Kazakhstan is interested in British defense experience, Tengrinews reports referring to the press office of the Defense Ministry of Kazakhstan. "Kazakhstan is moving towards establishing a professional army, and Britain possesses valuable experience in this realm. Kazakhstan is interested in studying the methods of recruitment into the Armed Forces, personnel policies, combat training, budget planning specifics and social security. The heads of the Defense Ministries (of Kazakhstan and UK) have expressed readiness to cooperate in this areas," says the statement posted after the meeting of Kazakhstan Defense Minister Adilbek Dzhaksybekov and UK Minister of Defense Phillip Hammond.

Kazakhstan is planning to reduce the number of cases heard by jury trials, Tengrinews reports. The initiative is driven by the country's national specifics. "There are areas where selection of juries is impossible, because they are all relatives. According to the Article 14 of our Constitution, everyone is equal under the law. But in practice, one can ask for a jury trial here in Astana, but one cannot ask for one in Shymkent and a range of other large regions, because everyone around are relatives," Iogan Merkel, First Deputy Prosecutor General of Kazakhstan, explained at today's presentation of the new edition of the Criminal Procedures Code in the Majilis (Lower Chamber of the Parliament).

Tony Blair was last night accused of helping to secure a plum job for Alastair Campbell's firm on a 'dictator's payroll'. The claim was made after US Government documents revealed the extent of links between the former Prime Minister and the lobbying company that employs his former spin doctor. According to US Justice Department papers, the authoritarian Kazakhstan regime in central Asia is represented in the US 'through Windrush Ventures Limited, through Portland PR Limited'.

President Vladimir Putin with President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev (l) and President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko before a meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council. Turkey is interested in joining the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, and India also wants closer ties with the organization, President Vladimir Putin said at the EurAsian Economic Community summit in Minsk on Thursday.

Russia is pressuring Ukraine to join Belarus and Kazakhstan in a Eurasian Customs Union led by Moscow. Acquiescing to Russia's wishes would anchor Ukraine in a Moscow-dominated economic zone and impose higher tariffs on Ukrainian trade with the European Union. Russia also wants Ukraine to join the Joint Economic Space, the Eurasian Union, and the Collective Security Treaty Organization. This integration would recreate the geography of the Soviet Union and the Russian empire, strengthening and emboldening Moscow as a global geopolitical actor. It is in the national interest of the United States to prevent Ukraine from becoming a Russian satellite and a key member of a Moscow-dominated sphere of influence. The U.S. needs to assist Ukraine and its European partners in derailing Russia's pressure tactics for bringing Ukraine into Moscow's orbit.

The country is poised to lead on everything from controlling nuclear weapons to energy security. Upon gaining its independence in 1991, Kazakhstan became the world's fourth largest nuclear power, only to voluntarily renounce its entire atomic arsenal shortly thereafter. We closed the world's second largest nuclear test site, blended down three tons of highly enriched uranium for peaceful use and helped establish a "nuclear weapon free zone" across Central Asia – one that now serves as a model for regions around the world, including the Middle East.

Kremlin kingpin Vladimir Putin's pet project to drive former Soviet states back into Moscow's embrace – via the Customs Union — is gathering momentum. But the possibility of expansion doesn't thrill all the union's current members.

The family of an exiled Kazakh tycoon accused of fraud filed a lawsuit in Italy on Wednesday against three diplomats for the alleged illegal extradition of his wife and daughter to Kazakhstan. Mukhtar Ablyazov's daughter Madina accuses the diplomats in the lawsuit, including Adrian Yelemessov, Kazakhstan's ambassador to Italy, of "aggravated kidnapping" over the incident.

Economic cooperation between the EU member states and the Central Asian republics has expanded steadily beyond its initial focus on energy resources. But besides new perspectives in trade, the EU is also increasingly becoming the site for criminal investigations against individuals from Central Asia like Rahat Aliev, the Kazakhstani former presidential son-in-law is currently accused of not only white-collar crime, but also murder and abduction.