Freedom House, the leading American rights group, said yesterday that the resource curse in energy-rich Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan is taking root. “Rising oil prices correlate clearly with sharply falling democracy performance, especially in these countries”, said the NGO’s director of studies Christopher Walker.
According to the newly published study by Freedom House, the most […]
The state continues expanding its control over politics, businesses and - not surprisingly - spiritual sphere. The government is saying that the need to introduce restrictions on religious communities is grounded in national security aspect and preventing citizens from radical terrorist organizations and totalitarian sects. The believers argue that the law would put “traditional” […]
Lately the local newspapers started publishing articles on the ethnic emigrants - especially Russians and Germans - who are coming back to Kazakhstan after failing to find a proper living standards in the blessed lands of ancestors.
In particular, popular newspapers like “Arguments and Facts” weekly post stories of the people who are complaining about […]
EurasiaNet reports that Rakhat Aliev, the former son-in-law of President Nazarbaev, ex-media mogul and higher official, now sentenced to 40 years in jail for mafia-type activities and coup attempt, says he’s ready to give evidence in a U.S. investigation into whether Nazarbaev and other Kazakh officials took bribes from U.S. businesses to receive lucrative oil contracts […]
AFP reports that Kazakhstan’s government threatens U.S. oil major Chevron with a fine equivalent to $309 million for alleged environmental violations. This is not the first time an oil company faces environmental fines - and it’s not the first time for Chevron either. Although in most cases these charges do have enough grounds, sometimes […]
Kazakh police are investigating who fired three shots through the windows of the independent newspaper “Taszharghan” in Almaty. Ironically, the bullet holes were discovered on the Fool’s Day, April 1. The newspaper is highly critical towards the authorities, although there are very few author materials — most publications are reprints from the internet, and […]
KZBlog reports that Richard Hoagland has been nominated by President Bush to replace John Ordway as Ambassador to Kazakhstan. Hoagland is currently serving in the U.S. Embassy to Turkmenistan and was Ambassador to Tajikistan.
Hoagland was nominated as Ambassador to Armenia last year but his nomination was withdrawn in relation to questions of the US […]
As the trial over former presidential son-in-law, former chief of special services and former mogul ends, the major opposition party “Azat” (recently rebranded from “Nagyz Ak Zhol”) is quick to react to the revealed facts of treason and planned coup. In its statement, the party reminds that its leaders were accusing Aliyev of the […]
As it is known, Mittal Investment Sarl, the holding company of Mittal family, had in April 2007 acquired Russian oil firm Lukoil’s 50 per cent stake in Caspian Investments Resources for $980 million. The acquisition was originally to be done by ONGC Mittal Energy Ltd (OMEL, equal joint venture with state-run ONGC Videsh), the […]
KZBlog writes about Gulzhan Ibrayeva, who used to be in a weirdly-named and poorly known band “Kinky Durakee” singing covers in Kazakhstan.
“Now that Gulzhan has moved to Scotland with her husband (and co-musician) Paul Finnie, the band has changed its name to Universal You and is hitting the top hot spots in Edinburgh”, the […]
