In 2016, Max Bokayev, an environmental activist, was sentenced to five years in prison. His case remains a warning...

A new book focuses on the power struggles that drove the emergence of Islamic State — and its spillover in Central Asia.

Recent events in Kazakhstan show the regime’s evolving response to discontent from below.

In Kazakhstan, transgender persons have the right to surgical procedures to change their sex – but little access to...

• Русский

In Yakutia, crime and nationality intertwine in the latest wave of anti-migrant feeling in Russia.

• Русский

Multiple investigations have revealed how Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service systematically cooperates with the country’s...

The "lifelong leader" of Kazakhstan has resigned, putting an end to a 30-year rule — and opening up space to reflect...

Thirty years on from the end of the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, war veterans are having to deal with...

A series of protests in Kyrgyzstan point to growing public feeling against China, one of the country’s biggest investors.

For many young women in Kyrgyzstan, video chats are the only way they can make a living. This work is not subject to...

• Русский

Why researchers need to move beyond liberal assumptions about authoritarianism in Central Asia.

More than 5,000 people with vision impairment live in Kyrgyzstan. I speak to Matluba Hakimova about independence,...

The sudden tragic death of an investigative journalist raises questions about the fate of the press in Kyrgyzstan.

Last week, I reported on a possible conflict of interest over a mammoth urban development in Uzbekistan. The mayor...

As a major property development scheme gets under way in Tashkent, a data trail reveals a potential serious conflict...

Eighty years after Stalin’s Great Terror, the names of thousands of its victims in Kyrgyzstan have still not been...

Mehman Huseynov, an Azeri blogger, is facing new fabricated charges in prison. But people inside and outside the...

A high-profile urban development project in Tashkent is designed to showcase the country for western capital. Our...

A new $1.3 billion development in Uzbekistan’s capital is meant to rebrand this Central Asian state as open for...

New data shows that 96% of people who find themselves before a Kyrgyz court receive a guilty verdict (unless they...