The timing of a demand made of many of Turkmenistan's state workers situated in the Dashoguz region to take their vacations in the Caspian Sea resort of Awaza, the site of one of President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedow's many high-profile, exorbitantly costly and ultimately futile pet projects, could hardly have been worse. Faced with the bizarre ultimatum…
Will Turkmenistan’s proposed desert city be just a mirage?
Turkmenistan's Ashgabat-City project, provisionally sited to the north of the country's capital city will, if it ever comes to fruition, be in effect a 'Greater Ashgabat' initially designed to be autonomous from the most marbled metropolis on earth. But in light of conjecture surrounding the actual population of the former Soviet republic, just who will…
The Kosovo question leaves Serbia in a no-win situation
The ongoing standoff between Serbia and Kosovo shows little realistic chance of rapprochement any time soon. Propped up by international aid, wracked by swingeing levels of youth unemployment and emigration, Kosovo, two decades on, is still in effect policed by American troops without whom the embryonic nation would at best feel uneasy, at worst under…
Democracy in Russia, and the former Soviet republics of Central Asia, remains a relative term
Perhaps it can be put down to the presence of cameras (in Trilogy I) but that was one awkward meeting between Solzhenitsyn and Putin - the former later said he gained nothing from meeting various Russian presidents after his return to the country from Vermont. Whilst Putin is obviously one of those with whom he…
Macedonia: Referendum turnout no obstacle to Greek-imposed name change
Renewed calls for a second Brexit vote in the United Kingdom highlight the fragility attached to national plebiscites when the will of the majority of voters doesn't come to pass as expeditiously, or smoothly, as first imagined. Drilling down into the detail of leaving the European Union(EU) has led many voters to question their own…
Macedonia referendum: Greece calls the shots as Russia plays the fall guy
Today's landmark plebiscite held in Macedonia could propel the former Yugoslav republic into the so called mainstream, potentially opening the door to the nation's entry into NATO and the European Union(EU). Equally so, a 'No' vote could confine the country to relative isolation and obscurity, although comparisons made by Skopje's mayor to seclusion on the…
Secessionist movements, land swaps, and an enforced name change threaten to destabilize Europe
The sight of a million Catalans converging on Barcelona to celebrate the region's "National Day" highlights, a year on from declaring independence from Spain, that the strength of conviction to eventually secede from Madrid remains as resolute. The international community will though not only be mindful, should a schism eventually occur, of the potential for…
Turkmenistan: President Berdymukhamedow Raps while his Countrymen Sing for their Suppers
Fiddling while Rome burns has always been the preserve of emperor Nero, although the idiom that in effect describes a focus on the trivial while issues of greater importance are left unattended has been adopted on countless occasions by those, in modern parlance, who seek to control the controllables, rather than address the more pertinent…
Salisbury Poisoning: UK can Expect Few Favours from Serbia
The UK will in effect be crossing its own Rubicon should it take steps to request of Serbia that it denounce its Russian ally, in the wake of the Salisbury poisoning scandal. Moscow and Belgrade have long since forged impregnable ties, which have only strengthened during the perceived impression of anti-Slav bias from those seemingly…
Alpine Adventures, Soccer, Central Asian Autocracies & Secessionist Politics 