Vladimir Rozanskij

A new regulation on school uniforms introduced last month, which bans ‘elements that contradict the principle of secular education’, is sparking fierce protests in Azerbaijan. Underlying this is the sensitive issue, common to the whole of Central Asia, of striking a balance between religious freedom and the fight against fundamentalism.

A renowned scholar of Sorokin and a Canadian citizen, he returned to his home village in the summer of 2025 and was arrested. He has now been sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment for collaborating with foreign powers and promoting nationalist movements amongst the Finno-Ugric peoples. He had warned: “We risk disappearing under Putin”.

To mark International Geodiversity Day, Novosti-Armenia has selected seven sites that particularly clearly demonstrate the country’s geological diversity.

Once hampered by its lack of access to the sea, Uzbekistan is now capitalising on its geographical location as a new crossroads. It is placing great emphasis on the railway line that is set to link Xinjiang with Andijan via Kyrgyzstan.

The combined GDP of the region’s five countries has grown by almost 2.5 times over the last eight years, whilst mutual investment has increased 5.6-fold. But even beyond the economic sphere, questions are mounting as to what unites these peoples, what they can achieve together in the face of today’s challenges, and what kind of future they envisage.

Washington is seeking to consolidate its presence in the South Caucasus as a counterweight to Russia, Iran and China. It is doing so through action in three areas: the economic sphere, via trade corridors and control of resources; the geopolitical sphere, through the supply of arms; and digital cooperation at an institutional level.

Historian Pakhaluk analyses a concept that has become increasingly central to Putin’s propaganda, which seeks to transform the memory of the victims of Nazi crimes not only into a tool of political propaganda, but also into a justification for the crimes of the Stalinist system and the aggression against Ukraine

Over 120 scientists, researchers and students from Russia and Central Asian countries took part in new fieldwork across various countries. Among the objectives was the creation of a database and 3D models for the virtual museum “Great Altai – The Homeland of the Turanics”

Baku wants the development of the route linking China to Europe to encompass transport, energy, digital infrastructure, investment and human capital. The volume of goods transported in the first half of 2026 has already reached almost 2 million tonnes. And in August, the laying of a fibre-optic cable on the seabed of the Caspian Sea was completed.

Located a few kilometres from Dushanbe, the observatory – which was once at the forefront of research into the Earth’s atmosphere – is now a destination for school groups and tourists. The old telescope has been fitted with a digital camera that transmits images to a computer. But everything else has remained unchanged since the 1980s.

A Radio Svoboda journalist, she was sentenced in 2024 for “covert collaboration with a foreign organisation”. According to the UN, her detention violates several articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. From her cell, she writes: “We must learn to live in the present”.

The forum held in Seoul offered the five countries in the region not only access to high-tech products, but also opportunities to overcome the limitations of their economies. For its part, South Korea is looking not only at reserves of critical minerals but also at the Trans-Caspian corridor. The volume of investment has already risen to 20 billion dollars.