The major economic strides made by energy-rich Kazakhstan during President Nursultan Nazarbaev's nearly 30-year reign often overshadow reports chronicling an undemocratic, repressive tenure punctuated by jailings and the suspicious deaths of opposition leaders, activists, and journalists.

ASTANA (Reuters) - Kazakhstan took a step closer to a carefully choreographed dynastic succession on Wednesday as the daughter of its long-serving ruler was named to a post that put her in line for the presidency a day after her father stepped down.

Authorities hope greater social spending helps defuse creeping mood of discontent.

Dozens of people have been detained while attempting to demonstrate in Kazakhstan’s capital as the ruling party held its congress in the wake of a major government reshuffle triggered by the country’s weak economic performance.

Police in Taraz – including anti-terrorism officers – raided two Baptist worship meetings on successive Sundays in February. Police summarily fined three Baptists and issued two warnings. 

Murat Harri Uyghur, a doctor in Finland, is helping to compile testimonies from other Uighurs in exile about loved ones who may be in Chinese internment camps.

The strongman can keep firing ministers, but analysts feel he’s avoiding Kazakhstan’s bedrock economic problems.

Nurbots fill comment sections across the Kazakh internet. They may not be convincing but they pollute online discourse.

Theyve taken him again, said Munai Taskairat kyzy, sobbing over the phone.