Free Republic

SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine, Oct 26 (Reuters) - SNIPPET: "Yuri Lutsenko said the men, Ukrainian citizens from the southern Crimean peninsula, were suspected of belonging to al-Takfir wal-Hijra, which originated in Egypt and is linked with activities in North Africa. Lutsenko said explosive materials, detonators, a Kalashnikov rifle and cartridges, firearms instruction manuals, and propaganda material propagating extreme Islam were found in seven places. Pamphlets also linked the men to Hizb-ut-Tahrir, a group that has said it wants to establish a global Islamic caliphate by peaceful means and is well known in Central Asia. "A network of the extreme Islamic movement al-Takfir...

TASHKENT -- Uzbekistan is warning against a Russian plan to open a military base near the Uzbek border in southern Kyrgyzstan, RFE/RL's Uzbek Service reports. Uzbek Senator Surayo Odilhodjaeva told RFE/RL that the proposed new base -- reportedly near the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh -- would not contribute to the security of Central Asia. "I think the less military bases we have in the region, the better," she said. Uzbek political commentator Sanobar Shermatova said Tashkent's objection to an increased Russian military presence close to its borders is natural. "Tashkent wants to maintain a balance of power," Shermatova said....

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia was tricked by Kyrgyzstan over a deal with the United States to keep open a key air base in Central Asia, a Russian diplomat was quoted as saying by local media on Wednesday. ... The Kommersant newspaper quoted an unidentified Russian diplomat as saying Moscow viewed the U.S. move as a trick and that Russia would soon make an "adequate response" to the deal.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian state television on Friday accused the United States of using its only remaining air base in Central Asia as cover for a wide-scale spying operation. Rossiya television released a clip of a documentary to be aired on Sunday purporting to show how the United States mounted intelligence operations from the Manas air base in Kyrgyzstan, which is used for supplying foreign troops in Afghanistan. Kyrgyzstan in February told Washington to close the air base after it secured a $2 billion economic aid package from Russia, a setback for the United States as it seeks new supply...

This year's Miss World final in Kiev has been cancelled amid fears that Russia may turn its military might on the Ukraine. The 120 contestants were due to compete at the Ukraina National Palace on October 4. But the event has been called off and a new host country is being sought, the Daily Telegraph has learned. In a statement, the organisers said: "Due to circumstances beyond our control, it was with deep regret that the decision was taken to postpone the Miss World 2008 Final. This decision was taken in the interest of contestants and the Miss World Organisation."...

Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani journalist of the highest narrative and analytical gifts, is baffled by the West’s almost demented indifference and folly towards Afghanistan and his own country. The stakes are huge. If either state fails, as is highly plausible, global stability will be rocked. The United Nations, Nato, the European Union and, of course, America will see their purposes and credibility set at naught. Yet, as Rashid writes: “The international community’s lukewarm commitment to Afghanistan after 9/11 has been matched only by its incompetence, incoherence and conflicting strategies — all led by the United States.” Meanwhile, in Pakistan, Washington’s...

NATO has a new and, some might say, unexpected partner in Central Asia -- Turkmenistan. Just two years ago, the country was a reclusive place that few foreigners were allowed to visit, with UN-recognized status as a "neutral" nation. The country's strongman leader, Saparmurat Niyazov, used that status as a reason to keep Turkmenistan from participating in any international groupings except those with a purely economic agenda. Niyazov died in late 2006 and was replaced by Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, whose foreign policy is much more dynamic. But reports of NATO cooperation with Turkmenistan is a huge step away from neutrality, especially...

NEW DELHI: India is gazing at Israel for a passage to energy security in the age of high oil prices, a move that will give Asia's fastest growing economy easy access to the abundant Russian, Caucasian and Central Asian crude as an alternative to volatile West Asian supplies but will perhaps also raise hackles of pro-Arab political elements at home. Top oil ministry officials and senior executives of state-owned refiners who look after crude procurement and shipping operations for their companies held talks with representatives of Eilat-Ashkelon Pipeline Company Ltd, originally an Israel-Iran joint venture that operates a two-way crude...

