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Russian Fuel Exports

Russian Diesel Returns, but Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan Remain Exposed

Russia sharply increased diesel supplies to Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in August after a summer slump in Russian fuel exports strained both countries’ markets and pushed prices higher. But the August rebound underscored a weakness already exposed over the summer: disruptions at Russian refineries can quickly ripple through fuel markets across both countries. In August, Kyrgyzstan received more than 72,000 tons of Russian diesel, up from just 4,400 tons in July. Supplies to Tajikistan rose from 16,000 tons to more than 56,000 tons, around 3.5 times the July level. Overall, Russia exported more than 370,000 tons of diesel to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Mongolia in August, more than double the July volume. Kazakhstan received around 28,000 tons after no deliveries in July, while Mongolia imported about 215,000 tons. Russia's diesel production recovered to around 170,000 tons per day in August, but Moscow maintained restrictions on exports to protect its domestic market, with exceptions for countries covered by intergovernmental agreements. The summer disruption showed that such arrangements do not insulate Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan from falling production at Russian refineries. Kyrgyzstan Starts to Diversify Kyrgyzstan consumes around 1.6 million tons of petroleum products a year and receives the overwhelming majority of its imports from Russia. The summer disruption pushed Bishkek to look for additional sources. The authorities discussed purchases from Kazakhstan, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. Belarusian deliveries began arriving in July, while China also sent an initial batch of fuel. In August, Kyrgyz officials opened talks with China’s Sinopec over further supplies. Another option is to refine more crude oil domestically. In August, 35,000 tons of crude were shipped through Kazakhstan to Kyrgyzstan for processing at local refineries. The new route gives Bishkek another way to source feedstock while reducing its dependence on finished gasoline and diesel from Russian refineries. The 72,000 tons of Russian diesel delivered in August largely offset July’s collapse rather than establishing a new level of supply. Tajikistan's Options Tajikistan is even more dependent. In the first half of 2026, the country imported 599,500 tons of petroleum products worth $494.7 million. Russia accounted for 91.1% of those supplies. Diesel imports totaled 300,200 tons. The reduction in supplies became visible on the streets of Dushanbe over the summer. In early July, diesel disappeared from some filling stations, while others limited purchases to 20 liters per vehicle. By late July, prices at some stations had reached 17–18 somoni (about $1.90) per liter. As of August 31, the average price was around 16.5 somoni, compared with approximately 11 somoni in early June. Dushanbe responded by increasing purchases from neighboring countries. In July, imports of gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan roughly tripled to 34,000 tons. But average monthly imports of these fuels from all suppliers in the first half of the year were around 97,000 tons. Neighboring suppliers can cover part of the shortfall, but for now they cannot quickly replace Russian volumes. In July, the presidents of Tajikistan and Kazakhstan discussed increasing supplies of Kazakh petroleum...

1 month ago

Customs Modernization

Turkmenistan Looks to AI in Customs Modernization Drive

Customs specialists in Turkmenistan discussed the use of artificial intelligence in their work during a seminar last week, as the country steps up efforts to modernize trade systems and expand its role in the Caspian Sea transit corridor. The three-day training course in Ashgabat drew about 30 customs experts and was held at a regional training center. Turkmenistan’s State Customs Service said the event was part of a European Union-funded project to promote trade on the corridor, which links China and Central Asia to Europe by rail and maritime transport. The trainer at the seminar was Sertaç Yapıcı, whose LinkedIn page identifies him as a department head at the Directorate General of Customs Enforcement in Turkey. Yapıcı discussed risk management systems in customs offices and “demonstrated the effectiveness of modern methods of data analysis and the use of artificial intelligence technologies with specific examples,” the Turkmen customs authority said. The customs specialists discussed how to identify risks associated with goods and vehicles crossing borders and how “to adapt the best international approaches to the conditions of our country,” the authority added. The World Customs Organization and the customs service established the center in Ashgabat under a 2025 agreement.

