Leading off… Almost 20 percent of jailed journalists around the world are in Eurasia, according to the watchdog group Reporters without Borders.Of the 503 journalists who found themselves behind bars as of December 1, 2025, 48 were in Russia, 25 in Azerbaijan, nine in Tajikistan, five in Kyrgyzstan, four in Uzbekistan, two in Kazakhstan and one in Georgia, according to the RSF’s annual survey of global journalism conditions, titled A Deadly Year For Journalists: This Is Where Hate And Impunity Lead. “The situation in countries such as Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Belarus illustrates the serious threats facing press freedom across the former Soviet bloc,” the report states.
The report assails Georgia’s clampdown on independent media outlets, asserting that the government is employing “relentless authoritarian tactics.” China is the world’s leading jailer of journalists with a total of 121 detained on the mainland and Hong Kong.
The report also notes 67 journalists have been killed over the past 12 months around the world.In case you missed in in the Caucasus… While the major focus of the Washington-brokered Armenian-Azerbaijani provisional peace deal is the expansion of trade, Armenian and US officials are also discussing security cooperation.
Brig.Gen.Chris McKinney, a top Pentagon official working on security cooperation and the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, led a US delegation that held planning discussions in Yerevan.
A US Embassy statement posted on Twitter (X) noted that the US European Command is “working closely” with Armenian defense officials on a variety of issues, including “including enhanced cooperation on Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) defense and continued military modernization.” Azerbaijan has agreed to supply Hungary with 800 million cubic meters of natural gas over a two-year period, starting in January.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto announced the deal on Twitter (X) following a meeting with his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov.Financial terms weren’t immediately disclosed.Meanwhile, across the Caspian… The Kyrgyz government has finalized a five-year plan covering the development of the country’s critical minerals sector, establishing a goal of annual exports in excess of $1 billion by 2030.
Other targets specified in the plan include attracting $700 million in annual foreign investment into the sector, expanding geological research, the creation of at least 30,000 new jobs and expanding the share of women working in the sector.
Tajik authorities are considering a Kyrgyz proposal to establish a bilateral “production chain” for aluminum.Meder Mashiev, the Kyrgyz minister for natural resources, made the offer on the sidelines of a metallurgy conference in Dushanbe, the 24.kg news agency reported December 10.
A Kyrgyz government statement indicated that two sites in the country, at Sandyk and Zardalek, hold a more than 400 million tons of aluminum ore combined.The proposed plan would see Kyrgyzstan ship ore to be smelted at Tajikistan’s Talco facility. “Such projects would serve as an example of effective regional industrial integration, ensure the sustainability of supplies, and take technological cooperation between the two countries to a new level,” according to the the Kyrgyz government statement.
Was it a slight?Or is Russian leader Vladimir Putin starting to show signs of age?Putin, who traveled to Turkmenistan on December 12 to celebrate the Central Asian state’s neutrality, twice mangled the names of the ruling tandem in Ashgabat, Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and his son, Serdar.
First, Putin stumbled over the pronunciation of Serdar’s surname, then butchered Gurbanguly’s patronymic.In the past, he’s never had trouble pronouncing the duo’s names.
Putin, of course, has been known to mispronounce a name intentionally, evidently as part of some sort of dominance ritual, most notably that of Kazakhstan’s president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
The Kazakh leader eventually pushed back by opening a bilateral meeting by speaking Kazakh, forcing Putin and other top Russian officials to awkwardly scramble for their interpretation headsets.But this time, the bungling episodes in Ashgabat has observers wondering if Putin’s stamina may be starting to slip ever so slightly.
Uzbekistan is taking steps expand bilateral trade volume with Pakistan, aiming to reach $2 billion in annual turnover within two years, government-connected Uzbek media outlets report.A top Pakistani trade official, Ihsan Afzal, held talks in Tashkent on December 11 with Deputy Trade Minister Shokhrukh Gulamov, agreeing on a need to create data-exchange mechanisms to reduce transit times and adopt amendments to a preferential trade agreements. “Uzbekistan highlighted textiles, leather, pharmaceuticals, and surgical instruments as key sectors for joint ventures and technology transfer from Pakistan,” according to an item published by the UzDaily outlet.