(C) EurasiaNet
This story was originally published by EurasiaNet and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



Quick Hits #11: A roundup of recent developments in the Caucasus and Central Asia [1]

['Irakli Machaidze']

Date: 2025-08

Leading off …

The United States is giving Turkmenistan some high-profile diplomatic attention. Visiting Washington on August 20 for annual bilateral consultations, Turkmen Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov had a brief meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio followed by more substantive discussions with an American diplomatic delegation led by Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs John Mark Pommersheim. A State Department statement said the discussions reinforced a mutual “commitment to advancing US-Turkmenistan relations, including through security cooperation [and] increased economic and investment opportunities.” Turkmenistan, one of the most closed and repressive states on earth, has sent signals of late that it wants to open up and participate in new trade opportunities under the auspices of the Middle Corridor, an emerging network of air, sea, road and rail links deigned to facilitate East-West trade circumventing Russia. The US statement mentioned that US and Turkmen officials explored ways to promote “bilateral business deals with key US companies as well as expanded investment opportunities in Turkmenistan.” The talks also focused on deepening collaboration on bilateral and regional security issues. Turkmenistan is strategically situation on Iran’s and Afghanistan’s northern frontiers.

In case you missed it from the Caucasus…

Donald Trump’s peace plan is the buzz of the Caucasus, but Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev says the country should not let down its guard. During a speech in Kalbahar, a town near the Azerbaijani border with Armenia that has been rebuilt after suffering extensive damage during the two countries’ long conflict, Aliyev said his administration will continue to expand the country’s military capacity. “We must be ready for war at any moment because the processes in the world are going in such a direction that it is impossible to predict what may happen tomorrow. We ourselves are the guarantor of our security,” Aliyev said. “If someone's sick mind decides to commit a provocation against Azerbaijan, I think they will regret it again.” Aliyev also took a few rhetorical swipes at Armenia during his speech, but his war-preparedness comments might not be aimed specifically at Yerevan. Relations between Baku and the country’s northern neighbor, Russia, have gone into a deep freeze since the start of 2025. Aliyev’s comments, then, could be intended for Russian ears. Tension continues to brew between Azerbaijan and Russia. According to Russian media reports on August 21, Russian authorities announced the arrest of an ethnic Azeri allegedly working for Ukraine’s security services. The suspect was allegedly in possession of “secret documents stolen from an employee of the Russian military-industrial complex.”

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, during an August 26 meeting with foreign diplomats in Yerevan, described the Washington accords signed by Armenia and Azerbaijan as his country’s “first and real opportunity” to align with the times. “As a rule, we had eventually failed to adjust our history’s rhythm to the rhythm of international developments. And what happened in Washington [on August 8] means that the rhythm of our policy has fallen in line with certain international processes,” Pashinyan said.

In Georgia, a prominent election watchdog group, the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED), has announced it won’t bother with monitoring the country’s upcoming municipal elections on October 4. In a pre-election assessment published August 20, the group determined the country’s Georgian Dream-dominated government has failed to ensure essential conditions for a free-and-fair vote, including “respect for fundamental rights, stability of electoral law, and the existence of procedural guarantees.” Even though observers won’t be deployed to polling stations on election day, ISFED “continues to monitor and assess the ongoing political and electoral processes,” Levan Natroshvili, ISFED’s new director, said during a news conference. Most opposition political parties are boycotting the elections. The government has not invited an international monitoring mission from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. Meanwhile, a local Georgian Dream official in the city of Gori, Davit Razmadze, incited public outrage after the New York Times quoted him as saying Russian troops came to Georgia during the two countries’ five-day war in 2008 “as peacekeepers, and thank God they did.” Gori was shelled during the war.

Meanwhile, across the Caspian …

Kazakhstan is aiming to double the volume of freight rail cargo over the next two years. The official KazTAG news agency quoted Transport Minister Nurlan Sauranbayev as saying rail cargo volume reached 27.4 million tons in 2024, adding that the target for 2026 is at least 54 million tons. “Taking into account the work being done in the railway industry, the volume of transit this year will reach 33 million tons,” Sauranbayev noted. At a cabinet meeting, Sauranbayev elaborated on modernization efforts, stating the government plans to procure almost 500 new locomotives and 7,000 freight cars by 2029. The national railway entity, Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ), has a $405-million contract with the American firm Wabtec to supply new locomotives. France’s Alstom and China’s CRRC are also involved in upgrading the freight fleet. Sauranbayev projected annual freight volume to reach 67 million tons by 2029.

The United Kingdom has imposed sanctions on several entities and individuals in Kyrgyzstan suspected of helping Russia evade international sanctions. British officials targeted Bishkek-based Capital Bank, as well as bank director Kantemir Chalbaev personally. Also designated were two cryptocurrency exchanges, Grinex and Meer, along with “the infrastructure behind a new ruble-backed cryptocurrency token, A7A5,” according to a British government statement. The token helped filter approximately $9.3 billion “through a dedicated crypto exchange in just four months and was specifically designed to circumvent Western sanctions,” the statement added. According to UK officials, Russia used Capital Bank to pay for military-related goods that were imported by Moscow, circumventing sanctions via a “tangled network, which includes the use of cryptocurrencies.” The statement quotes the UK minister responsible for enforcing sanctions, Stephen Doughty, as saying; "if the Kremlin thinks it can hide its desperate attempts to soften the impact of our sanctions by laundering transactions through dubious crypto networks, it is sadly mistaken."

In Tajikistan, four regional activists in the Gorno Badakhshan autonomous region have recently died in custody under suspicious circumstances, RFERL’s television component, Current Time, reported August 20. Rights watchdogs believe there is a strong possibility the deceased detainees were tortured. Pamir minority groups in Gorno Badakhshan have experienced widespread rights violations and “systematic discrimination” in recent years amid central government efforts to tighten its grip on the mountainous region. Tajik leader Emomali Rahmon’s administration perceives regional residents to be hostile to its authority.

The political apprenticeship of Saida Mirziyoyeva, the daughter of Uzbekistan’s incumbent leader, took her to Kyrgyzstan on August 20, where she met with Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov and other top Kyrgyz government officials. According to a Kyrgyz statement, the talks between Mirziyoyeva and Japarov touched on improving cultural and educational ties between the Central Asian neighbors. In June, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev appointed his daughter to be his chief of staff, heightening speculation that he his grooming her to eventually succeed him as the country’s leader.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://eurasianet.org/quick-hits-11-a-roundup-of-recent-developments-in-the-caucasus-and-central-asia

Published and (C) by EurasiaNet
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/eurasianet/