Kyrgyzstan: Democratization Initiative Losing Steam?
Copyright show: No In 2010, Kyrgyzstan tried to promote good governance and reduce corruption by attaching public watchdogs to major ministries and state agencies. Almost three years later, the...
View ArticleKyrgyzstan: Nation-Building Efforts Reach the Silver Screen
Copyright show: No Despite budget shortfalls and social unrest, Kyrgyz leaders are forging ahead with the most expensive film in Kyrgyzstan’s history, apparently in the hope that a tale of a 19th...
View ArticleKyrgyzstan: Is Purported Extortion Video a Bid to Boost Foreign Investor...
Copyright show: No For years industry observers have asserted that environmental protests outside the Canadian-run Kumtor Gold Mine in Kyrgyzstan’s eastern mountains were part of an elaborate...
View ArticleKyrgyzstan: Politics Holding Up Gold Mine Deal
Copyright show: No Kyrgyzstan’s government is working overtime to convince legislators and the public that a preliminary restructuring deal involving the country’s largest foreign investor is in the...
View ArticleKyrgyzstan: Conservatives Cite ‘Family Values’ to Fight Sex Ed
Copyright show: No A broad movement to ban educational pamphlets that address common questions about puberty, sex, and adolescent social issues is finding support in Kyrgyzstan’s increasingly...
View ArticleKyrgyzstan: At Kumtor Mine, “No Light at the End of the Tunnel”
Copyright show: No The Kumtor gold mine is Kyrgyzstan's lone economic gem. Yet, despite the mine’s vital importance to the Kyrgyz economy, officials appear to be mulling a doomsday option for the...
View ArticleKyrgyzstan: Islamic NGOs Strive to Find Civil Society Niche
Copyright show: No On a warm autumn day in early November, pedestrians in downtown Bishkek met an unusual sight: a 500-strong crowd of hijab-sporting female Muslim activists riding bicycles, heading...
View ArticleSex Scandal Just Latest Misadventure For Kyrgyz Muftis
Copyright show: Hide copyrights A tempest is brewing in Kyrgyzstan over a video that appears to show the country's highest religious authority engaged in a naked romp with a young woman. Everyone is...
View ArticleAddiction Doctor Wants Kyrgyzstan To Legalize Pot
Copyright show: Hide copyrights Kyrgyz cannabis is reputed to be among the most potent in the world, making it a lucrative cash crop for drug traffickers. It appears ironic, then, that a homegrown...
View ArticleKyrgyzstan: Slow-motion Oil Spill Threatens Issyk-Kul
Copyright show: No A slow-motion ecological calamity is unfolding at Lake Issyk-Kul in Kyrgyzstan. An underground plume of refined oil products – the result of a spill back in the 1990s – is migrating...
View ArticleKyrgyzstan: President Signals Toughening Official Attitude on Islam
Copyright show: No Political leaders in Kyrgyzstan tend to have their roots in the atheist, Soviet past, and thus are prone to be skeptical of religion. Yet unlike their counterparts in other Central...
View ArticleKyrgyzstan Sees Homophobic Backlash after Report on Gay Abuse
Copyright show: No A detailed report accusing Kyrgyzstan’s police of systematically abusing and extorting money from gay men appears to have provoked a backlash against the country’s LGBT...
View ArticleKyrgyz Government Falls As Coalition Partner Withdraws
Copyright show: Hide copyrights Kyrgyzstan's Ata-Meken (Fatherland) party has announced its withdrawal from the ruling coalition, which means the government has effectively been dissolved. Ata-Meken...
View ArticleWith Americans Taking Off, Kyrgyzstan Mulls Selling Airports to Russia
Copyright show: No Russia’s state-run oil giant Rosneft wants to purchase a majority stake in the state-controlled company that owns all of Kyrgyzstan’s civilian airports. The negotiations are stoking...
View ArticleKyrgyzstan: Russian ’Information Wars’ Heating Up
Copyright show: No Relative to other Central Asian states, Kyrgyzstan has a fairly free and perennially noisy domestic media scene. Even so, Kyrgyz outlets tend to be no match for Russian...
View ArticleKyrgyzstan: Can Hunting Reform Stop Tourist Scams?
Copyright show: No Two years ago, Steve Presnal’s dream came true when he embarked on a hunt for Siberian ibex in Kyrgyzstan’s Tian Shan Mountains. With two friends, the 49-year-old from the US state...
View ArticleFor One Syrian Family, Kyrgyzstan Offers Bittersweet Refuge
Copyright show: No When Olga Ladanova moved to Damascus 10 years ago to marry a Syrian citizen and start a family, she held on to her Kyrgyz citizenship. These days, her family credits her passport...
View ArticleKyrgyzstan: After the Revolution Came the Cranes
Copyright show: No Residents of a five-story, Soviet-era apartment block in central Bishkek gathered outside recently to protest the construction of a penthouse on top of their building. read more
View ArticleKyrgyzstan: Arbitration Suits Weighing Bishkek Down
Copyright show: No The Kyrgyz government’s penchant for trying to revise deals with foreign investors stands to have a big financial backlash. An assortment of angry investors anticipates winning...
View ArticleKyrgyzstan: Political Elites Cling On as New Election Cycle Starts
Copyright show: No Persistent institutional chaos is undermining public confidence in Kyrgyzstan’s parliamentary republic as the country enters a new political cycle. Observers fear parliamentary...
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