Uzbekistan - The Times Of Central Asia

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Book Launch

The USSR Is Gone, the Story Isn’t: Joe Luc Barnes On the Road Across the Former Soviet Union

On a foggy but mild London evening, The Times of Central Asia joined journalist and contributor Joe Luc Barnes to celebrate the launch of his new book, Farewell to Russia: A Journey Through the Former USSR. As the wine flowed, the conversation ranged from Silk Road cities to Soviet ghosts. It was exactly the sort of evening you might expect from a book that explores one of the world’s most complex regions with both political sharpness and a healthy sense of humor. Barnes’ book begins with a deceptively simple question: What actually happened to the fifteen countries that emerged following the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991? The clichés are familiar: snow, concrete, and the KGB. Nevertheless, Barnes’ depiction reveals that the real story is stranger, funnier, and far more human. In the years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he has crossed the former Soviet states from Estonia’s tech hubs to Uzbekistan’s minarets and Azerbaijan’s flame towers, gathering stories from taxi drivers, activists, nomads, and anyone willing to converse over a drink. The result is part travelogue and part political detective story, with a strong dose of dark comedy about life after empire. Barnes moves easily between epic scenery and the absurdities of everyday life. Georgian wine and Armenian brandy make an appearance alongside Silk Road bazaars, smoky bars, and long railway excursions. At times there is also the lingering suspicion that someone, somewhere, is still listening. It is a portrait of a region that the West often reduces to geopolitics but which, as Barnes shows, is full of resilience, generosity, and a distinctly post-Soviet sense of humor. [caption id="attachment_45000" align="aligncenter" width="1600"] Image: TCA[/caption] Barnes is well placed to tell the story, as a journalist who has spent more than a decade working across China and the former Soviet space. Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, he has visited all fifteen former Soviet republics, a journey that has taken him from former gulag sites in Kazakhstan to Tajikistan’s notorious Anzob Tunnel and through the shifting political landscape of the region. The book was released on March 5, a date heavy with Cold War symbolism. It marks the anniversary of Joseph Stalin’s death in 1953 and Winston Churchill’s Iron Curtain speech in 1946. With 2026 also marking thirty-five years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Barnes’ journey arrives at a moment when questions about territory, independence, and Russia’s continuing influence feel newly urgent. Farewell to Russia: A Journey Through the Former USSR by Joe Luc Barnes is available now in hardback, audiobook, and ebook.

Society

Uzbek Citizen Detained in Israel After Video Mocking Civilians During Rocket Alert

An Uzbek citizen working in Israel has been detained after a video circulated online showing him mocking civilians rushing to bomb shelters during a rocket alert. The video, widely shared on social media, was first posted in a Facebook group for people from Bukhara. It shows people running toward shelters after warning sirens sounded, while the man filming the scene can be heard laughing and making derogatory remarks. In the recording, he says, “Look how the rats are running,” while filming civilians attempting to reach safety during what appears to be a missile warning. The footage quickly sparked outrage among Israeli social media users, many of whom described the comments as offensive and inappropriate given that civilians were seeking protection from a potential attack. Posts circulating within the Bukharan community claimed that Israeli singer Avi Hen later recognized the individual on the street and alerted authorities. Police reportedly arrived shortly afterward and detained the man for questioning. Officials said the detention was carried out on suspicion of incitement and disturbing public order. An investigation into the case is ongoing. Meanwhile, the Embassy of Uzbekistan in Israel released an official statement addressing the incident. According to the embassy, the episode occurred on February 28, when an Uzbek citizen identified as N.H. uploaded a video to TikTok during a rocket attack while air-raid sirens were sounding. The embassy said the video contained inappropriate language and was later widely shared across Israeli social media platforms. The statement added that an Israeli citizen identified as A.H. subsequently contacted the police about the video. After learning about the situation, the embassy’s consular department contacted the Uzbek citizen and held a conversation with him. Embassy representatives also communicated with the Israeli citizen who filed the complaint. According to the embassy, the Uzbek national is currently safe, and the situation remains under the supervision of the consular department.

