
Latest Articles about Kazakhstan

Russian Government Approves Draft Convention on Legal Status of Caspian Sea
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree, on June 21, approving the Draft Convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea. And he encouraged President Vladimir Putin to ultimately sign the Convention (Pravo.gov.ru, June 22). Even though the complete official text of the... MORE

Russia’s Allies Do Not Want to Take Part in Syrian Operation
Moscow suffered a major military-diplomatic defeat recently in Kyzyl, the capital of the Siberian Russian Republic of Tuva. During the opening session of the Commonwealth of Independent States’ (CIS) Defense Ministers Council, the chief of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Sergei Shoigu, urged the CIS... MORE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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