Kyrgyzstan

Sanctions enforcement continues to rely on static lists of named entities and accounts when evasion networks are built to morph and reroute at every point of friction.

After years of working toward a compromise, the Kyrgyz parliament pushed through a new media law that resurrects previous drafts’ most controversial provisions. 

For all the pomp, pageantry, and promises, China’s latest overture into Central Asia is mostly more of the same, but that’s still important.

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. 

Every dollar that moves from Shenzhen to Bishkek to Moscow teaches China something new about how to operate in a sanctions-constrained world. 

A one-size-fits-all approach overlooks the sharp societal, institutional, and political differences between the states of Central Asia.

A State Department memo suggests that a new group of nations, most of them in Africa, could be soon subjected to full or partial bans.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping and the five Central Asian presidents are expected to all attend the summit in Astana.

Central Asia must be viewed not merely as a gateway to Eurasia, but as a strategically significant region in its own right, central to India's long-term geopolitical and economic vision. 

Whether Trump 2.0 becomes a turning point or a missed chance will rest on Central Asia’s willingness to lead, adapt, and forge partnerships on its own terms in an increasingly complex and multipolar world.

The new requirement essentially upends the visa-free regime for Central Asian countries, which are severely dependent on labor migration to Russia.