Our People > Stephen M. Bland

Stephen M. Bland

Managing Editor and Head of Investigations

Stephen M. Bland is a journalist, author, editor, commentator, and researcher specializing in Central Asia and the Caucasus. Prior to joining The Times of Central Asia, he worked for NGOs, think tanks, as the Central Asia expert on a forthcoming documentary series, for the BBC, The Diplomat, EurasiaNet, and numerous other publications.

His award-winning book on Central Asia was published in 2016, and he is currently putting the finishing touches to a book about the Caucasus.

Articles

Podcast

Pannier and Hillard’s Spotlight on Central Asia: New Episode Out Now

As Managing Editor of The Times of Central Asia, I’m delighted that, in partnership with the Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs, we are the home of the Spotlight on Central Asia podcast. Chaired by seasoned broadcasters Bruce Pannier of RFE/RL’s long-running Majlis podcast and Michael Hillard of The Red Line, each fortnightly instalment will take you on a deep dive into the latest news, developments, security issues, and social trends across an increasingly pivotal region. This week, the team is covering one of Central Asia's leaders openly calling on Vladimir Putin to bring the war in Ukraine to an end, Russia moving to tear up a number of its military agreements with two Central Asian states, upcoming elections in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, a deepening crackdown on opposition media and journalists in Kazakhstan, and a growing wave of fighting in northern Afghanistan that is already beginning to spill across the border into neighbouring Tajikistan. Before turning to our main story this week, where we look back at the decade since Islam Karimov's death and Shavkat Mirziyoyev's rise to power, and ask just how much Uzbekistan has changed over the ten years since. Special guest: Central Asia journalist and author of Silk Mirage: Through the Looking Glass in Uzbekistan, Joanna Lillis.

3 days ago

Fuel Shortage

Russia’s Fuel Crisis Deepens as Queues and Rationing Return

Russia’s fuel shortages have worsened again after easing in late July, with queues returning to filling stations and sales restrictions reappearing across several regions. In early August, hours-long queues were reported in at least 12 regions. Orenburg and Lipetsk reinstated systems allowing motorists to buy fuel on alternate days according to their license plate numbers. Similar restrictions had been used during the first wave of shortages in June and July. The shortages have been linked to refinery outages following Ukrainian drone attacks, high seasonal demand, and problems moving fuel between regions. Russia’s government has acknowledged difficulties with fuel supplies in several regions and ordered officials and oil companies to keep working to stabilize the domestic market. The pressure has also led to confrontations. In Volgograd on July 17, police detained five residents who were recording a video appeal to Alexander Bastrykin, head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, about fuel shortages and priority access at filling stations. One participant was later jailed for five days after the authorities said he resisted police. Local reporting said officials treated the recording as an unauthorized public gathering. Moscow has meanwhile taken increasingly broad steps to protect domestic supplies. The government extended restrictions on fuel exports from August 1, with the gasoline ban due to remain in force until January 31, 2027. It has also temporarily allowed production and imports of lower environmental-grade gasoline as it tries to increase availability. The effects are already reaching Central Asia. Kazakhstan is tightening controls on its own fuel market as Russia looks for additional supplies, while Kyrgyzstan has opened direct talks with China as Russian deliveries become less reliable. A second wave of shortages in Russia adds further pressure on governments that have long depended on Russian petroleum products.

6 days ago

Energy Security

Tajikistan Seeks 2.55 Million Tons of Iranian Oil and Fuel as Russian Supplies Falter