1 month ago

Educational Investment

Coventry Expands in Kazakhstan, Strengthening Central Asia’s International Education Center

Coventry University Kazakhstan marked the next stage of its expansion on September 21 with a capsule-laying ceremony for new facilities in Astana, adding to a growing network of British educational institutions operating in the country. Lord John Alderdice, the United Kingdom’s Trade Envoy to Azerbaijan and Central Asia, said the project represented more than the construction of another university building. “Today we are not simply marking the construction of a new building. We are investing in people, in knowledge, and in the future of Kazakhstan.” [caption id="attachment_56593" align="alignnone" width="300"] Lord John Alderdice, the UK Trade Envoy to Azerbaijan and Central Asia, speaks at the capsule-laying ceremony for Coventry University Kazakhstan’s new campus in Astana. Image: Coventry University Kazakhstan[/caption] Alderdice has served as the UK’s Trade Envoy to Azerbaijan and Central Asia since January 2025. He is also a member of the House of Lords and previously served as Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly. Coventry University Kazakhstan has grown rapidly since opening in September 2024. Alderdice said its first intake numbered 95 students. The Ministry of Science and Higher Education now reports more than 850 students. Alderdice said applications were coming from neighboring countries as well as Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan’s Minister of Science and Higher Education, Sayasat Nurbek, placed Coventry’s development within the country’s broader effort to invest in human capital and build skills relevant to Kazakhstan and the wider Central Asian region. Pointing to Kazakhstan’s natural resources, critical minerals, nuclear energy and agriculture, Nurbek emphasized that realizing their economic potential depends on developing the people and expertise needed to create greater value from them. [caption id="attachment_56594" align="alignnone" width="300"] Kazakhstan’s Minister of Science and Higher Education, Sayasat Nurbek, speaks at the capsule-laying ceremony for Coventry University Kazakhstan’s new campus in Astana. Image: Coventry University Kazakhstan[/caption] The expansion comes as Kazakhstan develops an increasingly international education sector, bringing foreign universities and schools into the country while seeking to attract students from across Central Asia. Kazakhstan’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Alibek Bakayev, placed Coventry’s expansion within the broader development of educational ties between Kazakhstan and Britain, linking it to President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s emphasis on education. Bakayev explained that President Tokayev has made it clear that education is the foundation of the national economy and the country’s future, and that Kazakhstan must not only learn from the world but also bring the world’s best knowledge and practices to the country. He cited Coventry, Cardiff, De Montfort and Heriot-Watt universities, together with Ardingly and Charterhouse, as part of a growing education bridge between the two countries. The growing international education presence is also extending Kazakhstan’s reach beyond its domestic market. Coventry’s applications from neighboring countries provide one indication of that regional pull. Education Takes Larger Role in UK-Kazakhstan Relations Bakayev broadened the point to the overall relationship between Astana and London. He described education as one of the foundations of bilateral relations and pointed to the Kazakhstan-UK Strategic Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, saying it gives the relationship greater institutional depth across politics, trade, investment,...

1 month ago

Nature Investment

Opinion: Financing Nature: Why Biodiversity Investment Matters for Central Asia

Just imagine: only 50 years ago, wildlife was far more abundant across many of the world’s forests, grasslands, rivers, and seas. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature’s Living Planet Report 2024, the average size of monitored vertebrate populations fell by 73% between 1970 and 2020, based on data from almost 35,000 populations worldwide. That extraordinary decline has taken place within a single human lifetime. We are used to treating this as an environmental statistic, a sad fact trotted out in a nature documentary to which we have little emotional connection. Seen this way, we miss a vital truth: food, agriculture, construction, and forestry all depend immensely on natural systems. Pollination, water filtration, soil fertility, and flood control are among the functions that biodiversity provides for us. When that infrastructure fails, the economy built on top of it becomes more expensive, then less reliable, and eventually, in some places, unworkable. Emergency Room Most of what passes for environmental action today is triage. A river floods a city that paved over its wetlands, and engineers are called in to build higher walls. A heat wave kills crops, and governments subsidize irrigation for farmland that used to be forest. A fishery collapses, and the response is a moratorium, arriving years after the fish are already gone. This is the pattern across almost every domain of environmental policy: we manage consequences with enormous expense, and we manage causes almost as an afterthought. It is also the least efficient way to run a planet. Treating a symptom after it has metastasized costs orders of magnitude more than preventing it, financially as much as ecologically. Some of this triage is now unavoidable. The carbon already in the atmosphere will continue influencing the climate for years regardless of what we do next, while a great deal of the damage caused by air pollution is already locked in and can only be managed, not undone. These are debts we are stuck repaying. Biodiversity is often different because it is still substantially in our hands. A species pushed to the edge can, with sustained effort, be pulled back from it. A degraded watershed can, over a generation, recover its function. In Kazakhstan, recent estimates place the snow leopard population at between 152 and 189 animals, close to levels last recorded in the 1980s. The recovery has been associated with sustained monitoring and habitat protection. It demonstrates that when species and ecosystems are effectively managed and adequately protected, conservation measures can deliver tangible results by maintaining biodiversity and helping threatened species recover. That kind of recovery is rare in climate policy. This disconnect risks creating dangerous trade-offs. We cannot decarbonize an economy while continuing to bulldoze the ecosystems around it. An electric vehicle removes tailpipe emissions from a city street, and that is real progress. But it also requires critical minerals such as lithium, copper, nickel, and cobalt, whose extraction can carry substantial environmental costs. None of this is a criticism of electric vehicles. It is a reminder...