Evacuation

Uzbek Citizen Evacuation Flights Continue from Middle East

More than 9,300 citizens of Uzbekistan had been evacuated from countries in the Middle East as of March 5. According to the press service of Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, between March 1 and 10:00 a.m. local time on March 5, a total of 9,361 Uzbek citizens safely returned home from several countries in the region. Officials said the largest number of evacuees arrived from Saudi Arabia, where 8,114 people were transported to Uzbekistan on both regular and specially arranged charter flights. Another 1,192 citizens have so far been repatriated from the United Arab Emirates. Smaller groups were also evacuated from other countries in the region, including 23 citizens from Iran, 25 from Bahrain, and seven from Oman. The ministry said the return of Uzbek nationals is being organized in a structured and phased manner. Officials added that evacuation operations are currently focused on countries whose airspace remains open to civilian flights, with additional flights to be arranged once airspace restrictions are lifted elsewhere in the region. Separately, Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Transport reported that by March 5 a total of 41 special flights had been carried out to bring citizens home from the Middle East. According to the ministry, several Uzbekistan-based airlines, including Uzbekistan Airways, Centrum Air, Qanot Sharq, Fly One Asia, Fly Khiva, and Air Samarkand, have been operating evacuation flights. These included routes from Jeddah and Medina in Saudi Arabia to Tashkent, Andijan, Namangan, Urgench, Qarshi, and Samarkand, as well as flights from Dubai to Tashkent. Transport officials said that 36 flights departing from Jeddah and Medina transported 7,988 passengers to Uzbekistan. An additional five flights from Dubai carried 838 people. Several flights were still operating at the time of the ministry’s latest update, including routes from Dubai and Jeddah to Tashkent and Samarkand. Authorities stated that the evacuation process is continuing step by step and urged Uzbek citizens abroad to remain calm, follow local laws, and rely only on official information issued by Uzbekistan’s diplomatic missions and government agencies.

Iran

Iran’s Ambassador in Tashkent Defends Tehran’s Position on Middle East Conflict

Iran’s ambassador to Uzbekistan, Mohammad Ali Iskandari, has held a press conference in Tashkent during which he sharply criticizing the United States and Israel for the escalating war in the Middle East. According to the Uzbek diplomatic news platform UzDiplomat, Iskandari spoke with journalists about Tehran’s position on the fighting and the broader political tensions. “We are fighting a mindset, the mindset that everything belongs to them,” Iskandari said on Wednesday, referring to Israel and the United States. “We did not start this war,” the ambassador said, adding that the escalation began while diplomatic negotiations were still underway. He said the conflict was closely tied to Israel’s regional policies and the decisions of its leadership. According to Uzbek journalist Sharofiddin Tulaganov, who attended the event and later described it on his Telegram channel, Iskandari said the air strike that killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei was a violation of international law. Iran’s theocratic leadership has long been a source of international concern because of its nuclear program, sponsorship of proxy forces in the Middle East, and bloody crackdowns on protesters seeking more freedom. U.S. President Donald Trump and senior administration officials cited those concerns in the run-up to the air strike campaign, indicating that the United States wants a change of leadership in Iran. The Iranian ambassador also condemned an alleged air strike that hit a school in Iran, killing, by Iskandari’s account, 168 Iranian girls between the ages of seven and twelve. The U.S. military has said it is investigating the incident. The ambassador maintained that Iran’s military actions have targeted only specific facilities, including U.S. military bases and intelligence centers belonging to the United States and Israel. However, some missiles and drones fired from Iran have reportedly hit civilian locations in several Gulf Arab states, and Azerbaijan said that drones launched from Iranian territory struck Azerbaijan’s Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic on Thursday. It said one drone fell on the terminal building of Nakhchivan International Airport, while another crashed near a school in the village of Shekerabad. Governments in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and other Central Asian countries have tried to maintain a balance, keeping in touch with their Iranian counterparts while expressing support for Gulf states that have activated air defense facilities because of the Iranian threat.

