Page 115 – The Times Of Central Asia

05 Jan 2026

Life & Culture, Uzbekistan, Uzbekistan Life & Culture

Uzbek Defender Abdukodir Khusanov Named Asia’s Best Young Footballer of 2025

January 5, 2026
By Sadokat Jalolova

Abdukodir Khusanov, central defender for the Uzbekistan national team and Manchester City, has been named Asia’s Best Young Footballer of 2025 by football outlet Goalpost, marking a major milestone in the meteoric rise of the 21-year-old.

The past year has been a breakthrough period for Khusanov. In January, he made history as the first footballer from Uzbekistan to debut in the English Premier League, following his transfer to Manchester City. Since then, he has steadily earned playing time at one of Europe’s top clubs, making nine appearances for the Manchester side this season.

Khusanov’s impact has extended beyond club football. In June, he played a pivotal role in securing Uzbekistan’s qualification for the FIFA World Cup, a landmark achievement for the national team. His performances at both domestic and international levels propelled him to the top of Goalpost’s rankings, ahead of emerging talents from Australia, Indonesia, South Korea, Iraq, and other Asian nations.

His international recognition continues to grow. Khusanov was recently ranked 86th in The Athletic’s list of the world’s top 100 footballers, underscoring his expanding global profile.

Interest from Europe’s elite clubs is also mounting. In December, reports emerged that Real Madrid is considering Khusanov for a mid-season loan, viewing him as a potential short-term solution to its defensive injury crisis. The Spanish club is said to value his physical presence and versatility, particularly his ability to play in several defensive positions.

05 Jan 2026

Home, Opinions

Opinion: Central Asia and the Venezuelan Crisis

January 5, 2026
By Times of Central Asia

For Central Asian countries, the central challenge in international politics is no longer choosing alliances, but coping with external shocks and global turbulence that originate far beyond the region.

The unfolding crisis in Venezuela is a case in point. At first glance, the situation concerns Latin America and the global oil market, but its implications extend well beyond, directly affecting Central Asia’s strategic interests.

The core issue is not oil per se, but the reemergence of force as a legitimate instrument for altering political and economic conditions. For a region positioned at the crossroads of major power interests and reliant on external stability, this shift is profoundly consequential.

The Venezuelan crisis should be understood as a precedent, one that signals how global power centers may act as established norms erode. For Central Asia, this heralds a more unpredictable international environment in which regional states must navigate competing interests without the benefit of stable rules.

While Venezuela is often reduced to an oil story, the broader economic stakes involve control over the architecture of strategic resource flows. This resonates with the situation in the C5, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, where resources such as oil, gas, uranium, and rare earth metals are also of significant external interest. The logistics and transit of these resources are increasingly entangled in geopolitical bargaining.

The Venezuelan example reinforces a growing trend: the nexus of economics and security is tightening, and access to resources is increasingly secured through political leverage.

In this context, Iran holds particular relevance. For Central Asia, Iran is not an abstraction; it represents transit routes, energy corridors, access to southern seas, and a component of regional balance. Heightened pressure on Tehran directly affects both the opportunities and risks facing the region.

When viewed through the lens of Iran, developments in Venezuela serve as a psychological and political precedent, broadening what appears acceptable within Washington’s strategic calculus. While a direct replication of the Venezuelan scenario in Iran is unlikely, given the vastly different military, political, and regional risks, the mere lowering of the threshold for force-based solutions is significant. The cost of direct confrontation with Iran would be far higher, with potential repercussions for the entire Middle East security architecture.

Operation Absolute Resolve has objectively increased the confidence of those who favor the use of force against Iran. This confidence is likely to grow if United States actions in Venezuela carry minimal international consequences, avoid triggering uncontrollable regional escalation, and are perceived as domestically successful.

In either case, Venezuela’s “success” has already lowered psychological barriers to coercion, strengthening arguments for hardline scenarios and re-legitimizing force as a policy tool, rather than a measure of last resort.

Broadly speaking, the Venezuelan crisis highlights a global shift from rules to precedents. For the five, and increasingly for the emerging six that includes Azerbaijan, the fragmentation of international norms raises costs and leaves each country more vulnerable to external pressure. In this environment, coordination and consistency on issues such as transit, security, and sanctions are not luxuries but necessities. They can help Central Asia mitigate the secondary effects of external crises, expand strategic autonomy, and preserve its agency in an international order increasingly shaped by uncertainty and coercion.

05 Jan 2026

Home, Uzbekistan, Uzbekistan Features, Local Politics, Features, Uzbekistan Local Politics

Uzbekistan Has “Only Just Begun” Reforms, Says Saida Mirziyoyeva

January 5, 2026
By Stephen M. Bland

Saida Mirziyoyeva has said that the country’s reform agenda remains at an early stage, arguing that the scale of change should be measured in years rather than months. In her first major interview since becoming Head of the Presidential Administration, Mirziyoyeva said Uzbekistan had “only just begun” large-scale reforms. Expectations of rapid results, she warned, often overlook structural limits, including weak infrastructure, uneven regional development, and tight public finances.

