{"id":153874,"date":"2026-07-01T21:30:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T21:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/?p=153874"},"modified":"2026-07-01T21:30:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T21:30:07","slug":"central-asias-republics-are-no-longer-the-chess-pieces-of-empires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/?p=153874","title":{"rendered":"Central Asia\u2019s republics are no longer the chess pieces of empires"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Source: China &#8211; South China Morning PostWhen people speak of the Great Game, they usually mean the 19th-century rivalry between the British and Russian empires for influence over Central Asia. It conjures up images of spies crossing deserts, mountain fortresses and imperial intrigue \u2013 an era vividly brought to life in Peter Hopkirk\u2019s books, which first awakened my fascination with the region.<br \/>\nA century and a half after the Great Game, another contest is unfolding across the same region. To the north is Russia, the region\u2019s traditional&#8230;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/opinion\/asia-opinion\/article\/3358700\/central-asias-republics-are-no-longer-chess-pieces-empires?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"feedzy-rss-link-icon\" rel=\"noopener\">Read More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: China &#8211; South China Morning PostWhen people speak of the Great Game, they usually mean the 19th-century rivalry between the British and Russian empires for influence over Central Asia.&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153874"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=153874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153874\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=153874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=153874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=153874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}