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Bruce Pannier

Bruce Pannier is a Central Asia Fellow in the Eurasia Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, the advisory board at the Caspian Policy Center, and a longtime journalist and correspondent covering Central Asia. He currently appears regularly on the Majlis podcast for RFE/RL.

Articles

USSR History Legislation Culture

Uzbekistan’s Point Man Against Russian “Chauvinism”

Alisher Kadyrov is 49 years old, the leader of Uzbekistan’s Milli Tiklanish (National Revival) party, the deputy speaker of the lower house of parliament, and a former presidential candidate. And Kadyrov is also a leading critical voice in Uzbekistan regarding the country’s Soviet past and comments of current Russian chauvinists. On September 4, Kadyrov wrote on his Telegram account that Soviet ideological propaganda should be banned in Uzbekistan. He was responding to a court verdict earlier that day against a 74-year-old pensioner in Samarkand who was found guilty of “encroaching on the constitutional order of Uzbekistan.” Specifically, the man advocated the restoration of the Soviet Union and said Uzbekistan’s independence was superficial. Kadyrov wrote that Uzbekistan’s time as a Soviet republic was a “sad period of our history.” The Milli Tiklanish leader said even suggesting a recreation of the USSR was a “betrayal of our people and our ancestors, who became victims of the bloody regime.” Kadyrov continued that calls for Uzbekistan‘s reincorporation into some sort of a resurrected USSR “should be considered a crime against the constitutional order of the country.” The Milli Tiklanish leader said such thinking was a “betrayal of our people and our ancestors, who became victims of the bloody regime.” Kadyrov has expressed his opinion on the Soviet Union before. When Uzbekistan marked May Day on May 1, 2021, the Soviet flag was raised during a concert of “Songs of Victory” in Tashkent. Posting on Telegram, Kadyrov called the incident “an insult and a provocation… to the Uzbek people to raise the flag of the Soviet occupying state in the very center of the capital, which is soaked in the blood of… our ancestors.” Russian chauvinism has been rising since the Kremlin launched its full-scale war on Ukraine, and so have irredentist remarks from people on Russian television and officials in the State Duma. Kazakhstan, which shares a 7,800-kilometer border with Russia, is usually the target, but in the last year, Uzbekistan has been mentioned. On December 20, 2023, Russian writer, nationalist, and co-chairman of the A Just Russia – For the Truth party, Zakhar Prilepin spoke about migrant laborers at press conference in Moscow. The majority of migrant laborers in Russia are from Central Asia and Prilepin said, “These territories, from where migrant workers come to us, should simply be annexed entirely.” Prilepin specifically mentioned Uzbekistan, as more than half the Central Asian migrant laborers in Russia come from there. “Uzbekistan, for example… since two million of your citizens are on our territory, we claim your territory,” Prilepin told a press conference, and added, “Who will forbid us to do anything useful on the territory of the Eurasian territory after the parade in Kyiv? No one.” Less than one month later, on January 22, 2024, Russia’s NTV television station showed an interview with a person identified as Mikhail Smolin, a historian. Smolin absurdly claimed the Uzbek nation never existed until after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. Smolin said the same about Kazakhs and Azerbaijanis....

3 days ago

Rudenshiold U.S. Taliban Military Afghanistan

U.S. Decision to Give Military Aircraft to Uzbekistan Upsets Taliban

Ownership of 46 U.S. military aircraft that have sat on the tarmac in Uzbekistan’s southern city of Termez for more than three years has finally been established. Most of those planes and helicopters are going to Uzbekistan, and south of the Uzbek border in Afghanistan, the Taliban are not pleased with this decision. Escape from Afghanistan On August 15, 2021, Taliban forces freely entered Kabul and reestablished themselves in power. The rapid advances of Taliban militants across Afghanistan earlier that month came as the last foreign forces were departing from the country. Panic broke out throughout the nation. On the day the Taliban entered Kabul, dozens of Afghan Army aircraft carrying government officials and soldiers left their bases and flew north, some to Tajikistan, most to Uzbekistan. In Uzbekistan, the Afghans were deported to U.S. custody and taken to the United Arab Emirates, where they were eventually given U.S. visas and sent to live in the United States. However, the 22 planes and 24 helicopters they flew aboard to Uzbekistan have remained at Termez. The aircraft belonged to the United States. They were loaned for use by the U.S.-backed government forces in Afghanistan. The Taliban assert that all the weapons used by troops of the ousted Afghan government belong to the Afghan people, meaning to the Taliban. On January 4, 2022, Taliban Defense Ministry representative, Inomulla Samagani, said a request for the return of the aircraft had been made to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Days later, the Taliban’s acting Defense Minister, Mawlawi Mohammad Yaqoob, son of Taliban founder Mullah Omar, demanded their return. “Our planes that you have, that are in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, must be returned to us,” Yaqoob said, warning both countries, “not to test our patience and not to force us to take possible retaliatory steps to [reclaim the aircraft].” As economic relations have grown between Taliban-ruled Afghanistan and Uzbekistan since late 2021, the Taliban’s language has softened, but their claim to the planes and helicopters has been repeated several times. On August 24, 2024, Uzbekistan’s kun.uz news agency reported that U.S. Ambassador to Uzbekistan Johnathan Henick had stated that most of the U.S. aircraft in Uzbekistan would be handed over to the Uzbek government. “Yes, it is already official,” Henick said. “The military equipment will remain in Uzbekistan, this is already settled.” Unsurprisingly, the Taliban Defense Ministry responded to Henick’s remarks. “Any agreement regarding the fate of Afghan helicopters and planes in Uzbekistan is unacceptable,” a Taliban Defense Ministry statement stated. Taliban Defense Ministry spokesman, Emayatullah Khwarazmi, said in an audio statement released on August 27 that the “government of Uzbekistan is expected to refrain from any dealings in this regard, to consider good neighborly relations, and to make a wise decision by cooperating in the return of Afghanistan's air force aircraft." U.S. officials have made it clear since 2021 that under no circumstance would the aircraft be given to Afghanistan. During a visit to Dushanbe in June 2022, Commander of the U.S. Central Command, General...

