Eurasianet

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.

In our podcast this week, hosts Aigerim Toleukhanova and Alisher Khamidov discuss the connection between dangerous air pollution, unusually cold weather, and the regionwide energy crisis. Experts agree on some straightforward causes and solutions, but Kyrgyzstan’s president has his own theory and a proposal.

In our podcast this week, hosts Aigerim Toleukhanova and Alisher Khamidov discuss growing public discontent over Central Asia’s chronic energy crisis. Why aren't authorities better prepared? One reason is that energy subsidies keep prices too low to fund infrastructure upgrades. But governments are reluctant to raise prices, afraid of provoking unrest like what happened in Kazakhstan earlier this year.

In our podcast this week, hosts Aigerim Toleukhanova and Alisher Khamidov discuss the ongoing crackdown on political dissent in Kyrgyzstan and the president's shadow parliament, which he has empowered to muffle the elected parliament.

In our podcast this week, hosts Aigerim Toleukhanova and Alisher Khamidov discuss the Uzbekistan president’s surprising response to new evidence of forced labor. Coal-mining deaths are nothing unusual in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, but the governments are beginning to hold investors responsible. And a Russian who fled to Kazakhstan lands himself in trouble for offering tips on how to pick up hot local girls.

In our podcast this week, hosts Aigerim Toleukhanova and Alisher Khamidov discuss why Russia’s war on Ukraine is prompting people in Central Asia to learn local languages.

In our podcast this week, hosts Aigerim Toleukhanova and Joanna Lillis discuss how Tajikistan is rounding up journalists following a violent crackdown in the Pamirs earlier this year. Meanwhile, Kazakhstan is detaining Karakalpak activists from Uzbekistan – and Tashkent is mum on the constitutional changes that prompted unrest in July.

In our podcast this week, hosts Aigerim Toleukhanova and Joanna Lillis discuss how Russians fleeing conscription are upending life in Central Asia and placing Kazakhstan in an awkward position. 

In the first episode of our new podcast: When Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin visited Central Asia this week, it was clear the Chinese president held the upper hand. Xi made a strong statement of support for Kazakh territorial integrity and sovereignty, while Russia's leader struggled to explain his faltering war in Ukraine. It was a watershed moment in the region's independent history, as the countries draw closer to China and further from Russia.