1 month ago

Uzbekgaz

SOCAR and BP Prepare for Exploration Drilling in Uzbekistan’s Ustyurt Region

Azerbaijan’s SOCAR, Britain’s BP, and state-owned Uzbekneftegaz are preparing for exploration drilling across six blocks in Uzbekistan’s Ustyurt region. Following completion of a 3D seismic survey, the next stage involves processing the data and selecting a site for the first exploration well. Drilling will help establish whether preliminary estimates of 100 million metric tons of oil and 35 billion cubic meters of gas could translate into commercially recoverable reserves. The work covered the Boyterak, Terengquduq, Birqori, Kharoy, Qoraqalpoq, and Qulboy blocks in the Republic of Karakalpakstan. The seismic survey covered more than 3,000 square kilometers, compared with a minimum commitment of 1,000 square kilometers. The partners reviewed the completed fieldwork and discussed preparations for exploration drilling at a managing committee meeting in Tashkent on September 7. The data still need to be processed and interpreted, and no drilling location or date has been announced. Total investment in the project has been estimated at approximately $2 billion, with development dependent on a commercial discovery. The partners remain at the exploration stage and have committed to drilling one well. Decisions on further investment will depend on its results. Uzbek officials expect the six blocks could contain around 100 million metric tons of oil and 35 billion cubic meters of gas. Potential annual oil production has been estimated at five million metric tons. All three figures remain projections: seismic data help identify promising structures, but drilling is needed to confirm the presence and characteristics of hydrocarbons. Uzbekistan’s Energy Ministry, SOCAR, and Uzbekneftegaz signed a production-sharing agreement covering the six blocks in July 2025. SOCAR was designated the operator. BP joined the project in May 2026, acquiring a 20% interest from each of the two original partners. The British company now holds 40%, while SOCAR and Uzbekneftegaz retain 30% each. The deal marks BP’s return to exploration in Uzbekistan, where it first signed exploration agreements with the same partners in 2018 before withdrawing in 2021. The acquisition coincided with BP’s renewed emphasis on oil and gas investment. The company had previously reduced its exploration portfolio as part of a shift toward low-carbon energy, but subsequently revised its strategy and refocused on its traditional business. When BP joined the project, its regional president for Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey, Gio Cristofoli, said the company saw significant resource potential in Uzbekistan. He said participation in the agreement would expand BP’s exploration portfolio and support its long-term organic growth. For SOCAR, the Ustyurt survey is its largest seismic exploration project outside Azerbaijan. In June, the company reported that more than 80% of the seismic program had been completed and that initial results were providing insights into deeper geological structures. SOCAR announced the completion of fieldwork in July, with data processing expected to finish in the first quarter of 2027. The partners have developed a work plan through 2029. Uzbekneftegaz head Abdugani Sanginov previously proposed accelerating the project and beginning drilling by the end of 2027, but an approved drilling schedule has not been published. Uzbekistan needs to find...