Tajikistan has asked Iran to supply 2.55 million metric tons of crude oil and petroleum products as Dushanbe looks for alternatives to increasingly unreliable Russian fuel supplies. The request includes 2 million tons of crude oil, 300,000 tons of diesel, 150,000 tons of gasoline, and 100,000 tons of aviation fuel, according to Tajikistan’s Ministry of Transport. The ministry said the volume would require about 51,000 railway tank cars. The proposal was discussed in Tehran on August 15 during talks between Tajik Transport Minister Azim Ibrohim and Iran’s Minister of Roads and Urban Development Farzaneh Sadegh. It is not yet a purchase agreement, and Tajikistan has not announced a delivery timetable, price, or supplier. The timing, however, places the proposed trade directly inside a worsening sanctions environment. On August 20, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened economic consequences for countries providing support to Iran, promising “Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale.” Washington has not announced specific new measures linked to that statement. Significant purchases and transport of Iranian petroleum already carry U.S. sanctions exposure. Executive Order 13846 authorizes sanctions against people and financial institutions involved in significant transactions for the purchase, sale, transport, or marketing of petroleum from Iran. A temporary U.S. authorization covering Iranian crude and petroleum products, issued in June, was revoked on July 7, with its wind-down period ending on July 17. Russia’s Fuel Crunch Reaches Tajikistan Dushanbe’s request to Iran is driven by a more immediate problem: dependence on Russian fuel. In 2025, Tajikistan imported about 1.7 million tons of fuel and lubricants, more than 1.2 million tons of which came from Russia. Tajik officials said in July that Russia supplied 84% of imported petroleum products. That dependence has become more difficult to manage as Ukrainian drone attacks have reduced Russian refinery output and forced Moscow to protect its domestic market. Russian fuel shortages began spilling into Central Asia in early summer. Tajikistan’s fuel imports fell sharply in July, pushing Dushanbe to seek additional supplies from China, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iraq, and Iran. Russia still accounted for 72.3% of fuel supplied to Tajikistan in the first half of the year, while talks with Kazakhstan had reached presidential level by the end of July. The pressure was already visible in Dushanbe. In early July, diesel disappeared from some filling stations, while others imposed sales limits. On July 10, Energy and Water Resources Minister Daler Juma said Tajikistan had roughly two months of petroleum reserves and was seeking alternative suppliers. The scale of the request is striking. At 2.55 million tons, it exceeds Tajikistan’s total fuel and lubricant imports in 2025, although 2 million tons of the proposed volume is crude oil rather than finished fuel. The Ministry of Transport has asked Iran to help organize dedicated tanker trains and create a “green corridor” giving Tajik fuel cargoes priority on the Iranian rail network. Further transit arrangements would still be needed because Tajikistan and Iran do not share a border. The Refinery Question The large crude component also highlights...

6 days ago

Power Grid

Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan Give Conflicting Accounts of Four-Country Blackout

Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan have given differing accounts of what triggered the August 14 blackout that cut electricity across swathes of Central Asia. Three days later, the initiating event remains unresolved, and the times released by the two sides do not fit neatly into the same sequence. Kazakhstan’s national grid operator KEGOC says two hydrogenerators at Kyrgyzstan’s Toktogul Hydropower Plant, with a combined capacity of 600 MW, disconnected at 2:37 p.m. Kazakhstan time. KEGOC said the sudden loss of generation overloaded the North-East-South transit corridor, separating southern Kazakhstan from the rest of the national grid and the interconnected systems of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. A special commission is investigating the causes. Meanwhile, Kyrgyzstan’s National Electric Grid has given a different chronology. It said that at 3:34 p.m. Kyrgyzstan time, an external disconnection occurred on a high-voltage line linking the northern and southern parts of Kazakhstan’s power system. The Central Asian network then split into an isolated section, and Kyrgyzstan temporarily operated separately while automatic protection systems worked to protect equipment. The one-hour difference between the countries’ clocks makes the discrepancy clearer. Kazakhstan has used UTC+5 nationwide since 2024, while Kyrgyzstan uses UTC+6. That puts Kyrgyzstan’s reported line disconnection at 2:34 p.m. Kazakhstan time, three minutes before KEGOC’s stated 2:37 p.m. Toktogul shutdown. The two times may describe different stages of a fast-moving cascade, but they do not establish the same starting point. A third timestamp complicates the sequence. Alatau Zharyq Company said three 500 kV KEGOC transmission lines shut down at 2:38 p.m., and that those lines triggered automatic load-shedding and frequency protection in Almaty and the surrounding region. Taken together, the public statements leave a sequence of 2:34 p.m., 2:37 p.m., and 2:38 p.m. that investigators will need to reconcile. TCA reporters in Almaty and Bishkek experienced power cuts, while local media reported outages in Dushanbe, Khujand, and southern parts of Uzbekistan. In Kazakhstan, the disturbance affected consumers in the Zhambyl, Turkistan, Kyzylorda, Zhetysu, and Almaty regions, with further restrictions in Karaganda, Ulytau, and Abai. KEGOC said supplies were restored across the affected regions later that afternoon. The four-country impact reflects how tightly the systems are connected. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan operate in parallel through the Central Asian power system. Cross-border links allow operators to share electricity and reserve capacity, but also mean that a sudden loss of generation or a major transmission line can be felt beyond one national grid before protection systems isolate the disturbance. Central Asia has been here before. In January 2022, a major blackout hit southern Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. The event also involved a sharp imbalance on the regional network and the separation of Kazakhstan’s northern and southern grids. Its precise starting point was disputed in the immediate aftermath. The regional grid dates to the Soviet period. Uzbekistan later withdrew from the old electricity ring, leaving Tajikistan largely isolated for years. Regional links have since been rebuilt; Tajikistan began reconnecting to the unified system in 2024. An Asian Development Bank project is adding...

1 week ago

Burabay Festival

French Film and British Screenplay Win $16,000 at Kazakhstan’s Burabay Festival

A French animated film and a British screenplay have won grants worth a combined $16,000 at the fifth Burabay International Short Film Festival in northern Kazakhstan. The festival was held in Shchuchinsk from August 12 to 14, bringing together filmmakers and cultural figures from more than 20 countries, according to organizers. Founded by London-based Silk Road Media in partnership with the Eurasian Creative Guild, BISFF focuses on short films and screenplays, and this year introduced live pitching to the final stage of its competition. The Best Short Film award went to French filmmaker Erwan Le Gal for Hypatia of Alexandria: The Solitary Bee, a 13-minute animated film about the philosopher Hypatia, who was killed in Alexandria in 415. Le Gal received a $6,000 grant intended to promote the film through international screenings. British screenwriter Judson Vaughan won Best Screenplay for Kebam!, receiving a $10,000 production grant. Under the festival’s rules, the grant is intended to support the development of the screenplay into a film with a production team. The international jury included film and cultural professionals from Kazakhstan, the UK, Austria, Italy, and Russia. Luis Francisco Martínez Montes, Spain’s ambassador to Kazakhstan, served as an honorary jury member. Alongside the competition, the programme included outdoor screenings, an exhibition by the local Art Burabay group, and a workshop led by festival director Taina Kaunis. Burabay has hosted several international events organized by the Eurasian Creative Guild in recent years. In December 2025, The Times of Central Asia reported on a British-Kazakh cultural festival there that also incorporated the Burabay short film competition.

1 week ago

Central Asia’s C6 Takes Shape in Washington as Ambassadors Push for Practical Integration

