Kazakhstan’s 25 years of political stability owe much to the leadership of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, making the prospect of the septuagenarian’s departure a significant source of the jitters for investors in the country.
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, facing a growing wave of protests against planned changes to land ownership, evoked the image of war-torn Ukraine on Sunday as he called for national unity.
A press conference in Almaty on the proposed plans to rent land to foreign investors had to be cancelled April 29 after police detained the organizers.
The land protest movement in Kazakhstan is gathering momentum and spreading to more cities, while the authorities appear determined to ride out the public anger.
Hundreds of people staged street protests in two cities in Kazakhstan on Wednesday over land reform, Kazakh media and local activists reported, a rare act of defiance that could pose a challenge to the leadership of President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
Hundreds of people held a rare public protest in the Kazakh oil industry hub Atyrau on Sunday against new regulations which they fear will allow foreigners to buy local farmland, although the government has said this would not happen.
Kazakhstan’s general prosecutor has ruled out investigating allegations in the Panama Papers, including ones against the family of the president, Radio Free Europe reports.