Iran

Iran War Highlights Central Asia’s Vulnerable Southern Trade Corridors

The widening war centered on Iran is reverberating far beyond the Middle East, exposing a structural vulnerability in Central Asia’s economic geography: the region’s reliance on transport corridors that pass through or near Iran and the Persian Gulf. As fighting escalates and shipping risks spread across the region, insurers, shipping companies, and logistics firms are reassessing operations across the Gulf. War-risk insurance premiums have surged while some commercial carriers have scaled back bookings to parts of the region amid growing security concerns. Tensions around the Strait of Hormuz have already pushed shipping costs higher as governments and logistics firms weigh the risks of operating in one of the world’s most important maritime chokepoints. For Central Asia’s landlocked economies, the crisis highlights how much regional connectivity strategies still depend on southern access routes linking the region to global markets. The conflict has also edged closer to the transport routes linking Central Asia with Europe after what were alleged to be Iranian drone strikes on Azerbaijan’s Nakhchivan region, damaging facilities at the exclave’s airport and prompting diplomatic protests from Baku. While the strike did not directly disrupt trade corridors, it underscored how quickly the conflict could spill over into the South Caucasus, a key segment of the Middle Corridor. Nakhchivan is a landlocked Azerbaijani exclave bordering Iran and Turkey, separated from mainland Azerbaijan by Armenia, and lies at the frontier where Iranian territory meets the transport networks of the South Caucasus. The South Caucasus also hosts energy infrastructure with wider geopolitical significance. The Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline transports mostly Azerbaijani crude through Georgia to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, from where it is shipped to global markets. In 2025, Azerbaijani oil accounted for 46.4% of Israel’s crude imports, most of it moving through this supply chain before being shipped onward by tanker. The pipeline also carries limited volumes of Kazakh crude - 2-3% of Kazakhstan’s overall exports - making it far more significant for Israel’s energy supply than for Kazakhstan’s export system. Iran’s armed forces have denied responsibility for the drone incident, instead accusing Israel of attempting to provoke tensions and disrupt relations between Muslim countries. The Geography of Connectivity Since independence, Central Asian governments have sought to overcome the constraints of geography. Landlocked and long dependent on Soviet-era transport networks running north through Russia, the region has spent three decades developing alternative corridors in multiple directions. Routes leading south have held particular appeal, offering the shortest overland access to ports on the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. Iran sits at the heart of several connectivity initiatives designed to connect Central Asian rail networks to ports on the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. The Ashgabat Agreement — a multimodal transport framework linking Iran, Oman, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan and designed to connect Central Asia with ports on the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman — was created specifically to facilitate international trade and transit between Central Asia and global shipping routes. For countries such as Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, rail routes...

Crypto Stocks

Wallet in Telegram Launches Crypto Stocks Pilot for 27 Million Users in Uzbekistan

A new digital investment service allowing users to trade tokenized U.S. stocks directly within Telegram has been launched in Uzbekistan as part of a pilot program overseen by the country’s National Agency for Prospective Projects. On March 5, a new “Crypto Stocks” section was introduced within the Wallet feature in Telegram, giving users access to more than 60 tokenized shares and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The one-month pilot program began in March 2026 and is being implemented with support from Asterium, described as Uzbekistan’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. The service allows users to buy, sell, store, and transfer tokenized versions of shares in major U.S. companies such as Apple, Tesla, Netflix, and Amazon, as well as ETFs tracking the broader U.S. market, including funds linked to the S&P 500 index. These assets can be sent directly to other Telegram users within the app without requiring them to open accounts on traditional brokerage platforms. According to the developers, the system is designed to make global investment tools easier to access for everyday users. Investments can start from as little as $1, allowing users to purchase fractional shares rather than full stocks. According to Global Findex 2025 data cited in the release, more than 60% of Uzbekistan’s population now has an account with a bank or other financial institution. However, barriers such as limited funds, the distance to bank branches, and the cost of financial services continue to prevent many people from accessing traditional financial products. Andrew Rogozov, founder and CEO of The Open Platform and Wallet in Telegram, said the new service aims to make global financial markets accessible through familiar digital platforms. “By bringing tokenized equities into Telegram, we’re giving millions of people their first opportunity to participate in global financial markets directly where they communicate and use digital services,” he said. Diyorbek Mukhammedov, Wallet’s regional director in Uzbekistan, said the initiative responds to growing interest in investing while addressing the complexity that often discourages new investors. Integrating the service into Telegram, he said, helps make financial tools more understandable and accessible. The system operates through integration with the xStocks platform and a partnership with the Kraken cryptocurrency exchange. Tokenized assets are issued by Backed and are designed to maintain one-to-one backing with underlying U.S. stocks and ETFs. Trading on the platform is available 24 hours a day on weekdays. Wallet in Telegram, backed by The Open Platform, reports more than 150 million registered users globally. The service became available in Uzbekistan in December 2025 after receiving a license from the National Agency for Prospective Projects.