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While Belarus’s Lukashenko has commented on the cross-border attacks, Central Asian nations stay mum. Almost two years ago, a dozen Uzbek youngsters pleaded with their president to save them from the horrors of the Russian-Ukrainian war. Uzbek nationals enrolled in western Russia’s Kursk Medical University recorded a video address to Shavkat Mirziyoyev in October 2022 saying their studies had been affected by Kyiv’s shelling of nearby towns and the hostilities in the neighbouring Ukrainian region of Sumy. “Please transfer us to medical schools in Uzbekistan,” one of the students said. Uzbek diplomats pledged to assess the situation. There have been...

CENTRAL ASIA: Unhappy and Unsupported Terrorists October 7, 2004: Russia is increasing the number of troops stationed at a Kyrgyzstan air force base, from a few hundred, to over a thousand. The Russian troops are there because of the Collective Security Treaty Organization that Russia and Kyrgyzstan belong to. But it is also seen as a way for Russia to reinforce the rule of the dictatorship running Kyrgyzstan. October 1, 2004: Uzbekistan continues to search, with little success, for Hizb-ut-Tahrir members. The Hizb-ut-Tahrir, which has offices in Europe, is an Islamic radical organization that denies any association with al Qaeda....

MOSCOW, July 28: The United States has assured Russia that it has no intention of maintaining a long-term military presence in Central Asia but that it wishes to maintain close ties to the region, officials said here Saturday. The pledge from US officials was made during security talks held on Friday in Annapolis, Maryland, and attended by US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Trubnikov. "The two parties examined cooperation between Russia and the United States in Central Asia in the framework of Operation Enduring Freedom," a Russian foreign ministry statement said. "The US...