In our podcast this week, hosts Aigerim Toleukhanova and Alisher Khamidov discuss attacks on Central Asian journalists, the changing impact of Russian propaganda, and Kazakhstan’s new nameless McDonald’s.

Plus, Peter Leonard and Joanna Lillis describe their reporting on the violence last summer in Karakalpakstan. The trial concluded today with a long sentence for an activist who refused to join a collective performance of contrition. Were the investigation and trial really, as the government insists, a model of transparency and fairness?