by Charles van der Leeuw, KZW senior contributor
A ten-billion-dollar kickback is something in America these days is likely to be considered a mere trifle in the face of a multi-trillion black hole in the system. For Kazakhstan, the country's largest bank's misappropriation's costs are an open wound in the population's households that will keep bleeding for years to come. The key to the issue is the man who holds the dagger and his name is Mukhtar Ablyazov, now huddling up in the plush of London Town with the likes of his fellow embezzler Boris Berezovsky. Will he end up as a Kazakh variant of the latter, or as a Kazakh Khodorkovsky?
OSCE Centre facilitates discussion on simplification of pre-trial criminal procedures in KazakhstanA recently adopted law that aims to simplify preliminary criminal investigation procedures in Kazakhstan was in focus at an OSCE-supported roundtable discussion that was held in Astana today.
To supply troops in landlocked Afghanistan, the United States is relying on short-term relationships with dictatorial nations in Central Asia without factoring any long-term strategy for the region, according to testimony delivered last week to senators.
Kazakhstan has a unique problem. It's long on land and short on the people to farm it.
