Analysts say that recent attempts by Uzbekistan to expand the destinations accessible to its labour migrants are unlikely to drastically reduce its current reliance on Russia.

According to official figures, about 2.5 million Uzbek citizens are labour migrants, with some two million working in Russia. Annually, migrants transfer about four billion US dollars to Uzbekistan, making up seven per cent of the country’s 58 billion dollars GDP.

When miners in the town of Antratsyt in the east of Ukraine decided to go on strike over unpaid wages in June 2020, they were met with a fierce response.

The authorities in the self-proclaimed Luhansk Peoples’ Republic quickly launched a clamp down that saw the imposition of a quarantine due to an alleged Covid-19 outbreak and internet access blocked.

The protest lasted for several days – with some miners going on hunger strike - and although salaries were eventually paid, dozens of protesters were arrested. Some were kept in custody for months.  

Armenian officials warn that citizens within the state borders of Armenia risk displacement due to the arbitrary way post-ceasefire boundaries are being designated.

As well as parts of Karabakh, the November 9 deal transfers seven regions surrounding the breakaway republic back to Azerbaijan.

It remains unclear how the border is being decided, given large discrepancies between Soviet-era demarcations – when such internal boundaries were largely meaningless – and current facts on the ground.

So far, demarcations in the southern and northern regions of Syunik and Gegharkuniq have reportedly been carried out by Azerbaijani officials using GPS or Google maps, with military personnel dispatched to tell locals that they had to leave their land and homes.

Following the most recent Karabakh war, Armenia returned seven regions occupied during the conflict of the 1990s to Azerbaijani control.

The entire Hadrut area and several villages from the Shushi, Martuni and Martakert regions were also transferred to Azerbaijan. 

This meant that many Armenian villages in Karabakh, as well as in Armenia itself, immediately became border settlements with no buffer zone.

One such location, Sarushen - which means mountain village in Armenian - is only accessible via a road with two checkpoints staffed by Russian peacekeepers. Their presence is part of the ceasefire deal agreed on November 10. The new border is only 200 metres away.

The ruling Nur Otan party has emerged as the predictable winner of Kazakstan’s parliamentary elections, which unfolded alongside increased harassment of activists and observers.

As the first elections to see a mandatory 30 per cent quota for women and youth in party lists, the January 10 polls were supposed to represent a level of reform. In addition, for the first time, elections to maslikhats (local representative bodies) were held according to party lists.

However, there were few surprises as out of the five parties running, the three that were already serving in the mazhilis - the lower house of parliament – won.

Nur Otan gained 72 per cent of the vote, the Ak Zhol Democratic Party took 10 per cent and the People’s Party of Kazakstan nine per cent.

Fears are growing that a wealth of Armenian cultural, historical and religious heritage in areas now under Azerbaijani control are under threat.

Some sites were damaged in fighting before the November 9 ceasefire agreement, while officials and experts warn that the Azerbaijani side may try to destroy others or deny their links to Armenian history.

On October 8, Azerbaijani forces twice shelled the Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in Shushi with high-precision weapons. Later, the church was desecrated, with inscriptions scrawled on its walls.

A few days after the capture of Shushi, Azerbaijani social media users posted a video showing the 1847 church of St John the Baptist being vandalized.

Residents of Karabakh have welcomed the presence of Russian peacekeepers, deployed as part of the ceasefire agreement that ended the 44-day war between Armenia and Azerbaijan on November 9.

But while their visible presence, guaranteed for at least five years, has reassured some immediate concerns about security, locals still feel uncertain about the long-term future of the unrecognised republic.

And there are concerns that the peacekeepers may not be able to present all future clashes between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces. On December 10, violence erupted in Hadrut province in which more than 60 Armenian soldiers were captured.

Two months after hostilities ended in Karabakh, the whereabouts of many Armenian soldiers and civilians detained in Azerbaijan remains unclear, with relatives concerned that Yerevan is not doing enough to locate them.

The ceasefire agreement signed on November 9 by Yerevan, Baku and Moscow did not specify the time frame for implementing the “exchange of prisoners of war and other detainees.”

Yerevan and Baku recently announced that this would be carried out based on the “all for all” principle. According to official information, this means that even those who were captured before the second Karabakh war, which broke out on September 27, are eligible for exchange.

The first swap took place on December 14, when 44 detainees were returned to Yerevan and 12 to Baku.