International conference titled «Freedom of the media in a modern democracy» was held in Tashkent on June 9-10. Among organizers there were progovernmental Institute for Civil Society Studies, Regional Politics Foundation, and the Uzbek National Center for Human Rights.
According to President’s press-service, the conference attracted journalists and experts from Great Britain, Germany, Egypt, Israel, […]

It seems likely that the British Government will support the continued suspension of the visa ban on Uzbek officials when the matter comes up for discussion at the end of the month. On 29 April the EU General Affairs and External Relations Council (GAERC) will meet in Luxembourg to discuss a range of affairs […]

The president of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov signed a decree to free state company Uzavtoprom’s joint venture with US car maker General Motors Corp. from taxes for five years. The joint venture was planned last year and is based on existing car plant in Asaka, Uzbekistan, and it is planned to annually produce 250,000 Chevrolet […]

These are the topics that are covered in the latest International Crisis Group report on Uzbekistan Political Murder in Central Asia: No Time to End Uzbekistan’s Isolation. The ICG report as usually deeply elaborates on the existing problems of Uzbekistan giving in-depth analyzes on each topic. Not surprisingly, the murder of a young prominent […]

During the Bishkek summit of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), where Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan are members, presidents have avoided direct criticizing of the US and NATO. But there was still some criticism and tension, which involved the member states themselves. This might become yet another challenge to test the capability of […]

Just recently official news sources announced that one of the leading companies of the Russian mobile communication market MTS has bought 26% of the shares of the Uzbekistani mobile communication company Uzdunrobita, thus became a full owner of the company adding the recently bought shares to the rest 74% that were bought by MTS […]

Alain Deletroz of International Crisis Group (ICG) has written a fairly fierce condemnation of EU-Uzbek relations for European Voice. With the three-monthly review of sanctions imposed in November 2006 due imminently, and the EU apparently considering a ’softer’ approach towards Central Asia (as Nathan at Registan reported recently), Mr Deletroz poses some blunt questions:
‘But […]

The World Bank announced at the beginning of February, that they would support the building of civil society in Uzbekistan. This is the good news. The more tricky one is that the implementing partner is NANAOUZ. Going through teh website of NANAOUZ one can read all the phrases that are common to many international […]

After the collapse of the Soviet regime, like other Central Asian countries, Uzbekistan chose democracy as the principal political system according to which people would establish the government and rule the country. Many actions had been done in Uzbekistan on the path to democracy, including accepting foreign investment to establish international non-governmental organizations […]

Having evicted U.S. troops last year, Uzbekistan is going to have a substitute. Russia has secured permission for its military aircraft to use an air base in Uzbekistan, as part of Moscow’s efforts to extend its presence in Central Asia. The first step in achieving that goal was making Uzbekistan rejoin Collective Security Agreement […]