2 weeks ago

Russia Migration Migrant Workers

Central Asians Beaten and Deported from Russia

The punishment for many Central Asians in Russia whose work or residency documents are not in order is pain and humiliation, and then possibly deportation. Xenophobia targeting Central Asians in Russia has been on the rise since the March 22 terrorist attack on Moscow’s Crocus City Hall that left more than 140 people dead. Russian authorities apprehended a group of ethnic Tajiks who allegedly carried out the attack and after that the level of prejudice against Central Asians in Russia, which has always existed, dramatically worsened. The treatment of Central Asians at the Sakharovo migration center on the outskirts of Moscow is an example. Moscow courts are likely to send Central Asians caught with document problems to the Sakharovo center. Radio Free Europe’s Kyrgyz Service interviewed several people who passed through the Sakharovo center. Their descriptions shed light on the conditions inside. One man who spent 18 days in the center said, “The day we entered there, they intimidated us, forced us to walk in single file, run fast… then they examined us and beat us with a stun gun.” That jibes with another man’s description. “They call your last name, then you go out into the corridor and run. There they hit you on the back of the head and tell you to ‘run.’” Then, the man continued, “They made me face the wall, forced me to raise my arms up, spread my legs, and started hitting me with a stun gun.” There is an anti-Islamic element to the treatment of detainees at Sakharovo. A different person remembered this about his detention. “They fed us food with pork. Since we were hungry, we removed the meat and ate what was left.” He said there were some people who recited their daily prayers in their rooms. “When one guy was saying namaz, the guards entered. Then one of them (the guards) hit him in the face twice.” When the person continued saying his prayers, the guards said, “Let him go to Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and read his prayer there.” Some of the detainees with beards were forcibly shaved. Batygul Moldobayeva is from Kyrgyzstan. She was detained in Moscow this summer with an expired work permit and sent to Sakharovo. Moldobayeva said the guards yelled at women detainees and were rude to them. She added that sometimes the guards “asked them to be their ‘temporary wives.’” Moldobayeva said there were pregnant women in the center, some as far along as six months, and the guards did not pay any attention to their condition. According to Moldobayeva, there were some Kyrgyz citizens at Sakharovo who had been there for three or four months. Askar Uskenbayev is another Kyrgyz citizen who was detained in Moscow in mid-June and sent to Sakharovo. He said he met fellow Kyrgyz citizens who had been there six months. After being deported back to Kyrgyzstan, Moldobayeva posted about her experience on social media and warned Kyrgyz citizens to be sure all their documents were in order if they...

