Before we dive into the new week, a little catch-up with activities on our colourful range of country weblogs:

kyrgyzstan.neweurasia.net
After Shirin has joined the blog crew last week, please welcome another Kyrgyz contributor on the blog. In his first post. Mirsuljan, the Coordinator of the Youth Movement “Birge!â€?, writes about Kyrgyzstan’s youth policy. Also, Claire has a new news round-up from Bishkek.

azerbaijan.neweurasia.net
Marianna has written a post-election week summary, while Ben has written about demonstrations in Baku. The protests, however, fell short of their expectations and failed to inject a ‘revolutionary mood’ into the streets.

turkmenistan.neweurasia.net
Rico writes about flour shortages that could jeopardise the positive impact of the record grain harvest: Bread will remain scarce.

kazakhstan.neweurasia.net
James reports on US development assistance to Central Asia - or the lack of it.

uzbekistan.neweurasia.net
There is a lot of new stuff on the Uzbekistan blog: Olesya takes a closer look at the Sunshine Uzbekistan Coalition; Nick has some intriguing quotes of former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray; and again Olesya tells us that the FBI might be opening an office in Tashkent.

And: We’re looking for more bloggers to join our team, especially for the Georgia, Armenia and Tajikistan blogs. Please get in touch with ben(at)thinking-east.net

azerbaijan.neweurasia.net
Katy has left Baku and is back in London. The Azerbaijan blog team will undoubtedly put up a ‘review’ of the parliamentary elections during the coming days, so keep your eyes peeled.

kazakhstan.neweurasia.net
Please welcome James onboard. His first post discusses the eternal question when assessing the economic and develomental situation in oil-rich countries: Is the black gold a curse or a blessing?

uzbekistan.neweurasia.net
Olesya discusses the meeting of Russian foreign minister Lavrov with his EU counterparts. High on the agenda were discussions around Uzbekistan. Many hold that Russia has more to loose than to win in being a close ally to Tashkent.

turkmenistan.neweurasia.net
Peter has a look at recent gross income tax cut aimed at promoting small and medium-sized enterprises. Rather than praising his economic policies himself, President Niyazov wants the benefactors of such legislation to venture ‘into hopeful prophecy’. Most likely, however, the new legislation will hardly have any impact in Turkmenistan’s vertical bureaucracy.

The Azeri elections last Sunday are still dominating the regional blogosphere. Our azerbaijan.neweurasia.net blog is continuously updated by Marianna and Katy, who is still in Baku observing the developments on the streets. If there will be protests, will they have any effect on President Aliyev’s grip to power?

Over at kyrgyzstan.neweurasia.net, please welcome Shirin onboard the team. Her first post reminisces about the ‘Tulip Revolution’ back in March and comes to the conclusion that many things went wrong and students should never be again exploited for others’ gain.

Also, Claire has posted a comprehensive news roundup focusing on the fallout of the recent prison riots and much more.

turkmenistan.neweurasia.net is maintaining a thorough posting frequence. An interesting post that will hopefully stir some controversy is this one here. German multinational Siemens’ CEO wrote a sickening letter to Turkmenbashi expressing his gratitude over a signed copy of the second part of the Ruhnama.

Nick over at uzbekistan.neweurasia.net links Monica Whitlock’s account of the BBC leaving Uzbekistan.

Azerbaijan’s parliamentary elections will be taking place this weekend. azerbaijan.neweurasia.net will have live reporting by Katy (who is in Baku), Marianna and Ben. To get the full roundup of events from last week, check Marianna’s latest update.

Nick over at uzbekistan.neweurasia.net posts about the plight of the Aral Sea and its implications for the autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan.

turkmenistan.neweurasia.net keeps up its great posting frequency and has new reports on: Yet another dismissal (this is becoming quite regular news), a Turkmen film screened at the Teheran International Youth Film Festival, and the reason for the dismissal in link #1…

Over at kyrgyzstan.neweurasia.net, Claire has posted a roundup of recent events some days ago. It includes pictures of recent rallies in Bishkek and has a wealth of information.

Ben on kazakhstan.neweurasia.net has further posts about the upcoming elections. In this post, he takes a criticial stance on a recent WaPo article, whereas here, he gives a short hint why the Kazakh political system will likely remain the same.

First of all, check the preliminary neweurasia site. Ollie has now installed a new CMS for the site that will go online in November. Quite a lot of things remain to do.

Quite a few things happening in the neweurasia blogosphere over the second half of the week:

uzbekistan.neweurasia.net
The leader of Sunshine Uzbekistan was arrested in Tashkent. Ali and Ben have the details.

