This chapter discusses the sociolinguistic situation in the Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union, namely, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, with their official languages belonging to the Turkic family. The policy of nationalization that was taken by the new independent states has led to a considerable reduction of bilingualism that was characteristic of the Soviet republics, with a decrease in the role of the Russian language, though it is still the major means for intercultural communication, acquiring information in the domains of politics, economics, science, technology and culture and obtaining jobs in Russia. A new type of bilingualism based on English is observed, geared towards raising the national elite. In some countries, Turkish is also gradually gaining weight.