On January 23, addressing members of the Political Council of the ruling Nur Otan party, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev announced several key personnel changes. Bakhitzhan Zhumagulov, the deputy chairman of the party, would be replaced by Adilbek Zhaksybekov, head of the presidential administration. Kairat Kelimbetov,... MORE

Perhaps hoping to burnish Kazakhstan’s international image, President Nursultan Nazarbayev has called upon members of his Nur Otan party to fight corruption more actively. “Regional branches of the party must step up the purposeful fight against corruption in the localities,” he declared. “Special councils under... MORE

Kazakhstan’s armed forces face a new shake up in 2008, designed to facilitate progress toward greater efficiency. Military reform in Kazakhstan has been underway for several years, resulting in structural changes and other, more targeted, reforms linked with manpower, such as “professionalizing” a proportion of... MORE

On December 29 border guards in East Kazakhstan arrested four people -- two citizens of Uzbekistan, one citizen of Russia, and one citizen of Tajikistan -- for allegedly attempting to smuggle 17 kilograms of heroin into Russia. Seizures of heroin bound for Russia are a... MORE

On December 11 Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Massimov and Ma Fu Tsai, deputy chairman of the Chinese State Council Committee on Energy, arrived at Kenkiyak, a small settlement in Aktobe region, to announce the start date for construction of the 750-kilometer long Kenkiyak-Kumkol oil pipeline.... MORE

Kazakhstan’s ruling elite has clearly been in a self-congratulatory mood since securing the chairmanship of the OSCE in 2010. However, as its foreign policy evolves in the meantime, there is no guarantee that Kazakhstan will emerge as an OSCE-inspired Eurasian bastion of democracy. Regional issues... MORE

On December 6 Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev appointed Nurlan Balgimbayev to be his advisor. Shortly before the announcement, a new wave of administrative reforms replaced several regional governors and top government officials, including the ministers of finance and energy and mineral resources. Balgimbayev is one... MORE

One of Vladimir Putin’s most notable accomplishments since he assumed the presidency of the Russian Federation on December 31, 1999, has been his relentless effort to downsize the Western presence in the Russian Federation energy sector. Now it seems that Kazakhstan might be pursuing similar... MORE

The OSCE’s year-end meeting in Madrid has resolved that Kazakhstan shall hold the organization’s Chairmanship in 2010. In 2008 already, Kazakhstan will host the annual session of the OSCE’s Parliamentary Assembly (a body that severely criticized the conduct of Russia’s December 2 parliamentary elections, see... MORE

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s November 21-23 Balkan tour, which came on the heels of his trip to the United Arab Emirates and Syria (see EDM, November 15), symbolically demonstrated Kazakhstan’s adherence to its trumpeted multi-vector foreign policy. Astana’s efforts to boost energy cooperation with Slovakia,... MORE