Olesya gives sanctions against Uzbekistan a closer look. She says that the EU would only be true to its rhetorics if it imposed more sanctions on the Central Asian state. Nathan over at the Registan shows what falls under the current regulations.

turkmenistan.neweurasia.net
First off, welcome Peter to the team! He has started posting over last week’s Independence Day celebrations in Ashgabad. Moreover, he has a hilarious post about a recent visit to Ashgabad by Vladimir Zhirinovsky, enfant-terrible of Russia’s Duma, and provides an update on the Ukrainian-Turkmen gas row.

kyrgyzstan.neweurasia.net
Claire witnessed protests in the capital Bishkek and has photos. More of them are at her personal blog Mental Wanderlust.

kazakhstan.neweurasia.net
Ben posts about the political system in Kazakhstan. There is no change in sight: The parliament will remain weak and only an arena for possible successors of Nazarbayev. Who will it be?

Coming soon:
Check azerbaijan.neweurasia.net for the upcoming weekly update.

Wednesday morning, time for a quick blog roundup:

uzbekistan.neweurasia.net
Nick writes that the BBC is facing an increasingly hostile environment in Tashkent. Ali posts that the leader of the opposition movement ‘Sunshine Uzbekistan’ has been arrested. Follow up on the Registan and on the organisation’s blog.

kyrgyzstan.neweurasia.net
Claire posts pictures of a pro-Kulov rally on Bishkek’s main square. The heat is on in Kyrgyzstan, and the mounting pressure on the prominent Northern political could lead to a potential crisis.

turkmenistan.neweurasia.net
Rico posts on unusual discontent with a presidential decree: The Khalk Maslahaty (People’s Council) uniformly rejected the president’s decision to hold presidential elections in 2009. Apparently, that’s not consistent with prior legislation that appointed Nyazov for president-for-life.

armenia.neweurasia.net
Katy points us to a recent World Bank study casting light on brain-drain. She believes that this might not apply to Armenia, though.

kazakhstan.neweurasia.net
Ben has two posts over at the semi-reactivated Kazakh blog. One gives a brief roundup of news related to the upcoming presidential elections in December, the other discusses an outrageous construction project in Astana.

Claire at kyrgyzstan.neweurasia.net has a new roundup of events in Kyrgyzstan. The focus lies on the protests that were sparked off by supporters of the murdered deputy Tynchbek Akmatbaev.

Marianna over at azerbaijan.neweurasia.net has her newest election watch online. The much-anticipated return to Baku of the Democratic Party’s chairman, Rasul Guliyev, is discussed in great detail.

The new blog layout of our country blogs is taking shape over at uzbekistan.neweurasia.net. All country blogs will be adapted over the coming days. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know.

uzbekistan.neweurasia.net has been active over the last days. Nick informs the reader of a debate in the House of Commons about whether to ban an Uzbek Islamist group in the wake of recent anti-terror legislation.

Olesya picks up on Russia’s foreign secretary Sergei Lavrov’s visit to Tashkent, which could be seen as Moscow’s reaction to Condoleezza Rice’s latest visit to the region.

Rico over at turkmenistan.neweurasia.net also has details on Lavrov’s visit to Ashgabad earlier. There are also new housewarming parties in the Turkmen capital…

Keep your eyes peeled for Marianna’s Azerbaijan roundup to be published this weekend. The situation in Baku is increasingly becoming volatile in the run up to November’s elections.

Not too much activity on the neweurasia blogs as the week goes by. We are still recruiting bloggers, most ardently over at uzbekistan.neweurasia.net and kyrgyzstan.neweurasia.net

There is also a new call for bloggers on this site. If you’re interested or know people that might be, please assist us in getting the word out. The launch of the site has again been delayed, apologies for that. Work is still ongoing, though - and the new template looks hot - but that’s pretty much all I can say for now.

Now moving on to our blogs:

Claire over at kyrgyzstan.neweurasia.net has another roundup of events unfolding in Bishkek. The main headlines this week are related to U.S. Foreign Secretary Rice’s visit to the region.

uzbekistan.neweurasia.net welcomes two new bloggers to reinforce Olesya. A warm welcome goes out to Ali, who has been posting twice over the last two days, and Nick, who will be joining force soon.

Ali’s posts include a reflection on Andijon, an event that has placed Uzbekistan firmly in the West’s awareness-spectrum.

Although there is quite a sleepy athmosphere over at the other country blogs, there is stuff coming up: With Kazakhstan’s election drawing closer, the blog will feature an ongoing series on December’s voting. Also, we’re about to recruit local contributors for the same blog. So, stay tuned!

A couple of new posts from around our blogs:

Claire at kyrgyzstan.neweurasia.net has posted a comprehensive news roundup, covering the main stories in Kyrgyzstan these days. For all of you that need a little familiarisation with political events in the country, this is a must-read.

Olesya at uzbekistan.neweurasia.net reports on gas shortages that seem to paralyse the Uzbek streets. However, Ali has another impression in the comments. Have your say.

Speaking of gas, Rico over at turkmenistan.neweurasia.net says that the Ukraine is not paying the amount of money it owes the Turkmen government.