Kazakhstan's parliament on Wednesday passed a bill that would cement its veteran ruler Nursultan Nazarbayev's status as the country's top power broker even if he decides to retire as president.

Authoritarian states are using all-too familiar constitutional mechanisms to consolidate power.

If you're an ethnic Kazakh or a Kazakh citizen in northwest China, you can face detention on espionage and extremism charges. RU

The continuing strength of tribal confederation identities in Kazakhstan not only limit the ability of the authorities to combat corruption but reduce the country’s prospects for development and absorption of other Turkic peoples, according to Kazakh journalist Dauren Kuat.

Former Belgian minister Armand De Decker has been indicted for influence-peddling as part of the wide-ranging "Kazakhgate" probe into allegations of corruption linked to a trade agreement between France and Kazakhstan, a public prosecutor said Monday.

“As usual, there were more police on the scene than protesters,” a journalist living in a provincial town recently told Global Voices of one of the freedom of speech pickets that rippled across Kazakhstan but were immediately shut down by authorities.