Abstract Eurasianism as a concept emerged among Russian émigrés in the 1920s, with the premise that Russia is a unique ethnic blend, primarily of Slavic and Turkic peoples. Its geopolitical implications for Russia include gravitation toward mostly Turkic Central Asia. Alexander Dugin, one of its best-known proponents, believes that the demise of the Soviet Union was simply a tragic incident. The people of the former USSR should again be united in a grand Eurasian empire, with Russia a benign and generous patron, providing its “younger brothers” clients economic largesse and defense, mostly against the predatory USA. The “orange revolutions” and...

On December 27 2007, the same day as former Pakistani Prime Minsiter Benazir Bhutto was assassinated, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov suggested that the Shanghai Cooperaion Organization (SCO) expand its membership to include Iran and Pakistan. This new turn by Moscow cries out for explanation. Losyukov conspicously omitted Rusia’s closest Asian partner for many years, India, and supported China’s canddiate and India’s rival, Pakistan. While possibly a concession to China, which supporteds Pakistan’s membership and opposes India’s, admitting two new members might also in the long run dilute China’s weight in the organization, particularly as Russia and Iran have...

MOSCOW, March 5 (Reuters) - Uzbekistan may let the United States use a military airbase for operations in Afghanistan after evicting U.S. troops in 2005, a NATO official and diplomats said on Wednesday. Any move by Washington to tiptoe back into Uzbekistan is certain to enrage Russia, which has accused NATO of triggering a new arms race by beefing up its military presence around Russia. Once an ally in the U.S.-declared war against terrorism, Uzbekistan evicted U.S. troops from Karshi-Khanabad airbase in 2005 when the West condemned it for firing on protesters in the town of Andizhan. Robert Simmons, NATO's...

LONDON, Feb 28 (APP) :The United Kingdom has airlifted aid worth 1.5 million pounds (US $ 3 million) to support international relief efforts for the growing humanitarian crisis in the Central Asian State of Tajikistan hit by the severe wintry conditions and energy crisis. The funding will help provide essential items and services for those at risk by the severe winter temperatures and the energy crisis facing the country, the UK’s International Development Secretary, Douglas Alexander said on Thursday. He said the Department for International Development (DFID) has organised two separate emergency airlifts to transport vital supplies including blankets, baby...

Kremlin seeks to strengthen clout in central Asia Feb 07 2008, 03:20 © AP Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) and Uzbekistan’s President Islam Karimov walk side-by-side at their Feb. 6 meeting in the Kremlin. MOSCOW (AP) – President Vladimir Putin sought to strengthen Russia’s economic and political clout in Central Asia during talks with the leader of strategically located, resource-rich Uzbekistan on Feb. 6. During his meeting with longtime President Islam Karimov, Putin worked hard to secure Moscow’s grip on natural gas supplies from Uzbekistan, a key country in the ex-Soviet region. Russia already has a monopoly on supplies from...

FRANKFURT AM MAIN, January 30 (Itar-Tass) - Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko demands liquidation of the RosUkrEnergo company that supplies Russian and Central Asian natural gas to the country. She also called for the development of new transit corridors for the supply of natural gas from Central Asia to Ukraine. “The corrupt and unscrupulous shadow company RosUkrEnergo that acts as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine should be liquidated,” according to the Ukrainian prime minister. “Russia’s gas monopoly Gazprom has recently given to understand that that it could agree to the liquidation of this intermediary and would be ready for...

Yulia Tymoshenko, the Ukrainian prime minister who is keen to clean up the murky natural gas trade between her country, Russia and central Asia, on Monday said Moscow’s arrest of a reputed crime boss was a sign that the days were numbered for ”corrupt” intermediaries. Ms Tymoshenko was referring to the arrest of the 61-year old mobster Semyon Mogilevich, who has alleged links to Swiss-registered RosUkrEnergo, a company half owned by Gazprom and 50 per cent controlled by two Ukrainian businessmen. ”We don’t need any shadowy intermediaries,” Ms Tymoshenko told reporters in Brussels while on her first foreign visit after...

Homeland Security: Terrorists are increasingly looking to Europe as both a target and a staging ground for U.S. attacks. Their ticket may be the Visa Waiver Program, a major security loophole."One of the things we've become concerned about lately is the possibility of Europe becoming a platform for a threat against the United States," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff warned. Most Europeans can come to the U.S. without visas — or background checks — under the waiver program. "That means the first time we encounter them is when they arrive in the United States," Chertoff said, "and that creates a...

