Author: Sean Mcgee

Barça Legends will play their first game of the season on Wednesday 30 August in Kyrgyzstan, kick off 8pm local time (4pm CEST), against a local “Legends of Asia” XI. Taking advantage of the trip to the Asian country, president Joan Laporta will open the first of two Barça Academies that the Club will open in Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday 29 August. The first academy will be in Jalal-Abad in the south-west of the country whilst the second will be the capital Biskek. Present at the opening will be the Kyrgyzstan president, Sadyr Japarov. The blaugrana president will lead the party…

Berlin (27/08 – 25) Alisher Usmanov is one of Uzbekistan’s leading businessman and the Central Asian country’s main philanthropist. Despite Usmanov’s many proactive activities in the West and in Uzbekistan, he was included on the European Union and US’ list of sanctioned billionaires following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, despite never having any known connection to the Russian authorities’ decisions and activities in Ukraine. Here is a look at his biography, one that begins with his humble origins in Chust, a medium-sized city in Uzbekistan’s Fergana Valley, to being ranked among the 100 wealthiest people in the world. Usmanov is unique…

2020 Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist Bajrang Punia skipped the trails for the upcoming World Championships, which took place in Patiala on Saturday, August 26. The veteran is now scheduled to travel to Issyk-Kul in Kyrgyzstan to train for the Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou. By skipping the trials for the world event, Bajrang has made it clear that he would focus fully on the Asian Games, which is scheduled to take place from September 23 to October 8. “Bajrang did not appear for the trials for the Worlds in Patiala today. He has submitted his fitness certificate as required by…

Central Asia hopes to further consolidate its role as a bridge connecting China and Europe and strengthen its status as a logistics hub by participating in the Belt and Road Initiative, said Djoomart Otorbaev, former prime minister of Kyrgyzstan. Otorbaev said he expects to see Central Asia, once a key passage of the ancient Silk Road, build a “new great silk road” that will bring the region back “onto the map of the world”. The former prime minister said during a recent interview in Beijing that he hopes that through BRI cooperation, especially the construction of a railway linking Kyrgyzstan…

Kyrgyzstan’s Ministry of Health and Rosatom are working together on a new nuclear medicine diagnostic centre at the National Centre for Oncology and Haematology in Bishkek, with the latest stage being the delivery of a technetium-99m GT-4K generator. The new centre is being developed within the framework of an International Atomic Energy Agency technical cooperation programme which aims to develop advanced nuclear medicine technologies in Kyrgyzstan, the Russian company said. According to World Nuclear Association, “more than 10,000 hospitals worldwide use radioisotopes in medicine, and about 90% of the procedures are for diagnosis. The most common radioisotope used in diagnosis is…

According to preliminary data, for 6 months of 2023, the net inflow of remittances from individuals amounted to USD 704.6 million, head of the Financial Statistics and Review Department of the National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic Meder Abdyrakhmanov said, Kazinform cites Kabar. He said that the decrease in transfers amounted to 28.5% compared to the same period last year. «From 2022, the downward trend in the net inflow of remittances continues. The main inflow of remittances comes from Russia. And since last year, our outflow to Turkey has increased. This is due to the fact that in addition to…

Ambassador of the Kyrgyz Republic to Uzbekistan Musa Dzhamanbaev and acting head of the Tashkent administration Shavkat Umurzakov discussed on Wednesday the issues of further development of cooperation between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, the press service of the Kyrgyz diplomatic mission in Tashkent said. The interlocutors discussed the establishment of sister city relations between Tashkent and the cities of Bishkek and Osh, as well as the opening of trading houses in the capitals of the two countries. Ambassador Dzhamanbaev noted the importance of intensifying trade, economic, cultural, humanitarian, social, investment and other projects between these cities, to carry out a visit…

Geneva, London (29/7 – 50) Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, condemned the arrest and imprisonment of journalists, bloggers and civil society activists in Tajikistan, and questioned the credibility of the evidence presented in court against them. Lawlor was on a two-week official visit to Tajikistan last December. The report prepared by her and members of the delegation on the results of this visit was published in May of this year, but only now became available to the public. The authorities of Tajikistan will have to prepare an official response to the document, which…

Kyrgyzstan has not been informed by the United States of possible action against Kyrgyz companies, a senior Kyrgyz official said, after a U.S. paper said Washington was considering such a move to halt Russia using Kyrgyz firms to circumvent sanctions. The Kyrgyz official said the Central Asian country would view being singled out in any sanctions package as unfair. The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that U.S. officials were particularly concerned about the role played by Kyrgyzstan in Russian schemes to evade sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine, and to acquire high-tech items such as Chinese drones. According to the…

IPI and its global network welcome the Bishkek City Court’s decision to annul an April shut down order for Radio Azattyk, the Kyrgyz service of the U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. The ruling clears the way for the broadcaster to return online after being blocked since October of last year. IPI had previously condemned the decision to block Radio Azattyk and had repeatedly called on Kyrgyzstan to overturn the ban. “As a result of concerted advocacy and support from the international community, Radio Azattyk will continue to reach its audiences with trusted reporting,” acting RFE/RL President Dr. Jeffrey Gedmin said in…