Mirziyoyeva spoke about decision-making inside the presidential system and outlined what she described as the administration’s main policy priorities, including water management, education, healthcare, the business climate, and reform of the judicial and legal system. “Our goal is to improve people’s lives,” she stated, emphasizing that improvements in courts and law enforcement were essential for other reforms to succeed. Without legal guarantees, she argued, investment and social policy changes would fail to deliver lasting results.

She said the reforms now underway are intended to address long-standing systemic problems rather than produce quick political gains, and rejected the idea that reform momentum has slowed, arguing that many of the most complex changes require time and careful implementation to succeed.

Water management featured prominently in her remarks. Mirziyoyeva described it as one of Uzbekistan’s most urgent challenges, pointing to climate pressures, ageing infrastructure, and rising demand. Education and healthcare were also presented as priorities, with reforms focused on improving quality and access rather than simply expanding state programs.

The judicial system, however, emerged as the central theme. Mirziyoyeva said that without independent and predictable courts, reforms in other areas would not deliver lasting results. Legal uncertainty, she said, discourages investment and undermines public trust, making the rule of law essential for both economic reform and the protection of citizens’ rights.

Mirziyoyeva also addressed the business environment, arguing that excessive regulation and administrative pressure continue to constrain private enterprise. The state, she said, should act as a partner to entrepreneurs rather than an obstacle, and reforms should create conditions in which businesses can operate transparently and competitively.

Mirziyoyeva described her role as focused on coordination and execution rather than public visibility. The task of the Presidential Administration, she said, is to ensure that decisions taken at the top translate into practical change on the ground. Public service, she added, should be judged by outcomes, not rhetoric.

The interview comes more than nine years after President Shavkat Mirziyoyev took office in December 2016 and launched a reform agenda that marked a break with the isolationist policies of his predecessor. Early measures included the liberalisation of the foreign exchange market in September 2017, easing trade restrictions, and reducing state control over prices. International financial institutions have described Uzbekistan’s economic transition as ambitious, while noting that progress has been uneven.

Political reform has proceeded more cautiously. In its 2024 Nations in Transit assessment, Freedom House classified Uzbekistan as a consolidated authoritarian system, citing restrictions on opposition activity and independent media.

Against that backdrop, Mirziyoyeva said reforms should be judged by tangible outcomes rather than timelines. Reliable access to clean water, better schools and hospitals, and fair treatment in courts, she argued, matter more to citizens than official assurances. Only when those changes become visible, she said, can Uzbekistan’s reform process be said to have moved beyond its initial stage.

04 Jan 2026

Central Asia, Turkmenistan Home, Home, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan International Affairs, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan Features, International Affairs, Kyrgyzstan International Affairs, Uzbekistan Home, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan International Affairs, Kazakhstan, Features, Uzbekistan International Affairs, Kyrgyzstan Home, Kazakhstan Home

Central Asia Watches as Venezuela Drama Unfolds

January 4, 2026
By Times of Central Asia

Governments in Central Asia have not made any public comment, so far, on the U.S. military operation that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, at a time when relations between Central Asian countries and the administration of President Donald Trump are growing closer.

The operation on Saturday involved more than 150 American aircraft and extracted Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, from their compound in Caracas, prompting celebrations from many Venezuelan expatriates who viewed Maduro as a dictator, criticism from countries including Russia and China, and concerns that the complex attack violated international law.

Additional questions about Venezuela’s sovereignty emerged after Trump said the United States will “run” the country ahead of a transition and that American oil companies will help to rebuild its oil infrastructure. The U.S. has argued that Maduro himself effectively hijacked Venezuelan sovereignty through electoral fraud, repression and by allegedly funneling illegal drugs to the U.S. Maduro, who has been indicted on narco-terrorism and other charges, denies the allegations.

Countries in Central Asia are more than 10,000 kilometers away from Venezuela and their trade with the Latin American country is minimal, suggesting the uncertain and evolving situation there lies far outside their immediate area of interest. In May, Tokayev met Maduro in Moscow and invited him to visit Kazakhstan after describing Venezuela as an important partner.

“However, he acknowledged that, due to objective reasons, significant achievements in bilateral cooperation have yet to be realized,” Tokayev’s office said at the time.

Still, Tokayev and other Central Asian leaders have spoken in general terms of their adherence to United Nations principles of sovereignty, an issue that is being vigorously debated in some international circles after the U.S. military operation. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, who visited Central Asia in 2024 and 2025, has said that the U.S. military operation that extracted Maduro to New York constitutes a “dangerous precedent” and that he was concerned that the rules of international law had not been respected.

The U.S. capture of the leader of oil-rich Venezuela has not had a major impact for now on global oil prices, indicating that Central Asia’s oil and natural gas producers will not see any big fallout. Even so, at a time of ongoing geopolitical tension, a major shock or event in one region could influence distant regions in ways that are difficult to discern.