1 month ago

Natural gas

Turkmenistan Advances TAPI Pipeline and Infrastructure Projects in Herat

Turkmenistan has spent years seeking new gas export routes, and in western Afghanistan that effort is taking physical form. By mid-September, 122.3 kilometers of pipe had been welded and laid along the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) route in Herat Province. Ashgabat is also pursuing two other connections with Afghanistan along the same corridor. Energy officials are discussing a 500 kV transmission line, while plans call for a railway from the Turkmen border to reach Herat and eventually extend farther south. Herat is becoming the focal point for Turkmen gas, electricity, and freight. For Ashgabat, supplying Herat could give TAPI its first functioning Afghan market without waiting for the entire pipeline to reach Pakistan and India. Afghanistan would gain energy supplies and infrastructure, as well as a chance to connect its western region more closely to regional trade. As of September 15, Afghanistan’s Ministry of Mines and Petroleum reported that 150.3 kilometers of the 153-kilometer TAPI route in Herat Province had been prepared for pipe installation. Of the 122.3 kilometers of pipe welded and laid, 71.5 kilometers had been buried. Hydrostatic testing had been completed on 33 kilometers. The ministry’s estimate of nearly 80% completion applies only to pipe-laying along this section. In May, the ministry reported that 63 kilometers of pipe had been laid. Four months later, the figure had nearly doubled. The pipeline is designed to run roughly 1,814 kilometers from Turkmenistan’s Galkynysh gas field through Afghanistan and Pakistan to the Indian border. Its planned capacity is 33 billion cubic meters a year. At full capacity, the Asian Development Bank’s current project description allocates 5% of the gas to Afghanistan and 47.5% each to Pakistan and India. The pipeline has been under discussion for more than three decades. Conflict, financing shortages, security threats, and disputes over commercial terms have repeatedly delayed it. Work on Afghan territory resumed in September 2024. The latest figures from Herat make it possible, for the first time in years, to measure TAPI’s progress in kilometers of pipeline rather than diplomatic statements. For Turkmenistan, the stakes are high. The country holds the world’s fourth-largest natural gas reserves, but most of its gas exports go to China. Beijing receives around 30 billion cubic meters of Turkmen gas annually and continues to work with Ashgabat on expanding production at Galkynysh. In February, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said diversifying gas export routes was one of the country’s primary goals. Together, Pakistan and India would provide Turkmenistan with markets comparable in scale to its Chinese market. To reach them, however, the pipeline still has to cross most of Afghanistan and then Pakistan. Tensions between Kabul and Islamabad, along with the difficult relationship between Pakistan and India, continue to create political and transit risks for the full project. Herat offers a smaller market that could be reached sooner. A distribution network is planned in the city to supply gas to businesses, power plants, and households. In August, Turkmengaz and Afghan Gas signed a memorandum on the gasification of the province. The memorandum covers local...

1 month ago

Oil Production

Karachaganak Maintenance to Cut Kazakhstan’s Oil Output by Up to 450,000 Tons

Karachaganak, one of Kazakhstan’s three largest oil and gas fields, entered planned maintenance on September 7, a shutdown expected to reduce the country’s oil and gas condensate output by 400,000–450,000 metric tons before work ends on October 1. The interruption comes in a year when the government has already lowered its national production forecast following repeated disruptions to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), the main export route for Kazakhstan’s oil. In August, Energy Minister Yerlan Akkenzhenov said Kazakhstan had lowered its 2026 oil production target from 98 million to 96 million metric tons. He put production losses from attacks on CPC infrastructure in January, June, and July at about 3.5 million metric tons. CPC loadings rebounded by 22% in August after July’s disruptions, reaching around 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd). CPC exports are expected to fall to about 1.5 million bpd in September, partly because of the Karachaganak maintenance. More than 80% of Kazakhstan’s oil exports move through CPC. The July shutdown at the Black Sea terminal showed how quickly an export disruption can force production cuts at fields far inland. On July 22, Kazakhstan’s oil and gas condensate output fell by about 21%, while output at Tengiz dropped 56%, from roughly 925,000 to 406,000 bpd. Karachaganak also depends on Russian processing infrastructure. Raw gas from the field is sent to Russia’s Orenburg gas processing plant. In June, Karachaganak reduced production after an incident at the plant sharply curtailed its intake of gas from the field. Karachaganak Petroleum Operating B.V. (KPO), the field’s operator, is expanding its gas reinjection capacity. The process returns some of the produced gas to the reservoir, helping to maintain pressure and sustain oil and gas condensate output. A fifth gas reinjection compressor began operating in 2024. In June 2026, KPO announced that the KEP-1B project, which includes a sixth compressor, had begun reinjecting gas ahead of schedule. The Energy Ministry has said the two compressors would help maintain Karachaganak’s liquid hydrocarbon production at around 11–12 million metric tons a year. Following the expansion of Tengiz, Kazakhstan had expected national oil production to approach 100 million metric tons a year. Its production capacity has increased, but the events of 2026 have exposed the limits of the infrastructure used to move that oil to market. In May, Akkenzhenov said there was no full-scale alternative to CPC. Some oil can be rerouted across the Caspian into the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline or east to China, but these routes cannot absorb CPC-scale volumes. CPC can carry up to 72.5 million metric tons a year from Kazakhstan. Whether or not the maintenance reduction was already incorporated into the revised forecast, Kazakhstan has little room for further disruption to the export and processing infrastructure on which its production depends.

