Kazakhstan's largest city began life as a Russian fortress. The government is doing all it can to stop it becoming one in future once President Nursultan Nazarbayev's long rule ends.
A photo of French President François Hollande dressed in a traditional fur coat and hat given to him by his Kazakh counterpart during a visit to Astana prompted a flurry of jokes on social media on Saturday, angering the Elysée presidential palace.
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.
