Astana: Kazakhstan is rolling out colourful pageantry to celebrate 550 years of statehood, defying an economic downturn that has battered a country viewed as a post-Soviet success story.

While the Kazakhstan national side languishes 145th in the world, the country’s leading club will become the first Kazakh side to play a Champions League group match, against Benfica on Tuesday

In Kazakhstan, it seems, there are second chances for daughters tainted by political scandal.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev named his eldest daughter Dariga deputy prime minister as officials jostle to position themselves for a potential battle to succeed the longest serving ex-Soviet leader.

Nazarbayev says we should take Central Asia’s culture and history into account and quit calling him an autocrat. 

Former Prime Minister Serik Akhmetov is at the center of Kazakhstan’s still-expanding Karaganda corruption scandal.