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Latest Articles about Kazakhstan
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Bigger Role for Kazakhstani President at National Security Council to Ensure Smooth Transition
On May 31, the Kazakhstani Senate approved a bill on reforming the National Security Council (NSC) of Kazakhstan. This move marked the official end of a months-long legislative process, to be followed in the days to come by a presidential endorsement, which is the precondition... MORE
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Russia’s Caspian Flotilla, Dominant at Sea, Gains New Shore-Landing Capability
As the five Caspian littoral states—Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Iran—move toward an agreement on the re-division of the Caspian Sea (see EDM, November 7, 2017), an action made necessary by the collapse of the Soviet Union, Moscow has strengthened its flotilla there in order... MORE
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Leadership Shuffle in the Kazakh Armed Forces: What Is Behind the Changes?
Last month, President Nursultan Nazarbayev made several new appointments to the Armed Forces of Kazakhstan (Nomad.su, April 18). On April 18, Major General Kaidar Karakulov was promoted to commander of the Land Assault Troops of the Land Forces. Major General Dulat Adyrbekov now occupies Karakulov’s... MORE
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Kazakhstan’s Neutrality Irks Russia and Strains Bilateral Ties
Recent developments in Armenia, where a former president–turned–prime minister, Serzh Sargsyan, hastily stepped down in the face of vigorous street protests on April 23, underscored the potential vulnerability of Russia’s regional alliances. The Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) has been a pillar of Russia’s post-Soviet diplomacy... MORE
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Faced With Chinese Expansion, Kazakhstan Seeks Alternative Energy Markets
It could be assumed that the intensifying trade war between the United States and China would cause economic slowdown in China and result, in the long run, in the drastic reduction of Chinese imports of energy resources from Kazakhstan. But in his recent interview to... MORE
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New Sanctions Against Russia Weigh on Its Closest Trade Partners
The United States Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC), whose responsibility is to enforce US sanctions against foreign countries and nationals, rolled out a new package of economic restrictions against Russia, on April 6. Following its illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, Russia has... MORE
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US-Kazakh Accord to Use Caspian Ports as Afghan Support Hubs Irks Moscow
Since 1991, two key questions have dominated discussions of the fate of the Caspian Sea: First, how will it be divided now that there are five littoral states rather than two, as was the case in Soviet times? And second, will this landlocked body of... MORE
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Amidst ‘Chemical’ Confrontation in Syria, Russia Looks for US Biological Weapons in Former Soviet Republics
On April 12—on the eve of the United States’ and its allies’ airstrikes against Syria in response to the recent chemical attack in Douma—Russian foreign ministry press secretary Maria Zakharova stated that the US, through programs financed by the Pentagon, is creating a network of... MORE
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Azerbaijan, Iran Reach Breakthrough on Disputed Fields in the Caspian Sea
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani paid an official visit to Baku, Azerbaijan, on March 28. During the visit, Azerbaijan and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding on joint development of offshore hydrocarbon fields in the Caspian Sea (President.az, March 28). Remarkably, the names of the fields... MORE
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The Kremlin Strategy in Baikonur: Putting Kazakhstan’s Space Program in a Box?
Russia has pledged to transfer 44.8 square miles of Baikonur Cosmodrome territory and two Zenit-M rocket launch platforms to Kazakhstan by the end of May 2018 (Izvestia, March 1). This became possible thanks to the recent amendments to the lease agreement between the two countries,... MORE