Global Voices Online

Unzipped comments on stumbling upon what looks like the start of a series of anti-smoking actions staged by a new pro-government youth movement. The blog says that Miasin appears to be poorly organized and lacked the creativity of other youth movements which have emerged in Armenia in the past year and a half.

Recent Links also in Central Asia & Caucasus

Musafirbek says that the president of Uzbekistan officially thanked the cotton-growers for gathering the harvest of this strategic product for Uzbekistan. However, those who sweat away, collecting this cotton (including children) were not mentioned in the president’s address.

Alexander Visotzky writes about the opening of a monument in Astana, the new capital of Kazakhstan, where the authorities uncovered a 15-foot high bronze statue of incumbent president Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Dafydd reports that the EU has lifted the arms embargo on Uzbekistan. Reasons given are abolishment of the death penalty and release of political prisoners.