Kazakhstan’s Kurultai Reform: How AI and Digital Governance Are Reshaping Central Asia
Kazakhstan has very recently completed a major constitutional reform. On 23 August 2026, the Central Asian state held the first election of deputies to...
Between Washington and Beijing: Can Central Asia Preserve Its Multi-Vector Technology Policy?
The United States is preparing to tell dozens of partner countries that they may have to choose between American and Chinese approaches to cooperation...
Russian Provocations on NATO Members Are the Pretext Putin Wants to Save His Regime
Over the past several months, Russia has increased hybrid warfare activities such as acts of sabotage and potential terrorist attacks across Europe. Though Moscow...
How Putin Could Use Russia’s Election Result to Strengthen His Grip
Russians are participating in a three-day parliamentary election that is expected to confirm the ruling United Russia party's control in a political system that...
Is Central Asia Finally Breaking Free from Russia’s Strategic Shadow?
For decades, geography gave Russia an enormous advantage in Central Asia. Much of the region's trade with Europe travelled north through Russian territory, while...
Moscow Just Named Its Price. Nobody Can Pay It
An Accountant in Asheville
On 31 August, in Asheville, North Carolina, Anton Siluanov sat down at a G20 finance ministers' meeting for the first time...
Egypt, China and the SCO: A New Era of Eurasian Connectivity
With President Xi Jinping's anticipated visit to Egypt in late August and early September, coinciding with the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Bishkek...
Understanding the CKU Railway: Kyrgyzstan Beyond the Debt Trap Narrative
The China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railways has been in the spotlight recently. Many observers have highlighted the project, which connects trade routes from China (Kashgar) through Kyrgyzstan...
China’s New Arctic Gamble Has a Russian Catch
China's new Arctic route cuts the journey from Ningbo to Europe in half. What the headlines aren't saying is that every mile of it...
Turkey’s Central Asia Strategy After Ukraine: How Far Can Ankara Go?
The war in Ukraine and the sanctions that followed it redrew the geo-economic map of Eurasia almost overnight. Supply chains assembled over decades were...