Society

Workers are even usually paid in full and on time Striding through a cotton field in Uzbekistan one sunny morning in October, Shukhrat Ganiyev recalled how just a few years …

Emomali’s hands-on management style appears designed to cast him in the role of the listening leader. There was a time when trouble-stricken citizens in Tajikistan turned to the president, Emomali …

The new parliament is dominated by figures loyal to the president. The president of Kyrgyzstan started out election day on an uplifting note. The vote to pick a new parliament, …

Vodka tycoon Sharshenbek Abdykerimov wanted his election campaign to stand out. There were, after all, 12 rivals vying for the same single-mandate seat in Naryn, an unglamorous town perched high …

Mailuu-Suu powered the Soviet Union’s nuclear program. But climate change and its nuclear legacy are putting the town in Kyrgyzstan at risk. Anna Travkina remembers the day the water turned …

Tajikistan faces its own shortages each winter. As anyone in business knows, you don’t get to choose your customers. So Tajikistan is in a curious position: It is vehemently opposed …

While clumsy on COVID-19, Turkmenistan is being more sure-footed, or consistent at least, on the Afghanistan front. Plus, unsustainable agriculture. Our weekly briefing. Schoolchildren in Turkmenistan don’t know if they’re …

The former U.S. ambassador to Turkmenistan describes close interactions with a paranoid and shortsighted dictator. On photo: Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov and Ambassador Steven Mann (right) with Gazprom CEO Rem …