On July 3, 2012, the leader of a Salafist group in Kostanay, northern Kazakhstan, was convicted of recruiting Kazakhstani citizens and providing them with fraudulent documents to help them travel to the Afghanistan-Pakistan region and join the insurgency (Interfax [Kostanay], July 3). While the Salafist... MORE

The 62nd meeting of the CIS Council of Defense Ministers in Kaliningrad on July 5 discussed deepening security cooperation on a broad range of issues within the former Soviet space, with special attention to developing integrated air defense architecture – long discussed by the CIS... MORE

From July 7 to July 12, Russia and Kazakhstan held their latest joint military exercise, “Aldaspan-2012.” Although Kazakhstan’s security priorities lie in countering terrorists, insurgents, and other small groups of armed militants, Russia’s concern about fighting large-scale mass uprisings, as in Chechnya, or fighting major... MORE

On July 19, Hungarian-based MOL entered into a partnership with Kazmunaigaz E&P (Exploration & Production, the upstream subsidiary of the national company Kazmunaigaz) to develop the North Karpovsky oil and gas block in Kazakhstan. Kazmunaigaz E&P’s CEO, Alik Aidarbayev, commented that MOL was selected for... MORE

Pressure by international human rights bodies on Kazakhstan’s government is increasing as the trials of political opposition leaders for their role in the December 2011 riots in Zhanaozen are approaching. The leader of the unregistered “Alga!” (Forward) party Vladimir Kozlov, a politician and activist of... MORE

On July 11, an explosion occurred at a house in the village of Tausamal in Almaty province in Kazakhstan. Eight men (including four children) were killed. Prosecutors in Kazakhstan’s Almaty region launched a criminal inquiry on July 12 into the explosion. Criminal cases were opened... MORE

The Kyrgyz State Security Committee (GKNB) arrested two Kazakhstani men on June 28, who were “spreading and propagating radical and extremist ideas” with the assistance of staff at mosques in Bishkek in order to recruit women into their network. A subsequent search of their residence... MORE

Russian and Kazakhstani leaders indicated plans to prioritize multilateral economic ties within the Customs Union and the Common Economic Space (CES). Meanwhile, some of their planned bilateral projects appear to have dropped off the agenda.Russia has continued to extol the growing trade volumes inside regional... MORE

The trials over the December 2011 violence in Zhanaozen are approaching their most dramatic phase. Several political opposition leaders are facing charges ranging from inciting public discord to calling for the violent overthrow of the government and establishing an organized criminal group. In January, Kazakhstan’s... MORE

Bolat Baikadamov, director of the Nur Otan Parliamentary Institute, worries that “Uzbekistan’s withdrawal from the Collective Security Treaty Organization [CSTO] […] weakens both the organization and the very situation of security in the region” (Vestnik Kavkaza, July 9). But Uzbekistan’s move does not present a... MORE