Monthly Archive

Welcome to our Archives page. On this page you will find a total of 1984 of our articles broken down into Months and Years.
Economy
2092
18 min read

Kazakhstan at Twenty-Five: Stable but Tense

Kazakhstan is at a political and economic crossroads. The country saw impressive growth from 2000 to 2015 due to high oil prices, but it failed to diversify the economy away from extracting and export... read more..

Political process
2055
3 min read

Kazakhstan’s Snap Elections: Watching the Watchers Not all election monitors were created equal.

Earlier this week, Kazakhstan’s foreign minister attempted to lay out why Kazakhstan would be hosting snap parliamentary elections next month. “Strong leadership and a clear strategy ... to overcome t... read more..

Economy
2025
4 min read

Oil Squeeze: Kazakhstan And Central Asian States Suffer Amid Slowdowns In Russia And China

Amid the modern and futuristic landscape of Astana, Kazakhstan’s capital, and in the large city of Almaty, something rarely seen has appeared in recent weeks and months: protesters. Kazakhstan’s tenge... read more..

Political process
1944
2 min read

Kazakhstan: Ruling Party Plumps for Populism

Kazakhstan’s president could hardly be expected to run for parliament, so the ruling Nur Otan party has gone for the next best thing: The actor who played him as a young man in the biopic. Nurlan Ali... read more..

Economy
1972
3 min read

Drift and dissent. So much for Nursultan Nazarbayev’s “Kazakh dream”

Not long ago it all looked so much better: oil prices were high, the middle classes were growing and the autocrat-father of the state, Nursultan Nazarbayev, presided over 17m grateful subjects. Yet to... read more..

Political process
2243
5 min read

Economy and Sanctions Derail Russia’s Central Asian Investments

After years of embarking on promising forays into Central Asia’s economy, Russia is being forced to pare back its ambitions. The starkest retreat of Russian money is seen in Kyrgyzstan, whose parli... read more..

Economy
2521
46 min read

U.S. Policy Toward Central Asia 3.0

Major geopolitical shifts and internal dynamics are setting the stage for possible increased great-power competition in Central Asia between Russia and China at a time when the region is becoming less... read more..

Economy
2247
3 min read

Kazakhstan’s Ever Shrinking Space for Dissent

Two activists were recently jailed for “inciting national discord.” With both oil prices and the Russian ruble continuing to search for their respective floors, Kazakhstan’s economic maelstrom shows ... read more..

Events and opinions
1755
5 min read

Kazakhstan: TV Epic Promises Game of Thrones-Style Thrills

Armor-clad warriors surge out from behind a rocky outcrop and gallop across the steppe amid a thunder of hooves, banners flapping in the breeze and swords aloft. Emitting furious war cries, they desce... read more..

Events and opinions
1864
5 min read

The Tide Is Going Out on Putin

Russia is a great power whose reach now exceeds its grasp. Although capable of bold moves, it is beset by strains. In 2016, Moscow will face pressures to align ambitions with means, but this will req... read more..

Events and opinions
2027
3 min read

Kazakhstan Asks U.S. Judge to Help Bully Press

Hoping to use the "U.S. court system as a weapon in its war against a free press," Kazakhstan's government subpoenaed Facebook for information that could endanger such dissidents as editor it incarcer... read more..

Events and opinions
1779
5 min read

Astana Emerges: Expo 2017

The Expo 2017 global gathering will showcase developments from around the world in the field of green, renewable and sustainable energy. Expo 2017 will place Astana, Kazakhstan in the international sp... read more..

Events and opinions
1735
2 min read

Kazakhstan: Cash-Strapped Astana Cuts Funds for Flagship Exhibition

Hot on the heels of a graft scandal that has blighted a flagship exhibition to be staged in Kazakhstan’s capital comes news that its budget is being slashed – again. With Kazakhstan in the throes of ... read more..

Events and opinions
1771
<1min

Kazakhstan President Calls Snap Election

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev dissolved the lower house of parliament Wednesday and called a snap election, urging the nation to consolidate at a time of economic hardship caused by the crash ... read more..

Events and opinions
2032
5 min read

Kazakhstan: Security Service Shake-Up Sets Off Succession Speculation

Kazakh National Security Committee Chairman Nurtay Abykayev (standing) receives his marching orders from Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev during a meeting with the country’s intelligence agency o... read more..

