A senior US envoy urged Azerbaijan and Turkey on Wednesday to sign a long-awaited deal he said was crucial for retaining confidence in Western plans to reduce Europe's dependence on Russian gas.
Samruk-Kazyna should expedite the sale of its majority stakes in BTA Bank and Alliance Bank, Kazakhstan's central bank chairman Grigoriy Marchenko stated, saying that the state should not have a major shareholding role in the countries' commercial banks.
Kazakhstan received a downward trend arrow due to a spate of politically motivated libel suits against critical media outlets, a restrictive new internet law, arbitrary arrests of officials and businesspeople, and the grossly deficient judicial proceedings against human rights activist Yevgeny Zhovtis.
National Security Departments in every country very often used their opportunities to influence country leaders and sometimes to remove unwanted ones from country governance. With the help of secret departments palace revolutions were made, unwanted persons were liquidated; political opponents were imprisoned for many years, sometimes for the whole life. All these illegal and dangerous for any country actions were made either at the suggestion of establishment or at their connivance, when the secret services which were supposed to guarantee security of the country and people, in reality acted and somewhere still act now in their own vested interests.
US stops refueling tanker planes supporting Afghan war in price dispute at key transit base
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Saturday urged Kyrgyzstan's interim leaders to end political uncertainty, saying Moscow was considering more aid for the embattled Central Asian state.
Kyrgyzstan's new government could inspire its neighbors, with Europe's help.