4 weeks ago

Extremism

Kazakhstan Intensifies Efforts to Combat Extremism

There appears to be a small, but growing problem with terrorism and extremism in Kazakhstan. More than 30 people from regions around the country have been detained in Kazakhstan so far in 2024, and in March, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) killed two Kazakh citizens who were in Russia, allegedly to carry out a terrorist attack. In response, the country’s Committee for National Security (KNB) had conducted dozens of raids. Kazakhstan’s government gave the KNB additional powers to monitor the internet, and authorities are tightening the law on religion. Kazakhstan’s southern neighbors, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, border Afghanistan. Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have had problems with the Taliban and other militant groups during the last 25 years. These include domestic terrorist groups, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and the Tajik-led Jamaat Ansarullah, both of which have been based in northern Afghanistan. Kazakhstan has largely avoided problems with Islamic radicals. Citizens from all the Central Asian states have gone to Afghanistan and Middle Eastern countries to join jihadist groups, including a small number of Kazakh citizens. Turkey extradited a 22-year-old Kazakh citizen back to Kazakhstan on January 27, 2024. The Kazakh national, according to the KNB, was a “native of the Turkestan region [who] went to Syria in 2020, where he joined one of the armed groups operating there.” The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) released a propaganda video in November 2014 that showed Kazakh nationals, including children, in a training camp in Syria. The video described them as “some of our newest brothers from the land of Kazakhstan.” A group of some 25 men whom authorities said were Islamic militants staged attacks in the northwestern Kazakh city of Aktobe, near the Russian border in early June 2016. The group robbed two stores that sold hunting rifles and were involved in shoot-outs with the police and soldiers. At least 25 people were killed, most of them the attackers. Deputies in Kazakhstan’s Mazhilis, the lower house of parliament, voiced concerns in October 2023 that radical forms of Islam were spreading in Kazakhstan. Controversial MP Yermurat Bapi said followers of these radical Islamic groups were taking over bazaars in the Atyrau, Aktobe, Mangystau, Ulytau, and Almaty provinces. Bapi and 13 other deputies called on the government and KNB to take measures against these groups and stem extremist and terrorist propaganda from being disseminated inside Kazakhstan. On February 17, 2024, the KNB staged a combined 49 raids on eight unspecified religious extremist groups in the Aktobe, Atyrau, East Kazakhstan, Zhambyl, West Kazakhstan, Turkestan, and Zhetysu provinces. The KNB said it detained 23 people and seized weapons, ammunition, religious literature, narcotics, and cash. On April 1, 2024, the KNB detained a man in the Caspian coastal city of Aktau and found material for making explosives. According to the KNB, the suspect was a follower of a “radical religious ideology,” and was planning to carry out a terrorist attack.” At the start of July, five people were detained in KNB raids in the Atyrau and...

2 months ago

Energy

Saudi Islamic Development Bank Increasing Its Presence in Central Asia

The Saudi-based Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has been particularly active in Central Asia so far in 2024. The growing IDB role is part of Central Asian region’s foreign policy shift toward the Arab world as financial backers to replace Russia, which is devoting huge attention and resources to its war in Ukraine, and China, which is increasingly reluctant to spend large sums of money in Central Asia after pouring in tens of billions of dollars there during the last 25 years. Some of the Central Asian governments owe China substantial amounts of money that they are unlikely to be able to pay for possibly decades. The Central Asian states have been members of the IDB for many years. Kyrgyzstan was first, joining in 1993, followed by Turkmenistan in 1994, Kazakhstan in 1995, Tajikistan in 1996, and Uzbekistan in 2003. One of the IDB’s three regional offices is in Almaty, Kazakhstan (the other two are in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Rabat, Morocco). The IDB has been dealing individually with the five Central Asian countries on a wide range of projects and programs in recent months. Energy Resources In February, Tajik Minister of Economic Development and Trade Zavqi Zavqizoda announced a deal was reached for the IDB to provide $250 million to Tajikistan. Zavqizoda said $150 million of that would go toward construction of the Rogun hydropower plant (HPP). The Rogun HPP was a Soviet-era project. Construction started in 1976 but was discontinued shortly after the Soviet Union collapsed. Tajikistan restarted work on the HPP in 2008. Tajik President Emomali Rahmon has repeatedly said that building the HPP with a planned 3600 MW capacity will make the country energy independent and even allow Tajikistan to bring in extra revenue exporting electricity to neighboring countries. In its 28 years as an IDB member, Tajikistan had received some $620 million from the IDB, so the $250 million announced in February 2024 represents a significant jump in IDB financial help. Not surprisingly, when IDB President Muhammad Al-Jasser visited Kyrgyzstan in June, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov sought IDB investment in the Kambar-Ata-1 HPP, another decades-old project with a multi-billion-dollar price tag that has barely made any progress in being realized during the 33 years Kyrgyzstan has been independent. Al-Jasser did not commit to IDB financing for the Kyrgyz HPP. However, less than a week after Al-Jasser was in Kyrgyzstan, the IDB was one of several international financial organizations that signed on at a conference in Vienna to be a members of a coordination donors’ committee for the Kambar-Ata-1 projects. At a meeting in Istanbul in February, the IDB reaffirmed its support for the Central Asia-South Asia-1000 (CASA-1000) project that aims to export electricity from HPPs in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Kyrgyz Energy Minister Taalaybek Ibrayev met with Al-Jasser in June during the latter’s visit to Kyrgyzstan to discuss funding for Kyrgyzstan’s section of CASA-1000. Not Only Energy In June, the IDB pledged up to $2 billion in funding for improvements to water management...

2 months ago