The Soviet Union's nuclear program was once one of the largest in the world. But from Chernobyl to the empire's former nuclear test site in Kazakhstan, the legacy of that program still affects tens of…
"I knew that they have just one goal: they want to see me out of journalism." The calls came to Tajik journalist Humayra Bakhtiyar at her sports club, at the shopping center and at home.…
Chinese workers have built bridges in Serbia, a huge railroad tunnel in Uzbekistan and a gas and oil pipeline across Myanmar. These are just a few of the dozens of massive foreign infrastructure projects China…
More people joined the Islamic State from former Soviet republics than from any other region outside the Middle East. On this special edition of Global Journalist, a look at what drew so many fighters from…
Over the past year, China has vastly increased repression of the country’s Uighur minority. A Turkic group that practices Islam, the Uighurs have long faced restrictions from Beijing – but over the past year as many…
Hamid Ismailov was forced to flee Uzbekistan in 1992 for what the state dubbed "unacceptable democratic tendencies" Hamid Ismailov deserves an apology. Or at the very least, an explanation. It has been 26 years since…
"People from the government burst into my father-in-law's house and told him that I was leading an illegal channel." Distributing independent news in the Central Asian nation of Tajikistan is no easy task. But in…
Most people outside of Central Asia know little about the gas-rich desert nation of Turkmenistan. The former Soviet Republic has virtually no independent media and just a handful of bookstores. Foreign journalists and scholars are…
Repression is legacy of 25-year rule In a country with no independent media, the airwaves are dominated by upbeat government propaganda. So when Uzbekistan's state media announced the former Soviet republic's first and only president…
Criminal libel suits, website blocking remain common. If you didn’t hear about Kazakhstan’s national election in April, you’re not alone. Even inside the central Asian country, the poll was barely covered by the media. As…
