Monthly Archive

Many Kazakhstanis, including ethnic minorities, support Nazarbayev's leadership. (Photo: Joanna Lillis). A billboard in the northern Kazakhstani city of Kostanay extols the virtues of the country... read more..

On 14 December 2014, the Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visited Astana for the 13th meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. The premier's visit signified a ... read more..

An MP who is paid £15,000 a year to advise a repressive regime has been urged to confront it about human rights. Peter Lilley, the MP for Hitchin and Harpenden, is paid the sum for his advisory w... read more..

Austria has asked Switzerland to carry out an autopsy on Rakhat Aliyev, a Kazakh dissident found hanged in an Austrian prison last week, to dispel any suggestions of a cover up after a first post mort... read more..

Rakhat Aliyev, the Kazakh president's former son-in-law turned political foe, was found hanging in an Austrian jail on Tuesday while awaiting trial for murder, but his lawyers doubted the official exp... read more..

Rakhat Aliyev experienced the sort of career that is only possible in autocratic regimes; where blood is thicker than water, and where whom you know is infinitely more important than anything you may ... read more..

The two Uzbeks and one Kazakh who were arrested this week in Brooklyn for allegedly making plans to join Islamic State found their way to the extremist group only after they immigrated to the United S... read more..

Rakhat Aliyev, the Kazakh president's former son-in-law who had came to Malta in a bid to evade double murder charges, has been found dead in an Austrian jail after killing himself, a court spokeswoma... read more..

The missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 was hijacked on the orders of Vladimir Putin and secretly landed in Kazakhstan, an expert has claimed in a wild new theory.         Je... read more..

Rakhat Aliyev, the flamboyant and controversial former son-in-law of Kazakhstan's president, has been found dead in an Austrian prison, where he was awaiting trial on charges of murdering two bankers ... read more..

The estranged former son-in-law of Kazakhstan's president has been found hanged in a Vienna jail cell, after an eight-year effort by the Central Asian government to bring him home to face murder and r... read more..

Rakhat Aliyev rose to the height of influence and power in Kazakhstan, marrying the president's daughter and controlling many of the country's major companies. By the time he was found dead in a Vienn... read more..

Rakhat Aliyev, the Kazakh president's former son-in-law turned opponent, has been found dead in an Austrian jail from an apparent suicide, a court spokeswoman said on Tuesday. "He committed suici... read more..

Facing early elections, Kazakhstan has been steadfast in refusing to devalue the tenge but the dangers of an over-valued currency are already evident and may ultimately force official action. Kaz... read more..

Kazakhstan's sovereign wealth fund, which controls oil producer KazMunaiGaz and the nation's rail monopoly, said selling its companies' foreign-currency earnings alone won't stave off pressure on the ... read more..

Moves are afoot in Kazakhstan to hold a snap presidential election. Proponents say an early election would give incumbent strongman Nursultan Nazarbayev a fresh mandate as the country faces a slumping... read more..

Kazakhstan's slowing economy is pinching the country's industrial heartland. Several industrial behemoths have announced cutbacks that they blame on a toxic mix of factors hitting their bottom li... read more..

Russia's post-Soviet security bloc will work to build up the capacity of other member states to produce substitutes for Ukrainian weaponry, the bloc's top official announced.       ... read more..

The Islamic State, the jihadist group better known as ISIS, was said to have allocated US$70 million in an attempt to destabilize Central Asia, posing significant threats to China's borders, reports n... read more..

Conservative MPs in Britain will today launch a campaign to force Tony Blair to reveal how much he earns - and continue to declare who pays him for the rest of his life. The Tory MP Andrew Bridgen is ... read more..

In this instalment of our series looking at Russia's relations with the countries along its border, we reach Kazakhstan, Moscow's closest ally in central Asia. Region specialist Julia Kusznir tells a ... read more..

In the current volatile energy market, Italy has again bet big on hydrocarbon-rich Kazakhstan, trying to re-cement its cooperation with the Central Asian republic. The bilateral partnership had been s... read more..

To get a sense of why the world this month welcomed the Eurasian Economic Union with such resounding silence, look back to late August. As his country began its ongoing march into economic crumble, Ru... read more..

Kazakhstan, an oil producer since 1911, has the second-largest oil reserves as well as the second-largest oil production among the former Soviet republics after Russia. Kazakhstan is a major oil pr... read more..

In Kazakhstan, the most telling sign that investors are bracing for another currency devaluation is their refusal to part with dollars. Exporters and other holders of the greenback are turning to the ... read more..

It's not often that Kazakhstan's backyard politicking come to the fore. It's rarer yet when such sniping is aired in English, made available to that much larger of an audience. It's political gossip a... read more..

Ex-finance director at arm of FTSE 100 company claims officials received holidays and cash for lucrative contracts.  A subsidiary of Compass Group, the FTSE 100 catering firm, paid bribes to Kazakhsta... read more..

Rakhat Aliyev, the ex-husband of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev's eldest daughter, surrendered today in Austria seven years after police in his home country sought his arrest in a murder probe.... read more..

With Ukraine in continued crisis and Moscow deflating under a crippled ruble, the European Union has begun scouring for non-Russian gas. Azerbaijan, in the gas-rich southern Caspian, should present a ... read more..

EVERY couple of years a now familiar cycle begins at Buckingham Palace when officials try to rehabilitate Prince Andrew's battered image.         Journalists invited to in... read more..