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Dilmurad Yusupov. Credits: Tunde Alabi-Hundeyin.

“Disability is a Mirror for the Development of Societies” – A Conversation with Dilmurad Yusupov

Dilmurad Yusupov is an Uzbekistani researcher, civil society activist and international development consultant advocating for the rights and inclusion of persons with disabilities. He co-founded NGO Sharoit Plus, a grassroots disabled people’s organisation in Tashkent, and launched IshPlus.uz, Uzbekistan’s first disability-inclusive recruitment platform. After completing a PhD… Read More

Kyrgyz film director Tolomush Zhanybekov. Credits: Tolomush Zhanybekov.

Through roads, markets and silence: Tolomush Zhanybekov films Kyrgyzstan’s unseen lives

Kyrgyz director Tolomush Zhanybekov turns his camera toward the people and places often left outside the frame: cemetery guards, pensioners selling their belongings, children facing humiliation, brothers bound by care and solitude. Born in Balykchy and based in Kyrgyzstan’s contemporary film scene, he builds a cinema rooted in roads, bazaars,… Read More

How Central Asia is trying to protect the snow leopard

View of the city of Alatau, located near Almaty in southern Kazakhstan.

In Kazakhstan, the futuristic city of “Alatau” reaches a new milestone with special status

Latest news

Fatima. AI generated photo.

In Tajikistan, daughters-in-law face a hidden system of control

Rinat Bekchintayev. Credits: Rinat Bekchintayev.

Rinat Bekchintaev: “Almaty has an authentic cinematic image that cannot be repeated anywhere else”

Aziz Shokhakimov is Uzbekistan’s first conductor in Strasbourg and has led the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra since 2021. Credits: David Amiot, via the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra website.

From Uzbekistan to Strasbourg: Aziz Shokhakimov, a conductor between cultures and languages

Members of the organisation Istiqbolli Avlod in Uzbekistan, Photo: Istiqbolli Avlod.

In Paris, an Uzbekistani NGO’s fight against human trafficking recognised with the French Republic Human Rights Prize

On 10 February, Kamchybek Tashiev, head of the GKNB for more than five years, was dismissed by presidential decree. Credit: Kabar.

In Kyrgyzstan, after the dismissal of the GKNB chief, the political-security apparatus is reshuffled

On 26 February 2026, EU sanctions envoy David O’Sullivan visited Bishkek to discuss compliance with sanctions against Russia with his Kyrgyz counterparts. Credit: gov.kg.

Kyrgyzstan in the EU’s sights for the twentieth sanctions package against Russia

Photo of the day

Pillars of salt

8 June 2026 - ldevillard

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A collage consisting of a map made via mapchart.net (background); an adaptation of a photo of Russian president Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi during a recent state visit (bottom right, taken from Kremlin.ru); the VPRO logo (top left, taken from vpro.nl); and an adaptation of a photo of a caravan of camels (photo by Akua Sencherey, taken from unsplash.com).

Orientalism revisited – a very Dutch introduction to Central Asia

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A freight locomotive at the Alashankou border station in China, before reaching the Kazakh border, 2017.

Kazakhstan continues to assert itself as the “key link” in the Middle Corridor

Politics

On 26 February 2026, EU sanctions envoy David O’Sullivan visited Bishkek to discuss compliance with sanctions against Russia with his Kyrgyz counterparts. Credit: gov.kg.

Kyrgyzstan in the EU’s sights for the twentieth sanctions package against Russia

Lack of resources in Afghanistan undermines security on the border with Tajikistan In Kazakhstan, the futuristic city of “Alatau” reaches a new milestone with special status The story of the Xinjiang Kazakhs: silent suffering along the Belt and Road Kazakhstan to become an Unusual Addition to the Abraham Accords: Will this Diplomatic Gesture for Washington Pay Off? Dead in the Water: Has the Common Turkic Alphabet Failed to Boost Turkish Influence in Central Asia? 70 years of Xinjiang: Beijing celebrates and enacts new political doctrine

Society

Aziz Shokhakimov is Uzbekistan’s first conductor in Strasbourg and has led the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra since 2021. Credits: David Amiot, via the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra website.

From Uzbekistan to Strasbourg: Aziz Shokhakimov, a conductor between cultures and languages

In Paris, an Uzbekistani NGO’s fight against human trafficking recognised with the French Republic Human Rights Prize Tajik women reveal themselves through the “I am Tajik and…” trend Tajikistan’s contribution to the war effort during the Second World War “Hafiz Saifullaev’s prose marks a fruitful turning point in Russian-language Tajik literature” The paradoxes of migration from Tajikistan to Russia: an interview with Dr Elena Borisova The Lexicon of Kazakh Decolonisation

Culture and Sports

Kyrgyz film director Tolomush Zhanybekov. Credits: Tolomush Zhanybekov.

Through roads, markets and silence: Tolomush Zhanybekov films Kyrgyzstan’s unseen lives

“If You’re Scared, You do it Scared”: How Bishkek’s Techno Scene Survives State Repression Central Asia: At The Crossroads – highlights from Berlin’s new regional film festival Welcome the Shitheads: Bishkek band Vtoroi Ka goes on a European tour Bound by Tradition: Silent Suffering of Daughters-in-Law in Uzbekistan Sex, Drugs, and Postpunk – the new album of Bishkek’s Duo Vtoroi Ka New voices: Central Asian short films at the GoEast Festival 2024