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The Kurultai sits, and the government's mandate returns
Kazakhstan's new single-chamber parliament convened at 11:00 in Astana on Friday, 145 deputies seated and 110 of them from one party, with three acts on its opening table: a speaker to elect by secret ballot, the Bektenov cabinet's mandate to receive, and a first bill the president has already named.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
The National Assembly adopted the government's 2026-2031 programme on Tuesday, 63 votes to 24. Every yes came from Civil Contract.
The Kocharyan case splits between a cell and a ward
Armenia's Anti-Corruption Court ordered 2 months of pre-trial detention for Sedrak Kocharyan on Wednesday morning. His father's custody motion has no hearing date: Robert Kocharyan is in hospital, and the committee is waiting for the doctors to finish.
Kazakhstan's new chamber sits on Friday
President Tokayev signed a decree on Wednesday convening the first session of the 145-seat Kurultai for 11:00 on 28 August in Astana. When the chamber sits, the Bektenov cabinet's resignation falls due.
Adilet takes 110 of 145 seats on 71% of the vote
Kazakhstan's Central Election Commission published the seat distribution for the new Kurultai on 25 August. Adilet takes 110 of the 145 seats on 71.17% of the vote, which is 75.9% of the chamber.
Armenia charges its second and third presidents in one case
Armenia's Anti-Corruption Committee detained six people early on 25 August, second president Robert Kocharyan and his son Sedrak among them. The prosecutor had opened public criminal prosecution against Kocharyan on nine counts the day before, and his lawyer confirmed on Tuesday that the charge had been presented. By mid-afternoon the committee said it had brought a charge in the same case against Serzh Sargsyan, the country's third president.
Georgia's jailed ex-premier gets a new charge priced at 11 to 15 years
Prosecutors charged Irakli Garibashvili on Monday with taking a 750,000 lari bribe, about $290,000, over classified military-hospital procurement during his premiership. Four days earlier he wrote from prison that his father was being threatened with arrest.
Kyrgyzstan gives itself until Friday to move 11,900 medical students
The health ministry says 10,100 university students and 1,800 college students must transfer out of closed medical schools by 28 August, with online classes starting 2 September. How many have actually moved, the ministry is not yet saying.
Anti-corruption officers reach the Kocharyans before parliament resumes
Armenia's Anti-Corruption Committee searched addresses of Robert Kocharyan and his family on Tuesday morning and took the former president to its offices, a day after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told his son from the parliament floor that the family would return its wealth “piece by piece”. The committee has not named the case.
Pashinyan asks parliament to found the Fourth Republic
Nikol Pashinyan presented the 2026-2031 government programme to the National Assembly on Monday as a change of state: "the Republic of Armenia is transitioning to the historical phase we call the Fourth Republic", built to deliver peace, freedom and security inside 29,743 square kilometres.
Five parties are in, and the observers split over the count
Kazakhstan's election commission gave the Kurultai vote its first official numbers on Monday: Adilet at 71.17%, five parties past the 5% bar, turnout trimmed overnight to 74.08%. By evening the OSCE's mission had assessed more than a third of the counts it watched negatively, while the CIS, SCO and Turkic missions cleared the vote in full.
Avaza pins three summits to three October days
Turkmenistan's government site lists the dates of the autumn in Avaza: Caspian environment ministers on 7 October, the Consultative Meeting of Central Asian heads of state with Azerbaijan on 8 October, and a session of the CIS Council of Heads of State on 9 October.