Eurasianet

Travel bans, dams and Russian fans. This and more in our weekly Turkmenistan briefing.

A facile and naïve plan being discussed in Washington risks backfiring on Iran’s minority Christians.

After rewarding himself with a more pliant constitution, the president held a massive military parade. This and more in our weekly Turkmenistan briefing.

Constitutional shenanigans, food shortages and evacuations: Our weekly Turkmenistan bulletin.

Many in the territory blame the rising numbers of coronavirus cases on the authorities’ decision to open up to Russian tourists.

All eyes will be on who gets the nod as chair of the Senate, since that person would be in a position to succeed Berdymukhamedov in the event of his sudden death or incapacitation.

Between the unacknowledged pandemic and economic devastation, protestors said the situation at home is so dire that inaction seems worse than government reprisals.

As coronavirus cripples the territory’s tourism season and Russia has stopped sending aid, Abkhazia faces a 10 percent GDP decline this year.

The apology or recantation is uploaded to social media. Often, there is a pretense of the repentance being voluntary. But that is not always the case.

The president wrestles with mortality and Muhammad.

State media altogether ignored a week of severe weather that may have claimed dozens of lives. This and more in our weekly Turkmenistan bulletin.

While the government seems to concede the inevitability of the incipient downturn, it is still clinging to rosy economic performance figures. This and more in our weekly Turkmenistan briefing.

The vote went ahead in spite of the global coronavirus outbreak; although Abkhazia hasn’t recorded any cases, election officials took pains that the disease couldn’t be spread by voting.

The isolation of Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Nagorno-Karabakh have served them well as the disease spreads all around them.

The hidden impact of coronavirus, a new secret police chief, and reading the government’s imagined data to understand its priorities and mindset. This and more in our weekly Turkmenistan briefing.