A Chinese driver stands near his truck on the Kazakhstan-Chinese border in Khorgos, Kazakhstan, some 400 kilometers east from Almaty, Monday, Sept. 9, 2007. China's influence threatens to eclipse that of Russia in this former Soviet region. (AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev)KHORGOS, Kazakhstan (AP) — The driver of the 18-wheel tractor-trailer from China idling at the Kazakhstan-China border said apples were the cargo he brought to Almaty, Kazakhstan's booming commercial center. For Kazakhs, there's a tart irony in the shipment. Almaty's region is where the first apple trees were found and the first apple orchards planted. The city was a center of...

In an earlier Memorandum to the CIA this analyst explained the common Sino-Soviet long range strategy of convergence with the West and the intended exploitation for the purposes of this strategy of the new openings arising from the 'reformed' political structure of the former USSR and the emergence of the alleged 'democrats', 'non-Communists' and 'independents' who are running it.(1) The present assessment shows how, because of Western ignorance of and confusion about the strategy underlying 'Perestroika' and because of Western political and economic support for the so-called reform of the Soviet system, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) has been ...

DUSHANBE (AFP) - A strong blast shook a conference centre in Tajikistan's capital on Wednesday killing one person as a European Union-run conference was due to get under way. ADVERTISEMENT The explosion, witnessed by an AFP reporter, occurred at a conference centre located about 350 metres (yards) from the palace of President Emomali Rakhmon and also near a big hotel and the Uzbek embassy. Police said the dead man was a guard who had discovered a package while inspecting the site, where an international conference organized by the European Commission was to be held.

Behind every international story that you read, every radio report that you hear or television piece that you watch, there is likely to be a person that we - the reporters - rarely mention. Often it is the first person we meet when we fly into a foreign country. Someone who explains to us the nuts and bolts of the story we have come to cover, who fills us in on what is happening on the ground and puts us in touch with vital contacts. This person is a local journalist. And after we - the global media - exhaust...

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is holding a four-day meeting in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, starting Friday. While the summit will doubtless end with the usual flurry of statements emphasizing peace and prosperity for member states, the gathering will be most notable for what is absent from the declarations, a vision of what the grouping actually entails, particularly as regards energy exports. Within the SCO, both the Russian Federation and China have security concerns; they share a commonality with their fellow SCO members about rising Islamic militancy in Eurasia, but after that their security concerns diverge, with Russia primarily looking westward toward NATO’s...

Politics: Congress' foolish move to declare the massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire a genocide will have an impact far beyond politics. It affects you — both in your pocketbook and in your security. No question, Armenians have a right to seek recognition of their people's suffering. The Ottoman Turks slaughtered an estimated 1.5 million Armenians in one of the largest ethnic cleansing operations ever, lasting roughly from 1915 to 1923. It sure seems like genocide to us — or at least something very much akin to that odious practice. But congressional Democrats weren't interested in justice when they...

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan -- Discontent over Russia's continued domination of former Soviet republics soured a summit of their leaders, with Kazakhstan announcing plans to form an economic grouping without Moscow and Tbilisi refusing to sign an amended CIS treaty. Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev proposed at the summit Friday the creation of a union of Central Asian countries that would "allow the region of 50 million people to create a self-sufficient market using both economic and political means." Nazarbayev, speaking with reporters in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, also made clear his unhappiness at Russia's domination of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a...

U.S. involvement in the Balkan wars occurred on President Clinton's watch, and we're still waiting for results. They hardly trump the progress we now seem to be making to win the war in Iraq. Back in 1999, Clinton ordered NATO to bomb Serb positions around the breakaway province for 78 days as the United Nations dithered. Then he passed the buck to the U.N. for final resolution of Kosovo's status. "I think that it's obvious that we are doing the right thing, and we are going to prevail," said Vice President Al Gore in April 1999. Eight years later, 16,500...

The world's oil majors will descend on two key conferences about Iraqi oil next month, seizing their last chance to jockey for position before the expected passing of the country's hydrocarbon law sets off a scramble for its vast energy resources. Iraqi officials, including oil minister Hussein Shahristani, will attend the gatherings in Dubai in September to meet international oil executives. All the big players will be there, including BP, Shell, Exxon and Chevron, as well as minnows such as Addax Petroleum, some of which have operations in Iraq. ... Iraq has discovered reserves of 115bn barrels, of which only...

