Kazakhstan continues to strengthen its ties with the NATO Alliance, despite its close relations with Russia and China and the pressures this brings to the Nazarbayev regime. Officials on both sides met recently to conclude an individual partnership action plan (IPAP), which will form the... MORE

Officials in Astana followed the New Year's gas dispute between Moscow and Kyiv with an air of detachment, but the compromise solution reached between Ukraine and Russia runs counter to the economic interests of Kazakhstan. The deal enables Russia to sell its gas for $230... MORE

At a solemn ceremony on December 15, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev pressed the button to officially begin pumping oil at the Atasu terminal along the new Atasu-Alashankou pipeline. The ceremony took place at the main control center of the Kazakh national oil transport company, KazTransOil.... MORE

The sudden thaw between Tashkent and Moscow after the Andijan bloodbath and the withdrawal of the U.S. air base from Uzbekistan left Astana guessing about the true intentions of the enigmatic Uzbek President Islam Karimov. But since the Russian-orchestrated integration of the Central Asian Cooperation... MORE

Kazakhstan has again raised the prospect of closer relations with the NATO Alliance, despite its already close relations with Russia and China and the restrictions placed upon its room for maneuver due its membership of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and the Shanghai Cooperation... MORE

Kazakhstan's December 4 presidential election gave both the opposition and the ruling establishment an opportunity to test the popular theory of democratic "color revolutions." Could a popular uprising after a disputed election evict another ruling regime? The ruling regime has now recognized that it must... MORE

On Sunday December 4, citizens of Kazakhstan went to the polls to elect their president. While the incumbent, Nursultan Nazarbayev was expected to win, his principal challenger, Zharmakhan Tuyakbay of the opposition bloc "For a Fair Kazakhstan," played to the cameras. Giving a forced smile... MORE

The sudden death of Zamanbek Nurkadilov, a prominent opposition activist in Kazakhstan, has triggered a flurry of speculation that is raising the tension level ahead of the December 4 presidential election. Nurkadilov's wife, the popular singer Makpal Zhunusova, found him dead in their home in... MORE

Mesmerized by the huge hydrocarbon export opportunities offered by China's rapidly developing Xinjiang province, last year Kazakhstan began building the Atasu-Alashankou oil pipeline to connect western China with oilfields in Aktobe region, western Kazakhstan. The daunting adventure, hailed as the project of the century in... MORE

With less than a month remaining before election day, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and his advisors are certainly following the November 6 parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan. While separated geographically by thousands of miles, the two countries share political systems rooted in nepotism and family clan... MORE