Latest Articles about Kazakhstan
ASTANA MAY SACRIFICE NATIONAL INTERESTS TO SATISFY CHINA OIL DEAL
When the Chinese National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) agreed to pay $4.18 billion to buy the Canadian-listed PetroKazakhstan oil company, the deal triggered a flood of controversial comments in Kazakhstan. What seemed to be the biggest Chinese takeover deal ever made in Kazakhstan instead left a... MORE
KAZAKHSTAN’S TRANS-CASPIAN OIL EXPORT PLANS AND ITS COMPETITORS
Interviewed in the current issue of the Caspian Investor monthly, Kazakhstan's Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Vladimir Shkolnik confirms that negotiations are advancing toward an agreement on the transportation of oil from Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan and through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (Turkey) pipeline. At the same time,... MORE
KAZAKHSTAN QUESTIONS U.S. MILITARY ROLE IN CENTRAL ASIA
Kazakhstan's delicate foreign policy, predicated upon balancing its relations among China, Russia, and the United States, has come under increased pressure both from its involvement in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the growing tendency within the region to question the long-term strategic role of... MORE
CHINA, INDIA LINE UP TO COMPETE FOR KAZAKH OIL DEALS
Kazakhstan's ongoing oil saga has experienced an unexpected turn of events in recent weeks. First, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Vladimir Shkolnik broke the news that Kazakhstan would sign an agreement on joining the much-debated Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline in October 2005. As recently as his... MORE
KAZAKH FOREIGN MINISTRY REFUTES ARGUMENTS ABOUT TERRITORIAL CONCESSIONS
Kazakhstan's border delimitation process has always been an issue shrouded in mystery, even for residents of the border areas. The authorities have previously accused journalists in South Kazakhstan of issuing inaccurate reports that damage relations with Uzbekistan. Therefore, journalists hungry for first-hand information were excited... MORE
KAZAKH FOREIGN MINISTRY REFUTES ARGUMENTS ABOUT TERRITORIAL CONCESSIONS
Kazakhstan's border delimitation process has always been an issue shrouded in mystery, even for residents of the border areas. The authorities have previously accused journalists in South Kazakhstan of issuing inaccurate reports that damage relations with Uzbekistan. Therefore, journalists hungry for first-hand information were excited... MORE
NAZARBAYEV LINES UP HIS MEN AHEAD OF ELECTION CAMPAIGN
On July 8 Rakhat Aliev, the son-in-law of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, was promoted from Kazakhstan's ambassador to Austria to first deputy foreign minister. The move left analysts guessing about the hidden rationale behind this personnel change. First, Aliev, husband of the president's eldest daughter... MORE
MILITANTS IN NORTHERN PAKISTAN ALLEGEDLY INCLUDE KAZAKH NATIONALS
Kazakhstan's security services have repeatedly resorted to the tactic of denying offhand any possible connections between Kazakh nationals and international extremist organizations. This tested rule of the game worked well after terrorists seized a school in Beslan, North Ossetia, last September and after the terrorist... MORE
ASTANA YIELDS TO WESTERN PRESSURE OVER UZBEK DISSIDENT
In a seemingly democratic gesture, Kazakh authorities handed over prominent Uzbek human rights activist Lutfulla Shamsuddinov to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on July 1. With this move the government resolved a difficult dilemma that had brought a flood of criticism from... MORE
WILL NAZARBAYEV SACRIFICE HIS GOVERNMENT TO SECURE HIS RE-ELECTION?
Rumors of the impending dismissal of Kazakhstan's current government, headed by Prime Minister Daniyal Akhmetov, have circulated since September 2004, when President Nursultan Nazarbayev criticized the government for distorting administrative reform efforts and inflating the ungainly administrative machine up to 16 ministries and a dozen... MORE