Events and opinions
1845
3 min read

Alex Nisengolts: Corruption hinders Kazakhstan reforms

After reading my earlier posts about privatization opportunities in Kazakhstan and the deterrent effect of the FCPA on American investment in that country, and Kazakh listings in the U.S., a reader as... read more..

Events and opinions
1918
3 min read

The Russia-Turkey crisis: What impact on Central Asia?

Russian President Vladimir Putin is well-known for being a man who does not do things by half measures. The anti-Turkish campaign launched by the Kremlin is proof of this. Ever since Turkey shot ... read more..

Events and opinions
1881
3 min read

Stop Using These 2 Phrases to Talk About Central Asia. Please, don’t let your Great Game spill over into mine.

Central Asia is seldom covered in the international press and when it is, it is often condensed politically, geographically, and economically into a single unit — an amalgamation that does the job but... read more..

Economy
2408
9 min read

In Central Asia, Chinese inroads in Russia’s back yard

This is part of an occasional series examining China’s efforts to win friends and clients in Asia and to assert a more dominant role across the continent. Slowly but surely, a four-lane highway i... read more..

Economy
2770
4 min read

Kazakhstan Looks to Private Equity for Help With Its $93 Billion Cash Pile

KKR & Co. founder Henry Kravis, Blackstone Group LP Chairman Stephen Schwarzman and Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein were among the guests when Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev h... read more..

Political process
2055
4 min read

The Limits of Collective Security in Eurasia

Divergent interests in Russia’s dispute with Turkey and Armenia’s conflict with Azerbaijan restrict the CSTO. Article IV of the 1992 Collective Security Treaty offers a familiar formula for mutua... read more..

Events and opinions
2218
2 min read

Opponents accuse Kazakhstan of web clampdown as oil money shrivels

Opponents and rights groups have accused authorities in Kazakhstan of clamping down on free speech on the internet in order to keep a lid on discontent as falling oil prices push down people's real in... read more..

Political process
2054
4 min read

Putin's new law means bureaucratic class can prey on ordinary Russians even more

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law that allows the Constitutional Court of Russia to decide whether or not to comply with judgements made by international rights courts – a measure seen... read more..

Political process
2221
3 min read

Kazakhstan: UK-based journalist Bela Kudaybergenova quits because 'she can't lie anymore'

  When Kazakhstan celebrated its independence day on Wednesday (16 December), one former journalist with the Central Asian state's broadcaster was grateful she did not have to report it. Bela read more..

Economy
2180
3 min read

China and Kazakhstan: Roads, Belts, Paths, and Steps

Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Massimov made the most of his trip to China this week. While in China Massimov attended the Kazakh-Chinese Business Council (KCBC) in Beijing, where a handful of commercial... read more..

Political process
2178
9 min read

Kazakhstan: who ordered the killings and tortures?

Four years after the massacre of striking oil workers by security forces at Zhanaozen in western Kazakhstan, the campaign to unmask those who gave the orders goes on Who ordered police to shoot down ... read more..

Economy
2135
3 min read

Kazakhstan, struggling with low oil price, revamps monetary policy

Kazakhstan said on Tuesday it would tear up its monetary policy mechanism and come up with a new approach, scrambling to find a coherent response to the sliding world oil prices that have pushed down ... read more..

Economy
2111
3 min read

Kazakhstan Wants to Build You an Armored Vehicle. It’s not clear whether there are any takers yet.

In December Kazakhstan Paramount Engineering (KPE), a joint venture between South Africa’s Paramount Group and Kazakhstan Engineering, began production at a facility to build armored vehicles in Kazak... read more..

Special projects
8224
3 min read

Kazakhstan Wants to Build You an Armored Vehicle. It’s not clear whether there are any takers yet.

In December Kazakhstan Paramount Engineering (KPE), a joint venture between South Africa’s Paramount Group and Kazakhstan Engineering, began production at a facility to build armored vehicles in Kazak... read more..

Events and opinions
1974
3 min read

Ceding $18 Billion Gets Kazakh Central Bank What Money Can’t Buy

Losing control of an $18 billion pension fund may give the Kazakh central bank the independence it needs to stick with a shift to inflation targeting that’s upended the nation’s currency this year. T... read more..