Geopolitics: Vladimir Putin's Russia is on the prowl, forging strategic alliances and building its military on a scale not seen since the Cold War. Once again, there's a bear in the woods. The U.S. Air Force has denied Moscow's boast that a Russian strategic bomber actually flew over or even got close to the U.S. military base on the Pacific island of Guam. But a Pentagon spokesman confirmed the sortie. It seems that Russia's strategic bombers have returned to their Cold War practice of flying long-haul missions to areas patrolled by the U.S. and NATO. But judging from its furious...

TEHRAN (AFP) -- President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday embarks on a three-nation tour of Central Asia to attend a major regional summit meeting and bolster Iran's links with neighbouring states. The president will hold talks with his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai in Kabul on Tuesday before leaving for Turkmenistan and then attending a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Kyrgyzstan. A source in the president's office said Ahmadinejad would be seeking to raise Iran's status at the SCO group -- which brings together Russia and China with other Central Asian states -- from observer to full member. "On...

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will close ranks to oppose Washington’s growing influence in the Central Asia, Russia’s Defense Minister Sergey Lavrov said in Kyrgyzstan earlier this week. The SCO is set to boost ties with Iran as controversy with the United States is growing. Sergey Lavrov warned that the deployment of the U.S. missile shield in Eastern Europe can adversely affect the Central Asia. ”We see that consequences of the unilateral action will affect Central Asia and we should take into account not only the interests of the member states, but also the interests of the observers in this...

MANAS AIR BASE, Kyrgyzstan: Alexei Mischenko's job driving a garbage truck at the U.S. military base here doesn't just provide him with a steady income of $200 (€147) a month. It offers him a front-row seat for a high-stakes, international political struggle. As Mischenko collects the trash, fighter pilots from a nearby Russian base occasionally scream overhead, rattling nerves and causing U.S. airmen to scramble. "They immediately begin to panic, grab their binoculars and look at the sky," Mischenko says with a smile. "But the fighter is already gone." Small, poor and politically unstable, Kyrgyzstan is nevertheless being aggressively courted...

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGISTS MEETING: European Skin Turned Pale Only Recently, Gene Suggests Ann Gibbons PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA--At the American Association of Physical Anthropologists meeting, held here from 28 to 31 March, a new report on the evolution of a gene for skin color suggested that Europeans acquired pale skin quite recently, perhaps only 6000 to 12,000 years ago

Kyrgyzstan does not plan to revise the conditions of its U.S. airbase lease deal, but will insist that all issues related to the presence of U.S. military personnel in the country be resolved, the Kyrgyz foreign minister said Thursday. "Speaking of the presence of U.S. military personnel in our country, we are not referring to the revision of the bilateral agreement, but to the need to resolve all existing issues related to that presence," Ednan Karabayev said. Calls on the Kyrgyz government to consider closing the airbase at Manas, which the United States has leased since launching its antiterrorism campaign...

DUSHANBE, March 1 (RIA Novosti) - A possible military operation against Iran would jeopardize the security of the Central Asian states, the head of a post-Soviet security group said Thursday. Iran has been at the center of international concerns since January 2006 over its nuclear program, which some countries, particularly the United States, suspect is geared toward nuclear weapons development. Reports in the Western media say the U.S. could start a war against Iran at any moment. "Air strikes on Iran will not stop its nuclear program," Nikolai Bordyuzha, general secretary of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, told a news...

Tajik air base is ready, gives India its first footprint in strategic Central Asia Shishir Gupta Posted online: Sunday, February 25, 2007 NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 24:India's first ever air base in Central Asia at Ayni in Tajikistan is now ready and the Defence Ministry has sought a mandate from the Cabinet Committee on Security to begin operations. India refurbished the Ayni air base, 10 km north-east of Dushanbe, at the cost of over Rs 80 crore under a trilateral defence agreement with Tajikistan and Russia. With its runway extended, perimeter fencing secured and aircraft hangars built, the Ayni airbase is...

