Daniel Kimmage

Also by Daniel Kimmage

• June 30, 2006

  Is Turkmenistan The Achilles' Heel Of European Energy Security?

  With an international ratings agency warning that the elements are in place for a "perfect storm" of an energy crisis, talks between Turkmenistan and Ukraine over an agreement for gas supplies have collided with the issue of transit through Russia.

• June 12, 2006

  Does The Road To Shanghai Go Through Tehran?

  The newest variable in the Central Asian calculus is the Shanghai Cooperation Organization -- an ambiguous alliance that many in the West are beginning to view with trepidation.

• June 02, 2006

  Central Asia Rethinks The Multivector Model

  Since gaining their independence, Central Asian states have sought to maneuver among the major powers with "multivector" foreign policies. The premier example is Kazakhstan, which has skillfully maintained solid ties with Russia and the United States while extracting concessions from both. Now Uzbekistan is pursuing a different model, turning its back on the West and throwing its lot in with Russia and, to a lesser extent, China. Could this mark the beginning of the end for the multivector era in Central Asia?

• May 23, 2006

  Uzbekistan Seeks To Counter Isolation

  Uzbekistan's relations with the West went into limbo after Uzbek security services responded with overwhelming force to quell violently an uprising and subsequent demonstration in Andijon on May 12-13, 2005. In a multipronged diplomatic offensive to head off isolation, Uzbek President Islam Karimov has made concerted efforts over the past year to forge closer ties with Russia, China, South Korea, India, and Pakistan.

• May 18, 2006

  Uzbekistan Slams 'Information Aggression'

  As Western countries marked the first anniversary of the violence in Andijon with a renewed commitment to sanctions, Uzbekistan's state-controlled press lashed out at "information aggression."

• April 24, 2006

  Politics Enters The Mix In Official Response To Murders

  Russian officials have thrown themselves into the fight against the wave of racist violence. But some of their messages have a political subtext that raises questions about their real goals.

• April 10, 2006

  Pipeline Project Has Far-Reaching Implications

  After a number of high-profile moves recently to raise the price of Turkmen natural gas for Russia, Ukraine, and Iran, President Niyazov has now signed a deal with China to build an export pipeline to the east that would break Russia's monopoly on export routes for Turkmen gas.

• March 24, 2006

  'Subject: American Aggression Against Iraq'

  The U.S. military has released two unverified documents suggesting that in 2003, during the lead-up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Russia's ambassador to Iraq provided Iraqi officials with information about the U.S. military presence and plans in the Persian Gulf.

• March 22, 2006

  Uzbekistan: Under Siege In An 'Information War'

  Uzbek President Islam Karimov (file photo) (AFP) Verbal attacks and tighter restrictions on foreign media, criticism of the World Bank, the expulsion of the UN's refugee agency: the words and actions of the Uzbek government over the past week all suggest a siege mentality is taking hold in Tashkent, and that it is now affecting the country's relationships with some of the world's leading supranational organizations, as well as with the West.

• March 13, 2006

  Uzbekistan: New Media Resolution Tightens The Screws

  Uzbek President Islam Karimov (file photo) (AFP) As relations between the Uzbek government and the West worsened after 2003 and entered a deep freeze in 2005, foreign media outlets and organizations in Uzbekistan increasingly found themselves the targets of hostile official scrutiny. Western organizations working with Uzbek journalists were particularly hard hit. Now, new government rules seem to have been designed to close off the remaining avenues of independent cooperation between Uzbek journalists and what the government sees as undesirable outsiders.

• March 06, 2006

  President Under Growing Pressure To Calm Furor

  Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev spoke in veiled terms about the issue of opposition leader Altynbek Sarsenbaev's killing at a March 1 joint session of parliament.

• March 03, 2006

  Political System In Crisis

  The brutal killing of Altynbek Sarsenbaev has sent shock waves through Kazakhstan's political establishment and triggered waves of speculation in the media.

• February 20, 2006

  Hardball Politics With No Winners

  The past year has been marked by a tenuous calm punctuated by high-profile killings and flaring political tensions, and strains within the ruling elite are increasing.

• February 14, 2006

  Turkmenistan: New Clout, Old Uncertainties

  Turkmen President Niyazov (file photo) (AFP) Turkmenistan's importance as a source of gas was underlined in the New Year when Russia and Ukraine ended their highly controversial dispute with a deal that depends on supplies of Turkmen gas. In recent weeks, Turkmenistan has reinforced its new prominence by trying to promote a range of new pipelines that would make it central to a new web of energy-based relationships. Turkmenistan's bid to increase its clout on the global energy market is again on show now, with Afghan, Pakistani, and Indian diplomats currently meeting in the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat, to discuss a new pipeline.

• February 02, 2006

  Government Using Gas Card

  Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov is sending increasingly clear signals that he is looking for ways to enlarge the benefits he reaps from his country's most coveted natural resource.

• January 25, 2006

  Central Asia Powers Energy Aspirations

  Recent meetings between Russian, Uzbek, and Turkmen negotiators reinforced a point: Central Asia's gas reserves are poised to play a decisive role not only in the region's relations with Russia, but in Eurasian geopolitics as well.

• December 29, 2005

  The Geopolitical Game In Central Asia

  The outside world has viewed Central Asia primarily through the prism of geopolitics at least since the 19th century. 2005 provided plenty of grist for the geopolitical mill.

• December 15, 2005

  Andijon Residents Talk About Trials

  In a stark reminder of the gulf that now separates Uzbekistan from the West, which has called for an independent investigation of the Andijon events, officials face charges not of using excessive force, but rather of neglecting their duties.

• December 06, 2005

  Nazarbaev Landslide Buries Future Problems

  What Kazakhstan's 4 December presidential election lacked in suspense, it recouped in symbolic significance.

• November 21, 2005

  Kazakh Opposition Denies Plans For Unrest On Election Day

  21 November 2005 -- Presidential candidate Zharmakhan Tuyakbai, who heads the opposition bloc For a Just Kazakhstan, told a news conference in Almaty on 18 November that he and his supporters have no plans to spark unrest during the 4 December presidential election, Interfax-Kazakhstan reported.

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