Catherine Putz
In a new report, the International Crisis Group says that Kazakhstan is facing a stress test–its only president since independence turns 75 this summer and Russia's "actions in Ukraine cast a shadow over Kazakhstan." To date, the report notes, Kazakhstan's devotion to continuity has trumped needed democratic reforms. Nursultan Nazarbayev's recent landslide reelection demonstrates his absolute centrality to political stability in the country and could prove to be "a serious vulnerability."
IN 1989, the ruling Politburo of the Soviet Union chose new leaders for two of the empire's Central Asian republics. Twenty-six years later, Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan and Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan are still in power. They have weathered the Soviet Union's collapse, wars in Afghanistan and other neighboring nations, the rise of China and the spread of Islamist terrorism with a mix of repression, crony capitalism, corruption and the cultivation of competing powers, including the United States. Now, like leaders across Eurasia, they are wondering if they can survive the revived imperialism of Russia under Vladimir Putin.
Actions in Ukraine have altered how Kazakhstan views Russian intent in the former Soviet Union and increased its sense of vulnerability. In response, the administration of President Nursultan Nazarbayev has undertaken measures to strengthen government, protect economic stability and shut down speculation that a Ukrainian scenario could unfold in its northern provinces.
Die Opposition in Kasachstan ist überrascht, dass die Beschuldigten im sogenannten Nurbank-Mordprozess die politische Karte spielen, sich als Vorkämpfer von Demokratie und Meinungsfreiheit generieren und das Gericht diese Märchen auch noch glaubt.
Hillary Clinton isn't just a Democratic candidate for president of the United States; she's co-president of the breakaway Republic of Clintonstan. As Clinton said herself in the early '90s when her husband was running for president: "If you vote for my husband, you get me. It's a two-for-one, blue plate special."
Something is going on in Uzbekistan. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Bruce Pannier reported this week that Uzbekistan's National Security Service (SNB) has been responding to a series of bomb threats in a town outside of the capital, Tashkent.
The tragic saga of the late former son-in-law of Kazakhstan's all-powerful president took a further twist Tuesday as two of the dead man's associates on trial for murder in Austria were released from custody.