Less than two weeks after regional leaders gathered in Cholpon Ata, diplomats from the emerging C6 grouping used a discussion in Washington to shift the focus from declarations of unity to the mechanics of integration: customs, railways, digitalized trade, access to European markets, and stronger links across the Caspian. The sharpest political message came from Kyrgyzstan’s ambassador to the United States, Edil Baisalov, who said that Central Asian states were increasingly recognizing that they were “enough for each other,” and that resolving differences within the region had become a pragmatic national interest. His comments gave unusually direct language to a trend that has accelerated since the region’s consultative meetings began in 2018. The August 12 event at the Caspian Policy Center brought together the U.S.-based ambassadors of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Tajikistan, the sixth country in the emerging C6 framework, was not listed among the participants. The event followed a late-July meeting in Cholpon Ata, where leaders concentrated on transport, energy security, investment, and foreign-policy coordination. The C6 label remains shorthand rather than the name of a formal organization. Its political basis, however, has become more concrete since Azerbaijan was admitted as a full participant in the Consultative Meeting of the Heads of State of Central Asia in November 2025. The shift extended a format once focused on relations among the five Central Asian republics across the Caspian Sea. From Regional Dialogue to Regional Agency Azerbaijan’s ambassador, Khazar Ibrahim, presented Cholpon Ata as evidence that the six states increasingly see themselves as part of one political and economic space. “We are finally holistic. We are all together,” he said. He argued that Azerbaijan’s presence changes the geography of the grouping by turning the Caspian from a dividing line into a connecting space between Central Asia and the South Caucasus. That idea has been developing for some time. TCA has previously examined how Azerbaijan’s entry could turn the C6 framework into a platform for common rules on transport, tariffs, customs systems, and digital data, rather than another layer of summit diplomacy. Kazakhstan’s ambassador, Magzhan Ilyassov, put the emphasis on building an “economically active neighborhood.” He pointed to the frequency of regional meetings and said the value of the current process lies partly in maintaining an inclusive conversation among the Central Asian states. Kazakhstan has also pushed for stronger coordination on transport planning as the consultative format develops. For Uzbekistan, the discussion was more explicitly about market access. Ambassador Furqat Sidiqov said cooperation with Azerbaijan could give Uzbekistan wider access to European and other export markets. He also called for further digitalization of the Middle Corridor. Sidiqov said Uzbekistan had close to 300 joint ventures with Central Asian countries in 2017, and now has about 1,500 with neighboring states. Corridors Become the Practical Core Digitalizing the Trans-Caspian route is not a new proposal. The countries of the UN Special Programme for the Economies of Central Asia, which already brings together the five Central Asian states and Azerbaijan, endorsed a digitalization...

2 weeks ago

Sadyr Japarov

Japarov Says Tashiyev Was His Planned Successor as Prosecutors Seek Nine-Year Terms

Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov says he once planned to leave office in 2027 and support Kamchybek Tashiyev as his successor, before deciding that his longtime political partner was not ready for the presidency. The disclosure comes as prosecutors are asking an appeals court to impose nine-year prison terms on Tashiyev and seven other defendants in the “Letter of 75” case. Japarov set out the abandoned succession plan in an interview with journalist Ali Toktakunov released on August 13. He said he had expected to complete the six-year term he won in 2021, then leave politics if Tashiyev was ready to take over. “Kamchy would become president, and I would retire. I had such a plan,” Japarov said. The president said he had told Tashiyev about the plan roughly a year earlier and urged him to prepare for the presidency by imposing more discipline on the people around him. Japarov said he later concluded that Tashiyev was not ready. He cited the conduct of some of Tashiyev’s staff and associates, the appearance of the “Letter of 75,” and signs that parliament was being divided between supporters of the president and supporters of “the general,” a reference to Tashiyev. Japarov said he summoned Tashiyev and told him: “This won’t do. You cannot split people.” He said he informed Tashiyev that he would be removed from office, but claimed he was still prepared to allow him to contest the presidential election without obstruction. That account adds a succession dispute to the explanation Japarov gave when he dismissed Tashiyev on February 10 as chairman of the State Committee for National Security (GKNB) and deputy chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers. At the time, the presidency said the decision was needed to “prevent a split in society” and state institutions. Senior GKNB officials were removed soon afterward, the border service was taken out of the hands of the committee, and parliamentary speaker Nurlanbek Turgunbek uulu resigned. Japarov has now drawn a sharp distinction between his personal relationship with Tashiyev and their political future. In another part of the interview, he said the two had been friends since 2005, and their families had been close. “He will remain my friend, but I have no plans to appoint him to any position,” Japarov said. He credited Tashiyev with making a major contribution during his five years at the GKNB, but said he should rest and consider where he had made mistakes. Japarov also confirmed for the first time himself that he intends to seek another term. “I intend to run for another term and continue my work,” he said, according to Reuters. His spokesman had said in 2024 that Japarov planned to run again, but the president had not previously made a public declaration of his own. He said a second term was needed to complete reforms already under way. Japarov also promised that rivals would be free to challenge him. “The road is open. Whoever wants to run, let them run,” he said, adding that there...

