Central Asia is becoming more authoritarian before our very eyes: after the power grab completed during the pandemic, the region’s elites are now introducing a series of measures designed to… Read more »
Another week, another setback for freedom and democracy in the former Soviet Union is one way to read recent events in Kazakhstan, The Economist reports. But the good news is… Read more »
Kyrgyzstan’s civil society has been under increasing pressure throughout the last decade, requiring a root and branch rethink of donor initiatives to take stock of the situation and devise new… Read more »
Tom Burgis’s new book, “Kleptopia: How Dirty Money Is Conquering the World,” provides a magisterial account of the money and violence behind the world’s most powerful dictatorships, says Jennifer Taub, a… Read more »
In its latest report, Nations in Transit 2020: Dropping the Democratic Facade, Freedom House warns of a “stunning democratic breakdown” across Central Europe, the Balkans, and Eurasia as many leaders… Read more »
Central Asia is undergoing a dramatic transformation. Its governments face legitimacy crises at a time when long-standing leaders are being replaced by little-known, untested ones. Social contracts, by which citizens… Read more »
Kazakhstan’s dictatorship appears to have all of the necessary institutions in place to facilitate a smooth transition after Nursultan Nazarbayev. The regime is set up to benefit from the presence of… Read more »
Following a year-long investigation, the Corruption and Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) have published their full findings on Kazakhstan II, produced in collaboration with the Eurasia Democracy Initiative. Kazakhstan II is… Read more »
Authoritarian states are using all-too familiar constitutional mechanisms to consolidate power, according to activist-journalists Tamara Grigoryeva and Ismail Djalilov. Across Eurasia, snap elections happen rather frequently, they write for Open… Read more »
In 2009, a fugitive Kazakh oligarch arranged a meeting in London with the head of an international private intelligence agency. Mukhtar Ablyazov (left), a slim man in his mid-forties with receding… Read more »