases or bribery, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists reported on Friday. The allegation is the corruption limb of a claim that has grown to $160 billion.

  10. The SCO summit has a date in writing from everyone except Beijing
    China FactorBrief17 Aug

    The SCO summit has a date in writing from everyone except Beijing

    The organisation’s secretariat has fixed the heads of state council for 1 September in the Kyrgyz Republic, the first date on its own site; China’s foreign ministry has still not said the summit’s name, two weeks out.

  11. A Taliban feud crossed the river and killed a woman in Darvaz
    SecurityBrief17 Aug

    A Taliban feud crossed the river and killed a woman in Darvaz

    Gunfire from the Afghan bank killed a 21-year-old woman in Tajikistan’s Darvaz district and drew a protest note from Dushanbe, the first official Tajik reaction to days of fighting in Badakhshan between Taliban forces and a dissident commander.

  12. The summit Mongolia paid to host opens at prime minister level
    EconomyBrief17 Aug

    The summit Mongolia paid to host opens at prime minister level

    UNCCD COP17 opened in Ulaanbaatar on Monday morning with the prime minister under the flag and the foreign minister as president designate, and with the gap CAW flagged last week intact: no visiting head of state had been reported at the venue by midday.

  13. Pashinyan answers Baku on Metsamor and replaces his Security Council secretary
    PoliticsBrief17 Aug

    Pashinyan answers Baku on Metsamor and replaces his Security Council secretary

    Armenia’s prime minister broke a day and a half of silence to answer Ilham Aliyev point by point without naming him, and in the same week replaced his Security Council secretary of eight years, the man reported to have run the quiet channel to Baku.

  14. Japarov says the plan was to hand Tashiev the presidency
    PoliticsBrief17 Aug

    Japarov says the plan was to hand Tashiev the presidency

    Kyrgyzstan’s president used a long interview to reveal that he had meant to step aside in January 2027 and make Kamchybek Tashiev head of state, that he changed his mind because his ally was not ready, and that he will now run himself.

  15. Moscow rejects the moratorium and says no formal proposal ever arrived
    Turkish FactorBrief17 Aug

    Moscow rejects the moratorium and says no formal proposal ever arrived

    Moscow rejected Hakan Fidan’s Black Sea moratorium on Friday, calling it a half-measure and denying that any formalised Turkish appeal had arrived through official channels. Ankara had not answered by Monday morning, and the war keeps washing up on Turkish shores.

  16. Four countries lost power in one afternoon, and the operators blame each other
    EnergyBrief17 Aug

    Four countries lost power in one afternoon, and the operators blame each other

    A cascading failure on Friday cut electricity in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan within minutes. Kazakhstan’s operator says the trigger sat at Toktogul, and Bishkek has not answered the claim.

  17. Dushanbe borrows 200 million dollars to keep paying salaries
    EconomyBrief14 Aug

    Dushanbe borrows 200 million dollars to keep paying salaries

    The Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development signed a budget support loan with Tajikistan on Thursday at one per cent over twenty years. The state news agency says the money matters because a eurobond has to be repaid.

  18. Half of Ulaanbaatar’s cars come off the road the day the fuel cap lapses
    EconomyBrief14 Aug

    Half of Ulaanbaatar’s cars come off the road the day the fuel cap lapses

    From 15 August to 12 September, city wide and with no zoning, cars may enter Ulaanbaatar traffic only on alternating days by plate parity, between 07:00 and 21:00. The window covers the desertification conference, the start of the school year, and the morning the petrol rationing expires. Nobody has published how many days of fuel the country holds.

  19. Uzbekistan is guest of honour at a gathering Ankara does not convene
    Turkish FactorBrief14 Aug

    Uzbekistan is guest of honour at a gathering Ankara does not convene

    The Kurultaj opens on the Bugac puszta today. Tomorrow’s ceremony lists the secretary general of the Organization of Turkic States, the culture ministers of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, the president of TURKSOY and one Turkish party official. The host is a Hungarian foundation and the mayor of a village of two thousand.

  20. Kyrgyzstan’s president says his own anti-corruption billions were overcounted
    PoliticsBrief14 Aug

    Kyrgyzstan’s president says his own anti-corruption billions were overcounted

    Sadyr Japarov told an interviewer this week that the four billion dollars attached to five years of confiscations was inflated by the valuations, and that he warned his security chief about it at the time. An audit is now running to establish how much the state actually holds and how little of it has sold.