Monthly Archive

The president urged businesspeople to repatriate offshore funds, but his relatives seem to be disregarding the call. Not for the first time, Kazakhstan’s ruling family has cropped up in reporting o... read more..

Police in Kazakhstan detained dozens of people at an anti-government rally on Saturday organised by an exiled opponent of the veteran president, Nursultan Nazarbayev. Mukhtar Ablyazov, a former tyc... read more..

As former grand slam champ Boris Becker finds himself embroiled in a diplomatic dispute, we give you a who's who of the criminal and corrupt abusing ambassadorial powers to evade the law. Last week... read more..

Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak says he shouldn't be blamed for the multi-billion-dollar 1MDB scandal, and declares he knows nothing about money from the state fund appearing in his person... read more..

Francis Maude MP is advising Kazakhstan on how to create a financial "free zone", which is likely to handle big money from Russian oligarchs. Francis Maude, a former Tory Trade Minister (until 2016... read more..

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev emphasized on Sunday at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit the need to push international connection projects such as the Beijing-Berlin high-spee... read more..

Martha Brill Olcott is one of the most famous experts on Kazakhstan. She is the author of two books on Kazakhstan (The Kazakhs, published in 1987, and Kazakhstan: The Unfulfilled Promise (2002). ... read more..

President Donald Trump met with President Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan on 16 May, an important breakthrough after the isolationism of the Karimov regime. What is noteworthy about the meeting is... read more..

Wide-ranging amendments to Kazakhstan's Religion Law and 11 other laws that seem set to increase still further the already tight restrictions on freedom of religion or belief begin consideration in Pa... read more..

It’s a grubby business but these companies have no qualms about picking up the fat fees If I were to describe secretive organisations that make millions from mafia states, you would imagine – wh... read more..

Najib Razak at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission headquarters on May 24. Photographer: Joshua Paul/BloombergMalaysia’s new government has wasted no time training its sights on 1MDB, the scandal... read more..

A representative of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party of Uzbekistan, Olimjon Tukhtanazarov, delivered such an idea, the Belarusian partisan reported with reference to Ferghana Information Agency. ... read more..

Kazakhstan's Human Rights Ombudsperson called in April for the parliamentary Working Group considering the wide-ranging amendments to the Religion Law and other laws to be sent for an OSCE legal revie... read more..

An electoral tsunami swept away Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, ending 60 years of rule by the United Malays National Organization, UMNO. The outcome was welcomed at home as well as abroad – v read more..

Two post-Soviet Caspian Sea sub-regions – Central Asia and the South Caucasus – have experienced different conflict scenarios. The South Caucasus has been embroiled in protracted, large-scale armed... read more..

Political uncertainty and over-reliance on external borrowing make the country more vulnerable than lower-rated sovereigns. Kashagan-oil-field-Kazakhstan-R-780Kashagan oilfield: a new dawn thanks t... read more..

Recent developments in Armenia, where a former president–turned–prime minister, Serzh Sargsyan, hastily stepped down in the face of vigorous street protests on April 23, underscored the potential vuln... read more..

If Astana and Tashkent can tackle long-term obstacles to growth, there’s great potential in the region. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have come to an interesting point in their histories, looking at ma... read more..

Kazakhstan’s government is asking an appeals court to throw out a decision that allowed BNY Mellon to freeze about $22 billion of assets in the country’s oil fund as part of a dispute over an unpaid a... read more..

Earlier this month, the UK’s parliament backed a change to legislation that would force the government to push offshore tax havens to boost transparency in an effort to tackle corruption and money lau... read more..

Malaysian police said on Friday that cash worth 114 million ringgit ($28.6 million) and over 400 luxury handbags were seized from several apartments as part of an anti-graft probe into a state fund read more..

Banks operating in the Baltic nation of Estonia may have laundered considerably larger sums than first thought. Estonian police now estimate that bankers in their country were involved in suspiciou... read more..

The president’s advanced age instils his detractors with hope a change of leadership is imminent. After a long hibernation, organized political opposition is making a comeback in Kazakhstan. For o... read more..

Kazakhstan's parliament on Wednesday passed a bill that would cement its veteran ruler Nursultan Nazarbayev's status as the country's top power broker even if he decides to retire as president. The... read more..

Authoritarian states are using all-too familiar constitutional mechanisms to consolidate power. Fatima Mövlamlı. Source: Youtube.Fatima Mövlamlı, an Azerbaijani teenager, is used to seeing İlham Al... read more..

Kazakh actress Samal Yeslyamova won best actress for her part in "Ayka" at Cannes After Kazakhstan's Samal Yeslyamova scooped a surprise award for best actress at the Cannes film festival, many o read more..

If you're an ethnic Kazakh or a Kazakh citizen in northwest China, you can face detention on espionage and extremism charges. RU Zhenisnur Ayatkhanuly with children in a house in the suburbs of A read more..

The continuing strength of tribal confederation identities in Kazakhstan not only limit the ability of the authorities to combat corruption but reduce the country’s prospects for development and absor... read more..

Former Belgian minister Armand De Decker has been indicted for influence-peddling as part of the wide-ranging "Kazakhgate" probe into allegations of corruption linked to a trade agreement between Fran... read more..

“As usual, there were more police on the scene than protesters,” a journalist living in a provincial town recently told Global Voices of one of the freedom of speech pickets that rippled across Kazakh... read more..