1 month ago

Central Asia-South Korea summit 2026

From Critical Minerals to Connectivity: South Korea’s Stakes in Central Asia

On September 16, Seoul hosted the first Korea–Central Asia Summit, bringing President Lee Jae Myung together with the heads of all five Central Asian states. The meeting elevated a dialogue that has run at a ministerial level since 2007 to the level of heads of state. The leaders adopted a Seoul Declaration setting the terms for future engagement and agreed to hold summits every two years. On September 14, trade and industry ministers from South Korea and the five Central Asian states met in Seoul for the first C5+Korea Industry Ministers’ Meeting. They signed a joint statement launching a standing platform for industrial cooperation. Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Investment, Industry and Trade used the occasion to push for a shift away from raw-material trade toward joint production and localization. Behind the diplomatic choreography sits a practical problem: the minerals both sides keep discussing cannot move without a route to carry them. A Minerals Agenda with Separate Tracks South Korea relies heavily on imported minerals for its manufacturing industries. Seoul has been developing separate plans with each country. With Tajikistan, discussions have focused on gold and silver, alongside antimony. With Kyrgyzstan, Seoul has been discussing antimony and tungsten. Cooperation with Uzbekistan covers minerals and digital manufacturing. With Kazakhstan, a central issue is moving beyond raw exports toward processing inside the country, as The Times of Central Asia reported ahead of the summit. South Korean firms are pursuing supply diversification independently. POSCO International and LX International have been expanding overseas mineral investments, including graphite and nickel projects, amid Chinese export restrictions. The Transport Connection Consider the Bolashak chrome mine in Kazakhstan, which Eurasian Resources Group launched in late 2024. The company plans to ramp it up to a design capacity of 7.5 million metric tons of chrome ore a year. Production on that scale makes reliable transport an essential part of the commercial equation. An Atlantic Council analysis identifies limited processing capacity and underdeveloped westward routes as obstacles to U.S. mineral partnerships with Central Asia. It presents the Trans-Caspian Middle Corridor as a route to Western markets that avoids Russian and Iranian territory. That argument needs a distinction when applied to Korea. The corridor runs westward toward Europe; it is not a prerequisite for minerals to reach South Korea. Its relevance is the wider choice of buyers it could offer Central Asian producers, including potential Korean-backed processing ventures serving those markets. That corridor is being built out. The Aktau container hub has a planned capacity of 240,000 twenty-foot equivalent units. The World Bank-backed Mointy–Kyzylzhar railway is meant to remove a 149-kilometer detour and accommodate 30 train pairs a day, against roughly ten on the existing constrained route. Traffic is already rising: 125 container trains crossed Kazakhstan on the Trans-Caspian route in the first quarter of 2026, up 34.4% year-on-year. Japan has also become involved, pledging in August 2025 to help modernize customs operations at the port of Aktau. The Seoul Declaration also backs Korean participation in transport infrastructure, including modernization and digitalization. In...

