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Quick Hits #4: A roundup of recent developments in the Caucasus and Central Asia [1]

['Mahmud Rzayev', 'Lana Kokaia']

Date: 2025-06

Leading off…

Kazakhstan has experienced a major data hack resulting in the release of personal details of an estimated 16 million individuals, or roughly 80 percent of the country’s entire population. A Telegram channel run by SecuriXy.kz announced June 16 that a trove of personal details contained in a CSV file named “Residents of Kazakhstan 2024” had been posted on the Internet, including names, birth dates, phone numbers and other personal data. “According to the analysis results, the database contains 15,851,699 unique IINs and 16,901,555 unique phone numbers,” the SecurityLab.ru website reported. “The presence of such data as IINs and numbers makes the archive sensitive in terms of privacy.” The source of the data breach is still being determined. The file includes data collected between 2000 and 2024.

In case you missed it from the Caucasus…

Georgia’s Foreign Minister Maka Botchorishvili met with State Department Senior Advisor Wyatt Toehlke and US Ambassador Robin Dunnigan in Tbilisi on June 16, aiming to boost the Georgian Dream’s standing in the eyes of the Trump administration. Judging by the press statement issued by the Georgian Foreign Ministry, Botchorishvili did not like what she heard. It does not seem like Washington is budging on its insistence that the Georgian Dream government return to a Euro-Atlantic orientation or face consequences, namely sanctions. A US Embassy statement was cool in tone, noting that the “United States has made clear the steps Georgia’s government can take to demonstrate it is serious about improving its relationship” with Washington. In May, Dunnigan issued a statement complaining that Georgia’s paramount leader Bidzina Ivanishvili had refused to meet with her “to hear a message from the Trump Administration. … It is our hope that the Georgian government sincerely wishes to return to 33 years of partnership and friendship with America and the American people.”

Meanwhile, across the Caspian...

Kyrgyzstan may be the next Central Asian state placed on the Trump administration’s travel ban list, Reuters reported June 15, citing the Washington Post. The administration is reportedly considering a major expansion of its full and partial travel ban lists, and Kyrgyzstan is one of the up to 36 states that may be affected. Turkmenistan was among seven states hit with a partial travel ban earlier in June.

In Tajikistan, the Tajik parliament has ratified a measure to cut some slack for the Tajik state electricity concern Barki Tojik. The Russian government earlier agreed to restructure the company‘s debt burden associated with operations at the Sangtuda-1 hydroelectric power plant, of which Russia is a majority stakeholder. The plant produces about 10 percent of Tajikistan’s electricity. Russian control over the plant will be extended until 2048. In return, Russia will write down almost $300 million in debt over the next decade.

Uzbekistan’s Administration for Islamic Affairs isn’t ready to be replaced by a bot. In a June 13 post on the administration’s Telegram channel, a reader asked; “is it possible to obtain answers to religious questions from ChatGPT and can we act on these answers?” The response was an adamant ‘no.’ Officials believe AI has no soul and therefore can’t have a reliable opinion on spiritual matters. “It is true that the ChatGPT platform benefits people in some areas,” the reply states. “However, it is powerless to answer religious questions correctly because it is also a product developed by the human factor. In addition, sometimes it may give approximate answers to questions, even Arabic phrases, saying that this issue is in such and such a book. However, the phrases it cites are not found in the book it mentions.”

Meanwhile, it looks like the German automaker Volkswagon is going to start manufacturing cars in Uzbekistan. A social media post by a member of Volkswagon’s executive board noted that Uzbekistan is a “rapidly emerging and fast-evolving hub in Central Asia with huge potential.” He predicted the country was poised for an “automotive boom,” adding that “the strength of the #Volkswagen brand resonates with Uzbekistan’s growing middle class.”

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[1] Url: https://eurasianet.org/quick-hits-4-a-roundup-of-recent-developments-in-the-caucasus-and-central-asia

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