Eurasianet

One explanation for the continued dominance of Russian lies in Kazakhstan’s rural-urban divide.

Labor migrants are attempting to leave Russia as their jobs have been hit by sanctions. But they can’t cross the border into Azerbaijan, which has remained closed since the beginning of the pandemic.

A charismatic, handicapped singer has gone viral, triggering appearances with Russian superstars and a member of the ruling family.

The project is intended to partially bridge the language knowledge gap with Russian.

Vaccine hesitancy in Uzbekistan is high, bred by social media conspiracies that seem credible in a country without accountable authorities.

But Russians are more ambivalent about having a Tajik-born singer represent them at the song contest.

Our Kazakhstan correspondent describes the waiting, the bureaucracy, and the anticlimax of getting his Sputnik V jab in Almaty.

Although Turkmenistan is rarely mentioned as a prospective member of the Moscow-led EAEU trading bloc, that notion is quite obviously on the Kremlin’s mind. Our weekly briefing.

The number of flights is still highly limited for the time being, however.

Manizha Sangin emigrated to Russia with her family at age three, during the Tajik civil war.

Protesting artists chose the visit of their better-paid Russian colleagues to make their point.

Hopes are being pinned on the Sino-Uzbek vaccine ZF-UZ-VAC 2001.

Dushanbe is desperate to resume flights to Russian cities.

Uzbekistan, Tajikistan are taking triumphalist stances on coronavirus.

A new documentary on a Soviet soccer star also tells the story of Central Asia’s ethnic Korean community, which was deported en masse to the region by Stalin.