The fighting that began last week in the Autonomous Oblast of Gorno-Badakshan (GBAO) in Tajikistan (see EDM, July 27) has stopped, and it appears that a peace deal between the government and armed fighters has been reached. Amidst public outcry on July 25, the President... MORE

On July 25, Kazakhstan’s coastal city of Aktau hosted an expert-level conference on implementing global standards for maritime shipping at Caspian ports (News.az, July 25). Organized by TRACECA’s Logistics Processes and Motorways of the Sea (LOGMOS) project, the conference signals the inauguration of an important... MORE

Major deals in uranium and rare earths are not normally thought of as having important political content, but in the case of Kazakhstan’s recent deals with Japan that is true for both sides. In fact these deals, apart from their mutually beneficial economic interests, highlight... MORE

Continued wrangling between Dushanbe and Moscow over the renewal of basing rights for the 201st Military Base headquartered in Tajikistan’s capital has eclipsed Russia’s wider basing strategy in Central Asia and the extent to which Tajikistan’s security depends upon Moscow’s continued military and security presence... MORE

On July 24, Tajikistan's government launched an operation against an illegal armed group. The special operation was initiated in reaction to the incident on July 21 when regional security chief General Abdullo Nazarov was pulled from his car, allegedly by rebel fighters, and stabbed to... MORE

On July 24, Tajikistan’s government launched a military operation against an illegal armed group led by border-police commander Tolib Ayombekov, a former Islamist rebel whom authorities have accused of drug smuggling and brutal crimes. Tajikistani helicopter gunships involved in the operation strafed Khorog, the capital... MORE

On July 11, the excavation of the Shahristan tunnel connecting northern and southern Tajikistan was completed. When opened, the 5,253-meter-long tunnel will reduce travel time between Dushanbe and Khujand by two hours (BBC Tajik, July 11). More importantly, the tunnel will make the route safer... MORE

On July 3, 2012, the leader of a Salafist group in Kostanay, northern Kazakhstan, was convicted of recruiting Kazakhstani citizens and providing them with fraudulent documents to help them travel to the Afghanistan-Pakistan region and join the insurgency (Interfax [Kostanay], July 3). While the Salafist... MORE

The 62nd meeting of the CIS Council of Defense Ministers in Kaliningrad on July 5 discussed deepening security cooperation on a broad range of issues within the former Soviet space, with special attention to developing integrated air defense architecture – long discussed by the CIS... MORE

From July 7 to July 12, Russia and Kazakhstan held their latest joint military exercise, “Aldaspan-2012.” Although Kazakhstan’s security priorities lie in countering terrorists, insurgents, and other small groups of armed militants, Russia’s concern about fighting large-scale mass uprisings, as in Chechnya, or fighting major... MORE