2 weeks ago

Kyrgyz Film

Kyrgyz Film Opens Central Asian Cultural Series in Argentina

A screening of the Kyrgyz historical drama Kurmanjan Datka: Queen of the Mountains in Buenos Aires on August 7 has opened a new series aimed at introducing Central Asian cinema and literature to audiences in Latin America. The event was organized by the Eurasian Creative Guild with support from the Yunus Emre Institute in Buenos Aires. The organizers told The Times of Central Asia that the screening was the first official presentation of a Kyrgyz feature film in Argentina. The event also launched an international series of Central Asian film screenings and book presentations in Argentina and elsewhere in Latin America. Directed by Sadyk Sher-Niyaz, Kurmanjan Datka: Queen of the Mountains tells the story of the 19th-century Kyrgyz leader Kurmanjan Datka. The film was Kyrgyzstan’s submission for the Foreign Language Film category at the 87th Academy Awards. The Buenos Aires event also included a presentation of the English-language book Queen Kurmanjan of the Mountains by Kyrgyz author Bubaysha Arstanbekova, published by Hertfordshire Press. The series is being organized in the run-up to the 15th Open Eurasian Literary Festival & Book Forum, which is scheduled to take place in Buenos Aires in October 2027. Kazakhstan will be the focus of the next screening in September, with the historical drama The Crying Steppe, directed by Marina Kunarova. The film, set against the Soviet-era famine in Kazakhstan, was Kazakhstan’s submission for Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards. The organizers said further film screenings and literary presentations are planned as part of efforts to expand cultural links between Central Asia and Latin America.

2 weeks ago

Water Security

Kazakhstan Seeds Clouds as Kyrgyzstan Questions Regional Impact

A small aircraft climbed out of Turkestan airport on July 10 with hygroscopic salt flares fixed beneath its wings. Operated by the United Arab Emirates’ National Center of Meteorology, it was searching for a cloud suitable for seeding. Pilot Ahmed Aljaberi described the aircraft as “specifically equipped with a cloud-seeding flare system.” But no suitable cloud appeared during the mission. Cloud seeding can try to draw more rain from an existing cloud, but it cannot make one from clear air. Kazakhstan launched the project in Turkestan on May 16, targeting more than 911,000 hectares of arable land in the country’s leading cotton-belt. The government puts the potential economic benefit at up to 35 billion tenge, roughly $75 million a year. The partnership gives Kazakhstan access to decades of Emirati experience in weather modification. The UAE program dates to the late 1980s, and Emirati specialists are training Kazakh meteorologists, pilots, engineers, and other staff. Kazakhstan’s government describes the Turkestan operation as the first project of its scale in the region, though weather modification in Central Asia has a longer history. Kochkunbek Bakirov, a geographer at Kyrgyzstan’s National Academy of Sciences, has described Soviet-era research in the Karshi steppe, the Naryn basin, and over Issyk-Kul. Kazakhstan also trialed a different approach in Mangystau in 2021, using an ionization-based system promoted as a way to increase rainfall. Its developer claimed the equipment had begun to influence local moisture. The Mangystau system used ionization; the current program uses aircraft and hygroscopic salt flares. Before operations began, Kazhydromet analyzed data from 39 meteorological stations covering 2020 through 2024, selecting the Turkestan Region after studying atmospheric conditions and terrain. Flights only proceed when naturally formed cumulonimbus clouds with sufficient vertical development are present, with Kazhydromet monitoring satellite imagery, synoptic data, and cloud development before operations. The aircraft releases salt-based particles into suitable clouds. Kazakhstan’s Ecology Ministry lists sodium chloride, potassium chloride, and magnesium compounds among the reagents. In hygroscopic seeding, the particles encourage liquid droplets to collide and coalesce, which can improve precipitation efficiency in a suitable cloud. The cloud and its moisture must already exist. By July 13, crews had completed eleven operational flights, mainly over the Otyrar and Sozak districts. Officials were still analyzing the results of each operation; the number of flights does not show how much extra rain the project has produced. Kazakhstan’s launch materials cite a possible 10 to 20% increase in precipitation under favorable conditions. Results elsewhere vary widely. A 2024 review by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found estimates of 0 to 20% additional precipitation in the studies it examined. The GAO also found that effectiveness remains difficult to evaluate and that suitable clouds must be present. The evidence is much stronger for some cloud-seeding methods than for others. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) says the strongest recent causal evidence comes from wintertime glaciogenic seeding of orographic clouds, while Kazakhstan is using hygroscopic salts in convective clouds. Their large natural variability creates a weak signal-to-noise problem, making the added...

