Kazakh companies are concerned about soaring import costs and stiffer competition from Russian rivals since the Central Asian country joined a customs union with Russia and Belarus on Jan. 1, a business lobby said.
Kazakhstan, said on Tuesday, it was interested in establishing a new export route to carry its growing surplus of oil across the South Caucasus and the Black Sea to Europe.
The responsibility of running the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe may be having a moderating effect on Kazakhstan, Vladimir Shkolnikov, an expert on the workings of the Vienna-based multilateral organization tells EurasiaNet. For one, officials in Astana are finding that it is not so easy to impose their own political preferences on a group that comprises 56 member states, and which requires consensus to get anything done.
As the first Muslim state to hold the one-year chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Kazakhstan is accelerating efforts to hold a summit in Astana this year, the country's ambassador to Turkey, Bagdat Amreyev, has said.
The former head of Kazakhstan's national atomic company Kazatomprom Mukhtar Djakishev has released a statement attempting to put an end to his isolation from the outside world.
Kasachstans Exbotschafter Rakhat Alijew befürchtet weitere Aktivitäten des kasachischen Geheimdienstes in Wien und beschuldigt Präsident Nasarbajew krimineller Geschäfte in Österreich.
An adviser to former president Bill Clinton intervened in 2005 to help win Kazakh approval of a uranium mining deal benefiting a major donor to the Clinton Foundation, according to a video statement made by the former chief of Kazakhstan's state nuclear firm.