1 month ago

Bonds Investments

Kazakhstan to Receive Maximum Weight in New JPMorgan Bond Index

Kazakhstan will receive the maximum 8% country weight in JPMorgan’s new index for frontier market government bonds, creating an opportunity to attract new foreign buyers of tenge-denominated debt. JPMorgan plans to launch the GBI-EM Edge by the end of September. The maximum weight for any single country is capped at 8%, and Kazakhstan will receive the full quota. Vietnam, Pakistan, and Bangladesh will have the same weight. Other major components will include Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, and Sri Lanka. The index will cover 26 countries, with nearly $330 billion in bonds eligible for inclusion. GBI-EM Edge is designed for frontier markets, relatively less accessible markets outside JPMorgan’s main emerging market benchmark. Inclusion is a separate development from Kazakhstan’s efforts to join that main index. The index will serve as a benchmark for international asset managers. Some funds seek to replicate its composition, while others use it to compare the performance of their own portfolios. A country’s weight can therefore influence how much money investors allocate to its bonds. However, the nearly $330 billion represents the value of bonds eligible for the GBI-EM Edge, not the amount of future investment. JPMorgan has not yet said how much capital will directly track the new index. That will largely determine how significant the additional demand for Kazakh debt may be. Foreign Investors Have Already Increased Their Holdings Foreign investors began actively buying Kazakhstan’s government debt even before JPMorgan’s decision. According to the Analytical Center of the Association of Financiers of Kazakhstan (AFK), non-resident holdings of government securities reached KZT 2.5 trillion, or about $5.4 billion, by the end of June. During the first half of the year, their portfolio grew by 28.3%, while the share of non-residents in the government securities market increased from 6.2% to 6.9%. In June alone, foreign investors added KZT 185.1 billion, or about $400 million. Just a year and a half earlier, non-resident holdings stood at around KZT 1.1 trillion, or about $2.4 billion. Kazakhstan has maintained a high base rate to combat inflation. This has also kept yields on government bonds high. According to AFK, real yields on government securities – meaning returns above inflation – ranged from 5.7% to 7.4% in the first half of the year. The association’s analysts also linked strong demand to expectations of a gradual reduction in the base rate. For a foreign fund, the trade can look attractive: raise money in a market with lower interest rates, buy tenge, and invest in Kazakh government bonds. If the tenge remains stable or strengthens, the investor benefits both from the high interest rate and from the currency movement. If the tenge falls, some of that return disappears when the investment is converted back into dollars. The tenge’s appreciation has already helped foreign bondholders. It strengthened by 2.6% during August, ending the month at KZT 461.57 per dollar, according to the National Bank. AFK points to another effect of foreign purchases. To buy the bonds, non-residents sell foreign currency and purchase tenge, increasing the supply...

1 month ago

Film Festival

Women, Cinema and Changing Kazakhstan at QYZQARAS 2026

From August 20 to 30, Almaty hosted the third edition of QYZQARAS, an independent international film festival dedicated to women directors’ voices and the female gaze in cinema. Held this year at the Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture, the festival presented 21 feature films, including five notable works from Central Asia, among them Kristina Mikhailova’s widely discussed River Dreams. River Dreams had its world premiere in the Berlinale Forum Special section in 2026 and received the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury in the Forum program. The screening marked an important milestone: the film became the first Kazakh documentary feature to premiere at the Berlinale. After a run of international festival appearances, the film returned home: on August 20, it opened QYZQARAS at the Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture. River Dreams “This epic helped me believe in myself and feel at peace. I believe every frame,” Kristina said after the long applause that followed the final scene. Opening with a striking metaphysical orange river, River Dreams explores the inner lives of women in Kazakhstan. Constantly balancing between dream states and startlingly candid confession, the documentary immerses viewers in a wide range of themes – love, trauma, resistance, and survival – as women reflect on their pasts beside moving water. Grounded in a deeply humanist perspective, Mikhailova’s film presents tenderness as a sustained act of courage. Kristina’s presence behind the camera and the atmosphere of trust on set create an unpretentious portrait of contemporary Kazakhstan. It explores how the image of women is changing in this context, and how women directors themselves are shaping that change. Mikhailova begins with a simple question: “What kind of river are you?” From there, she builds the film around the personal stories of women of different ages and social backgrounds in Kazakhstan. This initial impulse encourages them to compare socially constructed ideals of femininity with what actually exists inside each of them. The most unexpected aspect of the film is the amount of humor. The protagonists’ wry, self-aware voices form an uncompromisingly honest agenda for contemporary Kazakh society: corruption, impunity, language, violence against women, and decolonization. “Decolonization is not only about one’s native language; it is about hierarchy. We look down on one another – it is a slave mentality: ‘I am better than you, so I will discriminate against you,’” says one of the young women featured in River Dreams. The director takes a transparent approach to the sensitive issue of language: in her view, what matters most is not which language we speak, but whether we are speaking about what truly matters. [caption id="attachment_56247" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Image: Azhar Utezhan[/caption] “The girls did not resist or struggle with the concept of radical vulnerability; it is a very simple idea,” Mikhailova said. The Aksai River, where Kristina grew up and where her father taught her as a child to be stronger, becomes an embodiment of the socio-political whirlpool into which women in Kazakhstan have been drawn over the past 30 years. Unpredictable weather and shifting water levels carry...

1 month ago

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