Traced to a Cote d'Azur villa by private detectives for the bank he once led, the Kazakh oligarch-turned-dissident is dwarfed by the masked French court guards flanking him. He is the smallest man in the room.
French President François Hollande arrived in Kazakhstan on Friday for a two-day visit to a country with vast uranium and gas reserves and infrastructure contracts on offer. NGOs urged him to raise human rights issues with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev
President Nursultan Nazarbayev thinks Kazakhstan can spend its way out of the economic doldrums. Experts, meanwhile, are divided about whether Nazarbayev's plans represent a bold Roosevelt-style New Deal or a throwback to sluggish Soviet-style economics.
Kazakhstan does not persecute political opponents or attack freedom of expression, President Nursultan Nazarbayev has avowed, fending off awkward questions from journalists during a December 5 visit to Astana by his French counterpart, François Hollande.
Reporters Without Borders condemns the judicial persecution of the opposition weekly ADAM bol, which was ordered to pay an exorbitant fine yesterday and which was suspended last week in connection with another case that a court began hearing today.
After the OPEC countries decided not to reduce the quota for oil production, a further drop in oil prices can adversely affect the economy of Kazakhstan, the expert of the Institute of Political Solutions of Kazakhstan Sergey Smirnov told Trend.
"I don't want to be another rich, dead dude." So said Frank Giustra, the billionaire Canadian philanthropist who recently received the Dalai Lama Humanitarian Award from the Dalai Lama himself. For the Hollywood Reporter, Giustra is the Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, which he founded 15 years ago or so. Moviegoers and TV watchers know Giustra, or rather Lionsgate, for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, The Hurt Locker, Juno, Monster's Ball, Orange is the New Black, and Nurse Jackie. Undoubtedly, based on the award and the Hollywood Reporter headline, the group of online journals that have arisen lately to lionize big givers will give Giustra a heroic philanthropic bio.
