These words are from no one less than political aide of the president Ermukhamet Ertysbayev (via FT). He says that all 16 regional hokims were briefed not to interfere with a free and fair election process this coming Sunday.
Taken that President Nazarbayev’s poll rating stands almost unchallengeably at above 60%, plus the fact […]
Central Asian countries face numerous problems in the delimitation and demarcation of their borders. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia, China, and all five Central Asian states – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan – accepted the old Soviet borders. Nevertheless, those administrative frontiers had never been clearly demarcated and thus pose […]
Today, Kazakh police officials declared Zamanbek Nurkadilov, formerly a Kazakh opposition leader, to have committed suicide. If the police are correct, then it was one heck of a suicide. Assuming Nurkadilov did manage to kill himself, he had the resolve to shoot himself twice in the chest, and then finish the job […]
After the collapse of the Soviet Union Kazakhstan (among the other former Soviet republics) was still under heavy Russian influence, most importantly in the economic hemisphere.
However, Russia has to think about why Kazakhstan has made a strategic decision to turn east for a cooperation with the Chinese state-owned oil company.
The extraction of oil […]
The general sentiment regarding the upcoming Kazakhstan election is that Nazarbayev has more to lose by rigging it and quashing opposition than he has to gain, given his popularity (see below reprinted posts, Ben’s earlier post, and the KZ Blog).
Looking backward in time a little, it is interesting to note that this is not […]
Another crosspost from KZBlog.
neweurasia posted recently on this International Herald Tribune article raising a timeless question–how sincere is the government about fair elections? The article says it is all show, citing issues with opposition newspapers being seized, and the overall autocratic politics of former Soviet leaders; my own earlier post was presented as evidence […]
The KZBlog is doing a great job covering the upcoming elections. We asked for permission to reprint some of the posts to bridge the gap between now and the appearance of a native Kazakh star-blogger yet to be identified… Also thanks to James for keeping this place warm.
Originally posted on KZBlog
After the Kyrgyz revolution, […]
The International Herald Tribune has an article that summarizes a lot of the issues surrounding the upcoming election. The article seems to argue that the Kazakh government is paying lip service to the elections, but in actuality cracking down on opposition groups.
I don’t really doubt that this is true, but a […]
Kazakhstan seems a bit confounded lately by a lack of control over their own oil. As Ben pointed out, China beat out Russia to control the oil pumping east. But Russia still controls the oil going west.
The Russian-owned oil company Transneft decided to throw its weight around by preventing Kazakhstan from […]
In about a month’s time, a 1000km Kazakh-Chinese pipeline will be put in operation. It will carry around 20m tons of oil annually. On the Chinese side of the border, the crude will be further transported west.
CNPC, the Chinese state-owned oil company responsible for the pipeline’s construction, has recently acquired PetroKazakhstan (though it […]
