Monthly Archive

Six years ago, the government of Kurmanbek Bakiyev nearly killed me. I remember it well, because it killed a man standing near me. It wasn’t specifically me, or him, they were trying to kill. They wer... read more..

Donald Trump’s munchkins would have us believe that the new American president is going to usher in a period of prosperity for the United States and the world. But Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman and... read more..

On the morning of December 14, a 48-year old woman in Astana, Maira Rysmanova, succumbed to injuries sustained after she set herself alight in a desperate protest in front of the General Prosecutor’s ... read more..

The oil workers were shocked to see that the city would try to hold a party just yards from the spot they had occupied for months in the hope of negotiating higher salaries. The day was December 16, 2... read more..

“Classical” cases such as the massive amounts of money embezzled by former BTA bank chief Mukhtar Ablyazov and ex-mayor of Almaty Viktor Khrapunov have been haunting Kazakh law enforcers for well over... read more..

Congress passed its annual defense spending bill on Thursday, which in any other instance would be news itself. But tucked into the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act was a watershed provision on... read more..

Tax Havens have been Key Facilitators of Movements of Licit and Illicit Capital out of and into Developing Countries. Report is the Work of Consortia of Experts in Norway, United States, Brazil, ... read more..

The United States needs to start paying attention to what has happened to the world economy. Gigantic sums of money are now traveling the world incognito. This has turned globalization into the gol... read more..

Elnara Shorazova has a weakness for health spas, expensive treatments and luxurious restaurants. She sometimes manages to spend in a couple of days, between Vienna and Krumpendorf am Wörthersee, an am... read more..

France's highest administrative court on Friday cancelled an extradition order to send jailed Kazakh tycoon Mukhtar Ablyazov to Russia on the grounds that the request was made for political reasons. ... read more..

Independence 25 years ago promised to bring freedom and prosperity to central Asia, but kleptocratic regimes have left many yearning for the past he road out of Kommunizm, a small town in southern Ta... read more..

Accused of involvement in stealing billions from Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund, Prime Minister Najib Razak did what autocratic leaders around the world do when scandal is in the air. He cleared hou... read more..

On a cool evening in early September, Kosovo construction tycoon Behgjet Pacolli threw open the doors of his walled compound to celebrate his birthday with 20,000 “Facebook friends.” The guests, many... read more..

A U.S. partnership with Kazakhstan can keep Chinese and Russian ambitions in check. The November 30 telephone call between President-elect Donald J. Trump and President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kaza... read more..

The President of Kazakhstan , Nursultan Nazarbayev, stated that tsarist Russia was out of the country all the wealth. It is reported by the Kazakh news. «During tsarist Russia all the wealth of ea... read more..

Fidel is dead, and now, buried. Some will call him the last of the Cold Warriors. But there are still plenty of regimes that have been in power for decades. Are they frozen in time, or is change bubbl... read more..

Shavkat Mirziyoyev has won a tightly controlled presidential election in Uzbekistan, raising questions about whether he will rule in the steps of former strongman Islam Karimov. Who is he and what can... read more..

Sanjar Umarov is a former political prisoner and founder of Sunshine Uzbekistan, an international political coalition aimed at improving the economic and political situation in Uzbekistan. This year,... read more..

In Kazakhstan, the power of citizens to resist authoritarianism has been dealt a significant blow. On November 28, two major Kazakh land activists, Max Bokayev and Talgat Ayanboth, were sentenced to f... read more..

A Cypriot court ordered the freeze of assets located in Cyprus in possession of Elnara Shorazova, the widow of former Kazakh diplomat Rakhat Aliyev, a source familiar with the matter said. Costas Cle... read more..

Following an intervention of attorney General Costas Clerides and Central Bank of Cyprus governor Chrystalla Georghadji, the parliament’s watchdog committee postponed a debate scheduled for today on h... read more..

The grandson of Kazakhstan’s authoritarian President Nursultan Nazarbayev took to social media on Wednesday to blast members of his grandfather’s inner circle after he lost a vote to head the country’... read more..

Attorney General Costas Clerides has blocked a motion in the House looking to scrutinise how the Famagusta Cooperative (Co-op) Bank handled accounts linked to the late ex-Kazakhstan official Rakhat Al... read more..

Leaders of authoritarian regimes in Central Asia have been able to use rhetoric to define their power as legitimate to the public despite practices of human rights violations and clamping down on diss... read more..