How COVID became a toolkit for control in Central Asia

This week’s episode of the CAPS Unlock podcast is devoted to a conversation with Luca Anceschi, Senior Lecturer in Central Asian Studies at the University of Glasgow, about his newly published book, Pandemic Politics in Central Asia. The book examines how three Central Asian governments, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. Anceschi argues that the pandemic was not simply a public health emergency that these regimes struggled to manage. Under cover of crisis, governments expanded their control over travel, public information and dissent, while shielding politically connected elites and reinforcing existing patterns of authoritarian rule. The discussion looks at the blurred line between emergency rule and ordinary governance, the different ways Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan framed the pandemic, and why Turkmenistan’s refusal to acknowledge any COVID cases became one of the most striking examples of pandemic-era denialism anywhere in the world. We also discuss the longer history of crisis management in Central Asia, from Soviet-era disasters to post-Soviet emergencies, and how governments have often responded not by solving underlying problems, but by managing appearances, controlling data and suppressing alternative accounts. The episode also covers the role of journalists, activists and international organisations, including the World Health Organisation, in documenting or contesting official narratives. **Links** \* Luca Anceschi, Pandemic Politics in Central Asia - https://www.routledge.com/Pandemic-Politics-in-Central-Asia-Authoritarian-Contagion/Anceschi/p/book/9789048562190 \* CAPS Unlock roundtable summary: The missing link in Central Asia’s energy transition - https://capsunlock.org/roundtable-the-missing-link-in-central-asias-energy-transition/ \* Aruzhan Meirkhanova’s report on Central Asia’s electricity grids - https://justclimate.fes.de/topics/energy-policy-fast-forward-to-renewables/powering-the-transition-rebuilding-central-asias-electricity-grids-for-regional-resilience.html Get full access to Havli - A Central Asia Substack at havli.substack.com/subscribe