President (Alexander Stubb) Alexander Stubb’s visit to Uzbekistan is drawing local attention for all the right reasons - from flying commercial to Tashkent to giving open lectures and interviews. People clearly appreciate leaders who stay grounded and in touch with reality.

🔥 Uzbekistan is visa free for U.S. citizens from January 1st, 2026!

Bureaucracy expands to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy. - C. N . Parkinson

New piece on the upcoming C5+1 summit in Washington DC and why critical minerals will be the focus with Bradley Jardine thehill.com/opinion/energy…

A legit Senate companion to the House bill that would repeal the Jackson-Vanik amendment would be a promising step toward greater economic engagement with Central Asia. Let’s get bipartisan support for this common sense bill.

EU’s 2025 Enlargement Report on Georgia: accession process effectively halted; severe democratic backsliding; repression of protesters/NGOs/media; politicised courts. Visa facilitation partly suspended; €121.3m in EU funds withheld. ec.europa.eu/commission/pre…

Under the new TTPA (in force Oct 10), Meta to halt political advertising in EU from October. reuters.com/sustainability…

"In Uzbekistan, we call you the President of the World." President Mirziyoyev 🇺🇿 to President Trump 🇺🇸

"Only you can stop the war between Russia and Ukraine," Shavkat Mirziyoyev told Donald Trump during the C5+1 summit. “We sincerely hope for this.” 🇺🇦🇺🇿

Kazakhstan has had normal relations with Israel for 30 years. So does Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. You can take a direct flight from Tashkent to Tel Aviv. Has been true since independence in 1991.

Uzbekistan’s legendary singer, Sherali Jo’rayev filmed the video for his now classic song “Inson Bo’ling” (‘Be Human’) on the beaches of…..Tel Aviv. youtu.be/yJM5t-OE588?si…

Modern people succumb to oppression by believing themselves satisfied in spite of their living in an objectively unsatisfying world. - Herbert Marcuse

The Russian Academy of Sciences assessed the possibility of Siberian rivers rerouting to Central Asia. ria.ru/20251116/ekspe…

This is not a new idea. The Soviet Union already tried to implement the “Northern river reversal” project, redirecting Siberian rivers south, and ultimately abandoned it over ecological, climatic, and fiscal risks.

Unless I missed it, no one asked MBS today why he wasn't wearing a suit.

Apparently Cristiano Ronaldo is/was in DC as part of the Saudi delegation. Whatever that’s supposed to mean, the whole thing is too absurd not to comment on.

the aggressor gets territorial revision + veto power, the victim gets vague security guaranteeswith no enforceable mechanism - textbook assymetric bargain

Crystal clear that since Feb 26 nothing has changed. The deal should have been on the table then. Every day of delay has only strengthened Russia’s bargaining power. And excluding Ukraine from those discussions, only to demand its consent now, is a different level of cynicism.

Some brief thoughts on the recent Witkoff–Ushakov–Dmitriev leaks and the broader state of the peace talks. 1. Moscow faces a serious structural problem: whom should it actually talk to on the American side? - Steve Witkoff is convenient and receptive to Russian ideas, but