(RFE/RL) Prague, 1 December 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov has proposed to establish a special government group to tackle bribery in the country's oil-and-gas sector, RFE/RL's Turkmen Service reported.
Tajik migrant workers in the Russian city of Astrakhan (RFE/RL) 1 December 2005 -- President Vladimir Putin has submitted to Russia's lower house of parliament a bill that would make it easier for citizens of former Soviet republics to acquire Russian citizenship.
30 November 2005 -- Defense ministers from CIS countries are meeting today in Moscow to discuss military cooperation and peacekeeping operations.
Ivanov was speaking at a meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CTK) 29 November 2005 -- The secretary of Russia's National Security Council today accused the United States and NATO of putting pressure former Soviet republics in Central Asia and increasing tensions in the region.
The Independence Day parade in Ashgabat in October (AFP) 22 November 2005 -- A committee of the United Nations General Assembly has expressed serious concerns about the repression of political opposition groups, censorship of all media, and an abusive legal system in Turkmenistan.
The head of a U.S. body that monitors religious freedom has criticized the U.S. State Department for failing to list Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan among the most serious violators.
Reporters Without Borders has created a list of countries it considers "enemies of the Internet." Heading that list are China and Iran. Regimes in Belarus, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan also are singled out as repressive governments who are trying to control the Internet in order to silence the political opposition.
President Saparmurat Niyazov (file photo) (RFE/RL) 15 November 2005 -- State media say doctors in Turkmenistan must now pledge allegiance to President Saparmurat Niyazov, instead of taking the traditional Hippocratic oath.
In the wake of the upheavals that ushered in new heads of state in Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan in recent years, ruling elites across Central Asia are nervously wondering whether the next plans to go awry may be their own.
President Niyazov (R) with former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami in Tehran last year (RFE/RL) 10 November 2005 -- Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has invited Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov to visit Iran.
The U.S. State Department again lists Iran among the most serious abusers of religious freedoms, and it claims conditions have deteriorated in Uzbekistan.
Each year, President Saparmurat Niyazov takes great pride in announcing that the country has reached another record grain harvest. This year, Niyazov’s own officials appear to have deceived him.
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