It's a symbolic shift, because it wasn't so long ago that it was Russian engineers who toiled away to lay rails across the steppes of Central Asia.

这是一个具有象征意义的转变，因为就在不那么久以前，在中亚大草原上辛勤铺设铁路的，还是俄罗斯的工程技术人员。

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In the 19th century, the Russian Empire began to expand, and spread into Central Asia.

在19世纪，俄罗斯帝国开始扩张，进入中亚。

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PetroKazakhstan, a Canadian firm with assets in Central Asia, was coveted by a Russian company.

中石油在收购哈萨克石油公司时出现竞争者，一个俄国公司也看上了这个加拿大企业在中亚的资产。

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The TAPI plan, to bring gas from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan and Pakistan into India, would keep Iran out and diminish Russian influence in Central Asia.

FORBES: India's Iranian Pipeline Deal

Reports say the Tsarnaevs lived for years in Kyrgyzstan - in Central Asia - and Dagestan, another Russian republic in the North Caucasus which borders Chechnya.

BBC: Boston bombings: Pro-Tsarnaev posters in Chechnya

Mr. KAGAN: Well, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization was set up by the Chinese and joined by the Russians with the express purpose, really, of responding to what they perceived as the advancing influence of the democracies, especially in central Asia but also, from the Russian point of view, in Georgia and the Ukraine.

NPR: Role of U.S. Changing in New World Order