Authorities in Kazakhstan are cracking down on citizens holding public demonstrations in support of the constitution.

Kazakhstan's ruling Nur Otan party has nominated interim President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev for the presidency, virtually assuring his victory in a snap election scheduled for June 9.

 The transition to Putin’s constitutionally scheduled replacement as president of Russia may be rougher than currently expected.

In a sign of growing social and political turmoil in Central Asia, Kazakhstan’s 78-year-old president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has been head of state of the country since its formation out of the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, announced his immediate resignation on Tuesday, March 19.

On March 19, 2019, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev announced he would be stepping down after nearly three decades in power.

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.