Russia and China, which are close trading partners with Central Asia and nurtured trade and political ties with Maduro’s government, condemned the U.S. military operation in Venezuela. But the Central Asian countries – Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan – have not joined in the criticism, much as they have refrained from publicly supporting any side over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Central Asia’s balancing act reflects efforts to maintain good ties with major powers even when they are in conflict, and comes during a period of increasing trade collaboration with the United States. The five leaders from Central Asia traveled to Washington in November for a summit with Trump, who later invited Tokayev and President Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan to the G20 summit, which the U.S. plans to hold in Miami in 2026.

Central Asian media are reporting Maduro’s capture, and regional governments could still comment once circumstances surrounding U.S. intentions in Venezuela become clearer.

02 Jan 2026

Central Asia, Home, Uzbekistan, Uzbekistan Features, Uzbekistan Home, Business & Economy, Uzbekistan Business & Economy, Features

Kazakhstan’s MOST Ventures Invests in Uzbek Startup Bito, Valuing Company at $10 Million

December 30, 2025
By Sadokat Jalolova

Kazakhstan-based venture capital firm MOST Ventures has acquired a stake in Uzbekistan’s Bito, marking a significant cross-border investment in Central Asia’s growing tech ecosystem. The deal, completed in Tashkent on December 25 as part of a Bridge funding round, values the B2B software company at $10 million, a milestone that reflects rising investor confidence in Uzbekistan’s startup landscape.

Bito is a business-to-business software-as-a-service (SaaS) company and a resident of Startup Garage, a leading Central Asian venture studio and accelerator. The company offers a digital ecosystem that integrates enterprise resource planning (ERP), financial technology, and artificial intelligence into a unified operating system tailored for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Its platform allows businesses to manage sales, finance, inventory, HR, payments, installment services, and analytics, all in one interface aimed at improving operational transparency and decision-making.

The Bridge round represents a pivotal moment in Bito’s growth trajectory. The company reported that its valuation has tripled over the past ten months, though it has not disclosed the total amount raised. The investment will fund continued product development and regional expansion, with a primary focus on the Uzbek and Kazakh markets.

As part of the transaction, Startup Garage partially exited its position in Bito. The accelerator played a crucial role in the company’s early-stage development, supporting product design, market entry, and initial scaling. Startup Garage founder Mukhammad Khalil said the deal highlights the increasing maturity of Central Asia’s startup ecosystem and its ability to attract institutional capital. “This transaction shows that companies in the region can secure funding based on strong fundamentals and sustainable growth,” he said.

Bito founder Uchqun Tulavov called the investment a validation of the company’s strategic vision. “We are not simply building a product, we are setting a new standard for digital infrastructure for small and medium-sized businesses across the region,” he said. “The support of MOST Ventures confirms our direction as we integrate ERP, fintech, and AI into a unified operating platform.”

Following the funding round, Bito plans to accelerate its regional footprint while consolidating its role as a leading B2B SaaS provider in Central Asia.

02 Jan 2026

Central Asia, Home, Life & Culture, Kazakhstan Life & Culture, Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan Home

Kazakhstan Plans to Send 35 Athletes to 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy

December 31, 2025
By Dmitry Pokidaev

Kazakhstan plans to send a team of 35 athletes to compete at the XXV Winter Olympic Games, which will take place in Italy in 2026 in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo.

The 2026 Winter Olympics will be held from February 6 to 22, bringing together approximately 3,000 athletes from 93 countries. A total of 116 sets of medals will be contested.

Kazakhstan’s athletes will compete in 10 disciplines across 58 medal events. These include biathlon, speed skating, figure skating, short track, alpine skiing, Nordic combined, cross-country skiing, ski jumping, freestyle moguls, and freestyle aerials.

Among the strongest medal contenders are figure skaters Mikhail Shaydorov and Sofya Samodelkina; freestyle skiers Anastasia Gorodko and Yulia Galysheva; speed skater Evgeny Koshkin; and a group of short track skaters, including several world championship medalists.

Shaydorov is the current world silver medalist in men’s singles figure skating. Galysheva won bronze in moguls at the 2018 Winter Olympics and was crowned world champion in 2019 in the same discipline. Gorodko has twice earned bronze in parallel moguls at the World Championships, in 2021 and 2025.

Kazakhstan has participated in every Winter Olympics since 1994, when skier Vladimir Smirnov won the country’s first and so far only, Winter Olympic gold medal in Lillehammer, Norway.

To date, Kazakhstan has won eight medals at the Winter Games: one gold, three silver, and four bronze. The Lillehammer Games remain the country’s most successful, with three medals and a 12th-place finish in the overall medal standings. At the most recent Winter Olympics in Beijing in 2022, Kazakh athletes did not reach the podium.

However, the national team delivered a strong performance at the 2025 Winter Asian Games, finishing fourth in the overall standings with 20 medals.