2 weeks ago

World Nomad Games

Independence Day, SCO Summit and World Nomad Games Converge in Bishkek

Kyrgyzstan is preparing for one of its busiest days in years. August 31 marks the 35th anniversary of the country’s independence, a day which will also see the opening ceremony of the sixth World Nomad Games. Meanwhile, leaders from the SCO’s ten member states, including Russia, China, India, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan, are also expected in Bishkek for a summit. The overlap is partly by design. Organizers say the World Nomad Games opening ceremony will be staged at Bishkek Arena on August 31, alongside the SCO summit program, ahead of the stadium’s formal opening later in September. The new stadium is designed for 51,000 spectators. The formal SCO Council of Heads of State meeting is scheduled for September 1. A detailed public timetable for the summit has not yet been issued. Presidential spokesman Askat Alagozov has said 21 heads of state are expected in Kyrgyzstan during this period, with several also making state visits. The World Nomad Games ceremony will include a parade of participating teams and a short concert program in front of the visiting leaders. Independence Day itself remains set for August 31. President Sadyr Japarov has instructed organizers to hold concerts and entertainment across the regions that day. The main state celebration of the 35th anniversary, however, will take place in Talas on September 11 and 12, which had already been selected to host the program before the August schedule took shape. [caption id="attachment_53765" align="aligncenter" width="1774"] Dancers perform during a previous Independence Day celebration in Bishkek. Photo: Stephen M. Bland/TCA.[/caption] Bishkek is preparing for the movement restrictions that come with diplomatic gatherings. Alagozov asked residents, where possible, to spend August 30, August 31, and September 1 at Issyk-Kul or elsewhere. “Otherwise, the inconvenience will affect you first of all, because roads in the city will be frequently closed for three days,” he said. September 1 will be a paid day off for employees of state and municipal institutions in the capital, with private employers advised to make similar arrangements. City Hall began planning well in advance. In October 2025, Mayor Aibek Dzhunushaliev called for a single operational protocol covering public transport, restrictions, fan zones, and other logistics. “Our main goal is to create comprehensive infrastructure and ensure a high international standard for these events,” he said. The city has since been preparing fan zones so residents and visitors can follow the main programs away from secured venues. Health and emergency planning has followed the same approach. Kyrgyzstan has already held public-health exercises ahead of the Games. The Ministry of Health said on August 10 that more than 600 medical workers are expected to support the SCO and World Nomad Games. Medical posts, strengthened ambulance teams, and a mobile hospital are planned at event sites. The World Nomad Games are familiar territory for Kyrgyzstan. The country staged the first three editions in 2014, 2016, and 2018, before the event moved to Turkey in 2022 and Kazakhstan in 2024. Its return to Kyrgyzstan has grown into a much larger operation....

2 weeks ago

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