Andrei Kazantsev-Vaisman

Illustration by Dinmukhamed Kairulla. A Recalibration Already Under Way Central Asian governments began repricing Iran before they said so. Within weeks of the opening of the American and Israeli strike campaign in February 2026, Uzbekistan, which moved a large share of its European and Turkish transit through Iranian territory, instructed […]

Illustration by Dinmukhamed Kairulla. Two powers locked in global rivalry rarely end up invested in the same piece of infrastructure. On the Middle Corridor, the United States and China now are. The route across Kazakhstan, the Caspian, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey is, for Beijing, the last dependable land path to

Illustration by Dinmukhamed Kairulla. The 2026 war involving Iran has drawn attention to Iranian military-technological activity well beyond the Middle East. Tajikistan, the only Persian-speaking state in Central Asia, is a natural focus: it has sharply deepened its security, military-technical, and logistical cooperation with Tehran in recent years. The clearest

Economic cooperation between Kazakhstan and Armenia is gaining momentum, set against Trump administration-backed efforts to normalize Armenian–Azerbaijani relations. This engagement could give the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, or TRIPP, initiative real economic substance, driven by regional actors seeking to develop new transport corridors and diversify existing routes.

Iran and Tajikistan have rapidly expanded bilateral cooperation in recent years, yet the relationship carries significant risks. Chief among them is the increasing activity of Iranian intelligence — led by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) — in Tajikistan, and the possibility that the country could become partially integrated into