President Nursultan Nazarbayev thinks Kazakhstan can spend its way out of the economic doldrums. Experts, meanwhile, are divided about whether Nazarbayev's plans represent a bold Roosevelt-style New Deal or a throwback to sluggish Soviet-style economics.
Kazakhstan does not persecute political opponents or attack freedom of expression, President Nursultan Nazarbayev has avowed, fending off awkward questions from journalists during a December 5 visit to Astana by his French counterpart, François Hollande.
Reporters Without Borders condemns the judicial persecution of the opposition weekly ADAM bol, which was ordered to pay an exorbitant fine yesterday and which was suspended last week in connection with another case that a court began hearing today.
"I don't want to be another rich, dead dude." So said Frank Giustra, the billionaire Canadian philanthropist who recently received the Dalai Lama Humanitarian Award from the Dalai Lama himself. For the Hollywood Reporter, Giustra is the Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, which he founded 15 years ago or so. Moviegoers and TV watchers know Giustra, or rather Lionsgate, for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, The Hurt Locker, Juno, Monster's Ball, Orange is the New Black, and Nurse Jackie. Undoubtedly, based on the award and the Hollywood Reporter headline, the group of online journals that have arisen lately to lionize big givers will give Giustra a heroic philanthropic bio.
To Western observers, Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to be caught in a perfect storm: his gamble in Ukraine's Crimea region has left diplomatic ties with the European Union as damaged as they've ever been, with Russia losing the support of a critical ally in Germany; the ruble has dropped 22%, which has helped Russia post its slowest GDP growth in five years; and slumping oil prices could cause the Russian economy to lose between $90 billion and $100 billion per year if oil prices drop more than 30%, according to Russia's Finance Minister Anton Siluanov.
Russia's competition with China for dominance in Central Asia has long appeared to be doomed due to the asymmetrical relationship between Russian and Chinese economic power. The already strong Chinese economic position in the region has grown even stronger recently with Beijing's announcement of large initiatives that are to pour billions of dollars of aid into the region, further tying it to China.
Former secret service deputy head says publication of house address searched by Maltese police endangers his family
Russian politician Andrei Zhirinovsky is all mouth, so it would not normally have caused a stir when he suggested earlier this year that Russia should simply annex the parts of neighbouring Kazakhstan that have a large Russian population.
Israeli tech companies are allegedly supplying advanced monitoring systems to authoritarian Central Asian governments to spy on their citizens and continue the crackdown on dissidents and political opponents, a report has disclosed.
Kazakhstan's president ordered his government on Tuesday to allocate $3 billion from the National Fund every year from 2015 to 2017 to bolster growth in an economy hit by falling oil prices and a slowdown in Russia.
