Even Borat would have laughed at the security precautions the president of Kazakhstan took during a dinner in Manhattan — as the Central Asian strongman demanded waiters at a posh Soho restaurant be replaced with his own lackeys, his dishes be disinfected with vodka, and a doctor test every morsel of food for danger, sources said.

On Wednesday, there was an event held in the EU, which usually doesn’t gather much attention, but the combination with other events made it attractive. We are talking about the visit of Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev to Brussels.

Most people immediately think about the Mideast or North Africa when they hear the name "Islamic State." But the terror militia also has an eye on the former Soviet republics in Central Asia.

While KBR was being investigated for bribery in Nigeria, it was partnering with a company that bribed officials in Kazakhstan.

Activity analysis of the Pro-Russian movement in Kazakhstan showed significant growth of threats to state sovereignty and to the current leadership of this country, which has emerged in the last year and a half. Today on the territory of Kazakhstan formed the conditions for running scenarios similar to the Crimean. 

Nursultan Nazarbayev has presided over Kazakhstan since 1989. During that span, the president consolidated his grip on power over the media, the economy, and the political process, amassing a slew of of landslide victories for himself and his loyal, rubber stamp legislature. But as the 75-year-old autocrat now enters the twilight of his rule, one question looms large for the fate of the nation of Kazakhstan and its vast oil-wealth: Who, or what, comes after Nazarbayev?

On February 3, 2016, Kazakhstan's president Nursultan Nazarbayev made a symbolically powerful decree on how Kazakh soldiers should march during military parades. The abolition of the Soviet goose step formation, utilized by Russia, was a striking display of the Kazakh military's increasingly independent identity. As Georgia in 2007 and Estonia in 2008 abolished the formation during periods of tense relations with Russia, Nazarbayev's decision raised fresh questions about the strength of the long-standing Russia-Kazakhstan partnership.

Standing against the current president of Kazakhstan could not, by any measure, be considered a good career move.

After a precipitous plunge over many months, Kazakhstan’s embattled currency has gained ground in recent weeks.