With its oil, gas, spies and revolutions, Central Asia has returned to stir the imagination of western observers. This is thanks to Great Game version 2.0, in which the leading players are Russia, the United States and China, this last country appearing to take advantage of the historical rivalry between the first two. All this is also the result of the rising threat of Islamic extremism in the region and a democratic deficit that is made clear to everyone, for example, in Kyrghyzstan, with the bloody revolts of four month ago as well as the recent inter-ethnic clashes.