Bruce Pannier is a Central Asia analyst and appears regularly on the Majlis podcast for RFE/RL.
Some Kyrgyz officials have accused a U.S. serviceman of murder in the killing of an airport employee in Bishkek and want to put him on trial.
Kazakh police are looking into a violent incident involving ethnic Chechens and Kazakhs that left at least three people dead and several others wounded.
Ermukhammet Ertisbaev, the Kazakh minister of information and culture (file photo) (Courtesy Photo) March 15, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Controversy surrounds Kazakh Information and Culture Minister Yermukhammet Ertisbaev over his ejection of a television station from a press conference and his subsequent rude and defiant behavior in defending the action and attacking other media outlets.
The country is looking to President Bakiev as it marks the fifth anniversary of a tragedy that shook the nation.
Hoji Akbar Turajonzoda has made a controversial call for an amnesty for those who fought in the country's civil war.
A new opposition group is calling for massive rallies across the country in April, culminating in a major demonstration in Bishkek.
"Is a man who has two or three wives and takes care of their children dangerous?" asks Kyrgyz Justice Minister Marat Kayipov.
Islamic women in Kazakhstan recently won a government allowance on headwear in ID photos. What about their neighbors?
Just two weeks old, the opposition group of former Prime Minister Feliks Kulov is leveling serious corruption charges against the government.
Some of the new president's campaign promises were a surprise. Perhaps equally surprising is the fact that he moved quickly to fulfill some of them.
Is President Nursultan Nazarbaev helping Rakhat Aliev flee justice by making him ambassador to Austria?
A new opposition movement is already stirring up the political waters.
February 14, 2007 -- Turkmenistan's Central Election Commission (CEC) has made official what few doubted: Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov is Turkmenistan's next president.
February 12, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Turkmen election officials are expected to announce the winner of the February 11 presidential election tomorrow. Officials claim more than 98 percent of eligible voters turned out to cast ballots for one of the six candidates in the poll, though reports from Turkmenistan indicate a much lower turnout.
It has been called the "hermit kingdom." But today Turkmenistan holds its first presidential election with more than one name on the ballot.
Voters in one of the former Soviet Union's least open societies go to the polls on February 11 to elect a successor to the late Turkmen "president for life," Saparmurat Niyazov. Here are answers to some basic questions about Turkmenistan's presidential vote, which appeared certain to fall short of Western democratic standards.
February 7, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Turkmenistan holds its first presidential election in nearly 15 years on, and its first since independence with more than one candidate. None of the candidates was particularly well known under the late President Saparmurat Niyazov's administration, but a front-runner appears to have emerged.
February 6, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Kyrgyz lawmakers have approved a new government structure.
Uzbek President Islam Karimov (file photo) (AFP) February 1, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Two Uzbek human rights activists are facing legal difficulties: rights activist and independent journalist Umida Niyazova is in detention for illegally entering Uzbekistan and possessing literature from a banned Islamic group, and the wife of Uzbek rights activist Jahongir Shosalimov was detained by police after an article by Shosalimov criticizing Uzbekistan's Constitutional Court was published.
Reaction among the public and the political elite to newly confirmed Prime Minister Azim Isabekov has been cautiously optimistic.
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