The continuing strength of tribal confederation identities in Kazakhstan not only limit the ability of the authorities to combat corruption but reduce the country’s prospects for development and absorption of other Turkic peoples, according to Kazakh journalist Dauren Kuat.

“As usual, there were more police on the scene than protesters,” a journalist living in a provincial town recently told Global Voices of one of the freedom of speech pickets that rippled across Kazakhstan but were immediately shut down by authorities.

Kazakh and European parliamentary officials reconfirmed mutual commitment to strengthening ties as they adopted a joint declaration following the May 10 15th annual session of the Kazakhstan-European Union (EU) Parliamentary Cooperation Committee (PCC).

Kazakh police detained dozens of people who demonstrated in the Central Asian nation's biggest city on Thursday after an opponent of President Nursultan Nazarbayev urged his followers to protest.

The demonstrations were organized at the behest of foreign-based opposition figure Mukhtar Ablyazov.

With all the quiet chaos beneath the surface in Moscow, Beijing seems poised to benefit.

Muratkhan Tokmadi was sentenced March 16 to 10 1/2 years in a maximum-security prison for murdering the chair of the BTA Bank Yerzhan Tatishev during a hunt in 2004. It is the second verdict in the case that had been previously qualified as manslaughter by negligence.

Facebook and Telegram have been malfunctioning since an opposition movement was labelled extremist.

Russia and other authoritarian states are gaming the system to go after dissidents.