Registan’s Kyrgyzstan News & Analysis Archive

Several Registan authors have worked and studied in Kyrgyzstan and have between them decades of experience in academia, government, and private industry dealing with topics related to Kyrgyzstan. We rely on that experience and expertise to report on, contextualize, and analyze current events in Kyrgyzstan. Our most current coverage of Central Asia news can be found on our front page. Inquiries about our Kyrgyzstan news and analysis, hiring Registan authors to consult on Kyrgyzstan, or any other topic, can be submitted via the contact form on our about page.

Has War in Afghanistan Ruined Central Asia?

by Nathan Hamm
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While Central Asia’s international political profile has risen considerably since 2001, it has primarily been seen in the West through the prism of Afghanistan. The policies of Western governments towards Central Asia as a whole and as individual states have widely fluctuated, but in almost every case, been heavily shaped by policies toward Afghanistan. US [...]

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Focus on the “Social” in Social Media

by Nathan Hamm
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Earlier this week, Small Wars Journal published an article by Matthew Stein, a research analyst currently working at the Foreign Military Studies Office at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, discussing the role of videos recorded and posted by citizen bystanders in the information battle to control the narrative over the police’s violent crackdown on protesters in Zhanaozen [...]

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BORAT WILL SAVE US ALL

by Joshua Foust
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Fareed Zakaria wants to blame (or whatever) Borat for a recent increase in tourist visa applications to Kazakhstan: When the movie Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan premiered in 2006, Kazakhstan’s government banned the film and threatened to sue its star. Six years later, Kazakhstan’s foreign minister is thanking [...]

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Kyrgyzstan’s Eternal Flame Ignites Media’s Mockery

by Matthew Kupfer
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Economic problems and energy shortages in Kyrgyzstan usually don’t pique the interest of the American press. As the saying goes, “if it bleeds, it leads”—and poor Kyrgyzstanis shivering in austere Soviet-era apartments after the heat is shut off don’t hold the audience’s interest for long. But yesterday something “extraordinary” happened in Bishkek: Kyrgyzstan’s eternal flame, [...]

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Kyrgyz MP Claims to Unearth New Uzbek Plot

by Nathan Hamm
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Jyldyz Joldosheva, a member of Kyrgyzstan’s parliament and of the nationalist Ata-Jurt party, continues to claim knowledge of well-financed plots by Uzbeks to attack Kyrgyzstan. Last April, Joldosheva claimed that wealthy Uzbek nationalists and separatists had financed the publication and distribution of book and video called Hour of the Jackal that accused the Kyrgyz of [...]

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Crisis Group on Ethnic Divisions in Kyrgyzstan

by Nathan Hamm
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International Crisis Group released last week a report on the growing ethnic divide in southern Kyrgyzstan. If you happen to be, like I am, a pessimist about Kyrgyzstan, this report will probably reinforce your pessimism. In more remote rural areas, the mood remains raw. Harking back to June 2010, some politicians refer to the brave [...]

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Squeezing Profits From Stones — Mining in Kyrgyzstan

by Nathan Hamm
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Toronto-based Centerra Gold has slashed its forecast for output from its Kumtor mine in Kyrgyzstan’s Issyk-Kul Province from about 600,000 ounces to about 400,000 ounces. The company said that the drop is caused by increased ice movement blocking access to high grade ore, exacerbated by a 10 day strike last month over payroll deductions for [...]

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Atambaev the Unreliable

by Joshua Foust
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ITAR-TASS has some unkind things to say about new Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambaev: Russian-Kyrgyz relations have deteriorated sharply. Russia is dissatisfied with Kyrgyz plans to shut down a russian military base, and Bishkek demands to replace the General Secretary of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). The new apple of discord became the Dastan torpedo [...]

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Jill Metzger Abduction Confirmed

by Joshua Foust
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The U.S. Air Force has completed a lengthy investigation into the brief disappearance of Jill Metzger (remember her?) and concluded that she was abducted. After talking to hundreds of people, canvassing areas of Kyrgyzstan and conducting a forensic analysis of the evidence, investigators determined that all of the evidence supported Metzger’s account of what had [...]

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Osh’s Electoral Geography (Updated)

by Nathan Hamm
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Results from last week’s municipal elections in Osh have not yet been certified. The Central Elections Committee has said it is still investigating reports of violations and that results in some precincts may yet be invalidated. Regardless, it says that possible invalidation of results will not change the outcome of vote that saw Uluttar Birimdigi, [...]

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