Quickly after the Central Asian States gained independence in the beginning of the 1990s, they started to shape their identities as nation states.
Kazakhstan was not an exception to this and the desire to revive the religious traditions of the past appeared to be obvious.
According to the estimates of Nationmaster stats, 47 percent of […]

You’ve got to hand it to Nursultan Nazarbayev, the “democratically” elected president of Kazakhstan. The revolution he feared would come to his country, as in so many other former Soviet republics recently, has come and gone. Nazarbayev didn’t need guns for the battle. He won it by letting a Gucci clothing store open in what […]

Continuing to think about the real situation on what are the chances for better development in Kyrgyzstan one wants t bring about the numbers proving on where we are. Kyrgyzstan is known as agricultural economy where the mountains occupy 95 percent and only 7 has arable land and 44 percent of land is […]

The Christian Science Monitor published an editorial today, and based on its content, was almost certainly written by the same Francine Kiefer who asked about a new cold war brewing in the region at yesterday’s Heritage seminar.
Kiefer addresses the leniency with which the United States has met Kazakhstan’s flawed election, and essentially applauds that […]

On Wednesday the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington, DC, think tank, a panel discussion was held on the recent elections in Kazakhstan titled “After the Kazakhstan Elections: U.S. Policy in the Caspian and Central Asia.” The panel consisted of Heritage scholar Dr. Ariel Coen, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian […]

These last couple days have been very important for Kazakhstan as well as the region as a whole. Obviously there is a huge amount of information about the election already. Here are links, summaries, and excerpts to some of what’s out there:

The answer to the big question (was it fair?) has been […]

The Caspian Information Center has sent out their take on the elections. As I couldn’t find it on their website yet, I enlose it in the extended entry.

It is aleady over 15 years since Soviet Union started to disintegrate, leaving behind eight new independent states in Central Asia and in the Caucasus.
The republics gaining independence in 1991 believed they got it for real. But the reality shows that no country can live on its own, there is always the need […]

KZ Blog has posted some impressions from throughout election day. This bit is especially interesting:
Kahar, the youth movement, was out on Arbat, the pedestrian street in front of TSUM with alarm clocks, stopping passerbyers saying, “It’s time to wake up.” They were pushing people to vote. Nothing like this could ever happen in Astana.

According to this exit poll, Nazarbayev will win the elections by an even bigger margin than expected:
The RIA-Novosti and Interfax news agencies said an exit poll by a Russia-based political consulting firm showed Nazarbayev leading with more than 87 percent of the vote.
We also hear first voices of discontent:
‘There were multiple violations of […]