Science traces roots of 'traditional English' apple back to central Asia By Richard Gray, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 12:30am GMT 25/02/2007 It is a taste of the English countryside, but the origins of the apple lie far from our shady orchards. English apples can be traced back over 7,000 years English apples are direct descendants of fruit trees growing in an inhospitable mountainous region of central Asia, plant scientists at Oxford University have discovered. The DNA of England's famous apple varieties is almost identical to that of fruit found in the Tian Shan forest which lies on the border of...

The foreign ministers of India, Russia and China were meeting Wednesday in the Indian capital in a bid to strengthen relations and to explore cooperation on issues such as counterterrorism and energy security, Indian officials said. The meeting between India's External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and their Chinese counterpart Li Zhaoxing is part of efforts by the three countries to forge a trilateral forum to work more closely on regional security issues, the officials said. "This will be the second stand-alone meeting of its kind," said Navtej Sarna, external affairs ministry spokesman. The foreign ministers...

Moscow - Amid NATO warnings of a Russian-led 'gas OPEC,' Russia's largest natural gas interest group says it is trying to unite the former Soviet Union's gas producers. An alliance of the gas associations of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and other ex-Soviet states would be 'an absolutely sensible business idea,' Valery Yazev, head of the Russian Gas Society, said Friday in remarks carried by Interfax. 'I don't know if there was or wasn't a NATO report about how undesirable such an organization would be; I understand I am doing the right thing,' said Yazev, also the chairman of the energy committee...

CHINA will complete a highway across the world's biggest sandy desert, near the ancient Silk Road, six months before schedule to tap oilfields in the west of the country and reduce reliance on imports. The road across the Taklamakan desert, near China's nuclear bomb test site in Xinjiang, would open in June after 22 months of construction, said Li Lixin, head of the highway project office. The journey for rigs and oil workers from Aksu city in the north to the Tarim Basin in the south, where a third of China's oil reserves are, would be halved. China's second highway...

While interacting with a select gathering of "Russia hands" from Western academia, media and think tanks recently, President Vladimir Putin ventured onto the topic of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in terms, as he put it, that would be a "revelation ... something probably I have never said to anyone before". Putin, known for his reticence and choice of words, revealed that the Kremlin did not "plan" for the SCO's present standing, but had only set its sights on the organization's potential to resolve the "utilitarian question of settling borders" between China and its post-Soviet neighbors. SCO includes China, Russia,...

Valery Yazev, president of Russia's Gas Society and chief parliamentary lobbyist for the state-controlled energy giant Gazprom, told the Itar-Tass news agency this week that former Soviet states such as Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine and Belarus could become part of the new alliance, with Iran a candidate for membership down the road. Russia's willingness to use its vast oil and gas resources to further political ends was on display again yesterday, when Gazprom officials announced plans to more than double the price of gas supplied to Georgia, which has infuriated its larger neighbor with an openly pro-Western and pro-U.S. foreign...

MOSCOW, November 3 (RIA Novosti) - The first joint military exercise of the Collective Security Treaty Organization and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization will be held on Russian territory, the chief of Russia's General Staff said Friday. "The first ever joint exercise in the history of these two organizations will be held in the summer next year," Yury Baluyevsky said. The decision was supported by the majority of the CSTO and SCO chiefs of the General Staff during a meeting in Moscow on Thursday. The Collective Security Treaty Organization is a post-Soviet security grouping that comprises Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan...

A SENIOR Russian parliamentarian has called for a gas alliance to unite former Soviet republics and Iran to help Russia stand up to the European Union's "cartel" of gas consumers, Russian media reported. "It is necessary to form a gas alliance, which could be joined by Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus," the head of the Russian parliament's energy committee Valery Yazev said Monday, RIA-Novosti reported. "Tomorrow, with the removal of the problem of Iran's nuclear program, I would also see Iran in this alliance," Mr Yazev said, speaking at a meeting of the Russian Gas Union industry group,...

The government of Turkmenistan has for years practiced a domestic policy that can only be described as "Turkmenization." Most non-ethnic Turkmen officials have been purged, and authorities have gone further in insisting, unofficially, that residents speak Turkmen and dress in what is regarded as a Turkmen fashion. Even schoolchildren are subject to the unwritten policies, which have led to the emigration of ethnic Russians, Kazakhs, and Uzbeks. The latest manifestation is the arrival in neighboring Uzbekistan of young women who married Turkmen citizens but were rejected registration and tossed out of the country, along with their children. Ziyoda Ruzimova lived...

