On 21 March, Dr. Igor Tomberg, senior research fellow with the Energy Research Center at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, wrote an article entitled “Moscow is no Longer Kazakhstan’s Only Friend”:
While Europe, the United States, China and Russia compete for Eurasian resources, Kazakhstan is playing its own game, called “multi-vector politics.” […]

In its Best-of-April-Fools’-Joke collection, Spiegel Online includes a Kazakhstan-related anecdote from 1995:
The bankers didn’t believe their eyes: Because of an early April Fools’ joke, thousands of Kazakhstanis besieged the country’s banks. A local newspaper cracked a joke when it reported that the security bars on the country’s 10-Tenge notes contained precious metal.
During the printing […]

As reported on this blog before, Kazakhstan is turning green on its oil industry and has already threatened TCO with hefty fines should the company not comply with environmental regulations at Tengiz.
The move is apparently part of a wider strategy not to boost oil production at any price, reports the Gulf Times:
The Kazakh government, […]

Kazakhstan’s players celebrate their victory against Serbia
For the first time since joining the UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) in 2002, Kazakhstan claims competitive victory: its team defeated the Serbian with 2:1 in Group A. It was also the first time the Kazakhstan team scored at home in a European qualifier. It is […]

Translation of Adam’s post from Russian-language neweurasia Kazakhstan.
According to the news reports, between 18 and 19 of March, there has been a conflict among the locals in Malovodnoe. The conflict became violent and resulted in the death of three people from gun wounds, five people were injured and taken to the hospital in […]

All those people who are getting increasingly bored by my technocrat posts, please disregard the following - again I have to succumb to my inner drive to write about Kazakhstan’s financial sector. In my earlier post, I highlighted some of the issues at stake and got into a discussion with Mergen, who criticised me […]

“Nazarbaev’s nightingale”, or Minister of Culture and Information Yermukhammet Ertisbaev seems to have caused some stir in the Kazakh media landscape.
During a press conference earlier this month, Eritsbaev demanded that journalists from the independent TV station Era leave the room.
Among those protesting against the minister’s rather rude behaviour were the heads of […]

Rustam Khalfin - “Intim - In Time”, Soros Center For Contemporary Arts
A string of new exhibits at the Soros Center for Contemporary Art (www.scca.kz) here in Almaty has brought in a breath of fresh air to the art scene. The new curator Dastan Kojakhmetov presents a minimalist conceptual aproach to curating at the Soros […]

As most Kazakh families, the President’s family is big; traditionally, more successful members of the family would try to help others; but unlike any other family, the President’s family is rich and influential, and its self-support influences public life and public money.
Thus, Nurbol Nazarbayev, a 23-year old nephew of Nursultan Nazarbayev, has just […]

President Nazarbayev visited Education City yesterday, Qatar Foundation’s ‘landmark’ tertiary education edifice. Reportedly, the president was impressed by the quality of the institution and announced that a delegation would visit Qatar soon to study more carefully the approach the Foundation has taken. It provided the small Gulf state with a centre of excellence that […]