For the past three years, The Beet newsletter has supplemented Meduza’s regular coverage with original reporting from Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. When we launched this ...

The president is muffling the opposition and consolidating power

“The first time I went on a long group hike was in the early 1980s when I was a university student,” says Bakhtiyor Sharipov. “The Tajik mountains have been a part of me ever since.”

“The first time I went on a long group hike was in the early 1980s when I was a university student,” says Bakhtiyor Sharipov. “The Tajik mountains have been a part of me ever since.”

“The first time I went on a long group hike was in the early 1980s when I was a university student,” says Bakhtiyor Sharipov. “The Tajik mountains have been a part of me ever since.”

Kyrgyzstan requested a Red Notice for Rinat Tuhvatshin, co-founder of Kloop, in an apparent attempt to silence him abroad. The government has been cracking down on all independent media critical of its...

New York, October 28, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls for the reversal of an October 27 court decision in Kyrgyzstan declaring the publications of investigative outlets Temirov Live an...

Three independent news outlets in Kyrgyzstan — including OCCRP member center Kloop — have been branded “extremist organizations,” with a court banning all their online and social media activity.

The current U.S. administration is the easiest one so far for Central Asia to work with. Business interests can be used to attract Washington’s attention, and there is no longer any need for demonstra...

In this installment of GIJN's Asia Focus project, we look at how investigative journalists across the continent are exposing kleptocracy and documenting official corruption.

In April 2025, the volunteer editors and administrators behind the Central Asian editions of Wikipedia held their first ever gathering IRL (in real life). Founded along linguistic rather than nation-s...

Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

Lithuania’s Migration Department has proposed shutting down an external visa service centre in Tajikistan that processes...

A former employee of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s “troll factory,” a graduate student who found himself near the fighting and a soldier from Rostov-on-Don, the city occupied by the rebels.  Two years after Wag...

It’s not the damage to Fordow or Natanz.

Kyrgyzstan's parliament has approved a bill that tightens state controls over media outlets, in what critics say is a blow to press freedom in a country once seen as more open than other Central Asian nations.

Госдума России в первом чтении приняли законопроект, который обязывает школы передавать МВД всю информацию о детях мигрантов. По словам авторов, этот документ поможет бороться с мигрантами, у которых ...

Several ethnic Uzbeks from Osh said that the 2010 trauma continues to inform their daily lives and that the government’s efforts have largely been ineffective.

Основатель и экс-автор сатирического инстаграм-паблика, оказался в списке лиц, финансирующих экстремизм.

The Telegram messaging app may be less secure than previously thought, as its infrastructure is controlled by a man whose companies have collaborated with Russian intelligence services, according to a...

The technical infrastructure that underpins Telegram is controlled by a man whose companies have collaborated with Russian intelligence services.

The construction of A-frame houses, cafes, roads, and funiculars in Ala-Archa National Park appears to violate multiple Kyrgyz laws protecting natural areas.

Uzbekistan have qualified for their first ever World Cup following a goalless draw with United Arab Emirates on Thursday.

Trump framed the new restrictions, which primarily target African and Asian countries, as necessary to fortify national security and combat terrorism.

As DOGE takes aim at the Peace Corps, the sudden cancellation of the June departure of new volunteers to Kyrgyzstan “is particularly cruel and inefficient.”

National security authorities in Kyrgyzstan have detained eight current and former employees of independent media outlet Kloop, their lawyers said, accusing them of inciting unrest amid a growing crackdown on media in the Central Asian country.

A lot has changed in Central Asia in the more than three years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. As countries in the region seek to loosen Moscow and Beijing's grip on the region, how far...

⚡️⚡️⚡️ Следующее государство ОДКБ в нашем цикле публикаций данных об иностранных наемниках, завербованных Россией на войну в Украине – Республика Таджикистан. #наемники_ВС_РФ По имеющейся у нас благо...

As the Taliban government pursues an assertive policy to enhance Afghanistan’s logistical infrastructure, interest in the country’s role as a southern transit hub is gaining momentum across West Asia.

Russian authorities are considering forced cuts to federal spending as falling oil prices deplete the reserves needed to fund the war in Ukraine, Bloomberg reported Tuesday, citing an anonymous source...

Ukrainian and European officials pushed back this week against some U.S. proposals on how to end Russia's war in Ukraine, making counterproposals on issues from territory to sanctions, according to the full texts of the proposals seen by Reuters.

By the Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On measures to stimulate production, export and entrepreneurial activity, increasing the efficiency of trade and industrial policy” (No. P...

Kyrgyz security services have detained four people, including an employee of a Russian government agency, on suspicion of recruiting Kyrgyz citizens to fight in the Russian army, officials said on Wednesday.

В Кыргызстане задержали четырех человек по делу о вербовке наемников. Об этом сообщает кыргызская служба Радио Свобода/Азаттык. Пресс-служба Первомайского районного суда Бишкека в пресс-релизах указал...

For several months, a fierce debate has raged in Russian opposition circles over the funding of political organizations, encompassing everything from the ideal level of transparency for anti-Kremlin g...

In the mountains of Central Asia, a Small group of outdoorsmen are keeping an ancient tradition alive.

Volunteers counting Russia’s losses in the war in Ukraine have long pointed to the disproportionate numbers of ethnic minorities among the fallen soldiers.  In addition to communities Indigenous to Ru...

Governments try to suppress grassroots Islam while promoting state-approved “traditional values.” But in trying to ride both horses, they reveal the limits of their control.

Kyrgyzstan's President Sadyr Japarov has persuaded parliament to push back the date of the next election by several months, in an indication he may be turning his thoughts towards running for a second term.

Журналиста и гражданского активиста Лукпана Ахмедьярова, главного редактора независимой газеты «Уральская неделя», задержали во время съёмок ролика в Астане

Public transport in Central Asia is relatively expensive, inefficient and of poor quality. In several major cities, local authorities are trying to turn the tide by investing in prestigious urban rail...

Kirill Dmitriev has been called everything from one of Russia’s most prominent investment figures and President Vladimir Putin’s personal envoy to even a “shadow foreign minister.”  The head of Russia...