Editorial Board
IN 1989, the ruling Politburo of the Soviet Union chose new leaders for two of the empire's Central Asian republics. Twenty-six years later, Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan and Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan are still in power. They have weathered the Soviet Union's collapse, wars in Afghanistan and other neighboring nations, the rise of China and the spread of Islamist terrorism with a mix of repression, crony capitalism, corruption and the cultivation of competing powers, including the United States. Now, like leaders across Eurasia, they are wondering if they can survive the revived imperialism of Russia under Vladimir Putin.
Die Opposition in Kasachstan ist überrascht, dass die Beschuldigten im sogenannten Nurbank-Mordprozess die politische Karte spielen, sich als Vorkämpfer von Demokratie und Meinungsfreiheit generieren und das Gericht diese Märchen auch noch glaubt.
Hillary Clinton isn't just a Democratic candidate for president of the United States; she's co-president of the breakaway Republic of Clintonstan. As Clinton said herself in the early '90s when her husband was running for president: "If you vote for my husband, you get me. It's a two-for-one, blue plate special."
Something is going on in Uzbekistan. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Bruce Pannier reported this week that Uzbekistan's National Security Service (SNB) has been responding to a series of bomb threats in a town outside of the capital, Tashkent.
The tragic saga of the late former son-in-law of Kazakhstan's all-powerful president took a further twist Tuesday as two of the dead man's associates on trial for murder in Austria were released from custody.
Two Kazakhs who were co-accused along with Rakhat Aliyev over the murder of two bankers in 2007 have been released from pre-trial detention after an Austrian judge found inconsistencies and contradictions in the evidence brought against them, their lawyer has confirmed.
Die beiden Angeklagten im Mordverfahren um den Tod zweier kasachischer Bankmanager wurden vom vorsitzenden Richter überraschend enthaftet. Wien – Einen Knalleffekt brachte am Mittwoch der Alijew-Prozess: Andreas Böhm, Vorsitzender des Geschworenengerichts im Mordverfahren gegen Alnur Mussajew und Vadim K. hat die Untersuchungshaft über die beiden Angeklagten aufgehoben.
A Uranium One sign that points to a 35,000-acre ranch owned by John Christensen, near the town of Gillette, Wyo. Uranium One has the mining rights to Mr. Christensen's property. Credit Matthew Staver for The New York Times
As oil-rich Kazakhstan votes for a president Sunday, the governing elite is pounding home a mantra of stability as fears percolate about the country's massive Russian minority taking inspiration from the Moscow-backed insurgency in Ukraine.
