Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov paid official visits to Kyrgyzstan on February 3-4, Tajikistan on February 4-5, and Turkmenistan on February 5-6.
It was an interesting choice for the Russian foreign minister to tour the three smallest countries in Central Asia but not visit Kazakhstan or Uzbekistan.
Lavrov’s main topics seemed to be security and energy projects, though there was obviously much more to his trip to the region.
On this week’s Majlis podcast, RFE/RL’s media-relations manager, Muhammad Tahir, moderates a discussion about Lavrov’s trip.
Joining the talk from Washington was Jeff Mankoff, the deputy director of the Russia and Eurasia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Reid Standish, the Central Asian correspondent for Foreign Policy magazine, took part from Astana.
Making her debut on the Majlis podcast was Nicole Grajewski, a doctoral researcher at Oxford University who is focusing on Russian policy on Iran and Central Asia.
And I love the big picture stuff, so I was happy to weigh in, too.