The greatest transportation explosion since post-World War II America is now underway in China, with the construction of a comprehensive intercontinental transportation network designed to ensure Beijing’s role as the undisputed leader of Asia. No better example of this progress can be found than the recent maiden journey of the US$4 billion Beijing-Lhasa Express, or “Railway of the Skies.” The train’s 2,500 mile journey in June through the once-impenetrable Himalaya Mountains and across the vast Gobi Desert marked an important national victory for Beijing’s communist leadership and another step forward in the country’s much-touted “Great Leap West” campaign. At a...

Kazakhstan has conducted military exercises in its western region, partly to demonstrate more effective coordination of its security forces, but also to convey a powerful signal to Islamic extremists and confidently display its ability to protect its facilities in the Caspian Sea. These exercises, though showing practical progress for Kazakhstan’s armed forces, were held at a time when more corruption scandals marred the reputation of the Ministry of Defense. Moreover, the authorities are showing increasing concern about the activities of Islamic extremists and their networks within Kazakhstan, revealing uncertainty regarding the precise nature of the threat and the capabilities of...

Kazakh Foreign Minister Qasymzhomart Toqaev called for closer energy links between Kazakhstan and the EU in an address to the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee on October 3. Toqaev is on a two-day visit to EU and NATO headquarters in Brussels. Toqaev also lobbied for EU support to Kazakhstan's bid to chair the Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe (OSCE) in 2009, promising democratic reforms and arguing that the OSCE -- which he described as a "Eurasian" body -- could benefit from some Central Asian leadership. Brussels, October 4, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Kazakh Foreign Minister Toqaev's visit to Brussels...

On Friday, President Bush will welcome Nursultan Nazarbaev, the leader of Kazakhstan, to the White House. Kazakhstan is the pivotal country in the heart of Eurasia, due to its vast mineral resources, a solid track record of economic growth, and geopolitical location between China and Russia. These days, Washington is short of friends, especially Islamic and oil-rich ones, so every such country counts. Kazakhstan has the largest oil and gas reserves in the Caspian Sea basin, and is producing 1.5 million barrels of oil a day today. It is projected to produce 2.5-3.5 million barrels of oil a day by...

... Within the country, the tension between the surging economy and stagnant politics is palpable. Nazarbayev, popularly referred to as "Papa," has used his unlimited powers to pursue liberal economic reforms with vigor, and maintains that economic growth and stability come ahead of political freedoms. Yet a political system that trumpets its commitment to development has grown too rigid to accommodate the very success it helped create. "Our main problem is our political system that hinges on one man," soberly admits Dariga Nazarbayeva, the eldest of Nazarbayev's three daughters, a Member of Parliament and a major influence in Kazakhstani politics....

The suggestion to form a Turkish commonwealth among Turkic-speaking countries voiced at the recent gathering of leaders of Turkic states in Turkey’s seaside resort city of Antalya appears to reflect Ankara’s desire to strengthen its economic and political positions in Eurasia. Moscow should not treat Turkey’s growing geopolitical ambitions lightly, some Russian analysts say. On September 18-20, the 10th Turkic States and Communities’ Friendship and Cooperation Congress took place at the posh hotel complex on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast. Organized by the Turkish Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA), the Turkic Convention brought together top policymakers from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan,...

September 13, 2006, 4:54 a.m. StagnationThe deadly cocktail of poppy and incompetence. By Michael Yon Slightly more context in Tarin Kot: This government sign threatens poppy eradication, but the area around it was heavily sowed with poppy. In some areas the flowers undulate for as far as the eye can see. I took this photo at a traffic circle where the local government often dumps the bodies of its enemies. Half a decade ago, Steve Shaulis gave me a copy of the excellent book written by his Pakistani friend Ahmed Rashid , Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in...

Gazprom on Tuesday said it had struck a three-year deal with Turkmenistan to buy its gas for $100 per 1,000 cubic meters -- a 50 percent hike on the current price of $65. The cost will most likely be passed on to Ukraine, the final customer for Turkmen gas, when the price increase takes effect in January. Under the deal, reached by Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov during talks in the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat, on Tuesday, the country's gas sales to Russia will drop to 50 billion cubic meters per year. Under a 2003 agreement, Turkmenistan...