With their own presidential election drawing nearer, officials in Astana might prefer to turn off all television channels broadcasting the contentious presidential election events in Ukraine. Instead, state-run media in Kazakhstan have done little more than re-broadcast a few images of the street demonstrations in... MORE

Two powerful blasts rocked Almaty on Sunday, November 28, around 7 pm. The explosions caused serious damage to an agricultural library and triggered a flood of rumors and speculation. While pro-government media suggested that it was merely the work of hooligans, investigators as well as... MORE

Major-General Bolat Sembinov, Kazakhstan's Deputy Defense Minister, completed an important trip to Washington on November 19 that has served to reaffirm the long-term nature of U.S. military assistance to Kazakhstan. Sembinov, who has been a critical influence behind much of Kazakhstan's military reform and its... MORE

Visiting Astana on November 16, World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn praised Kazakhstan for its recent economic performance and stressed that the poverty rate in the country has decreased from 18% to 12%. Most importantly, he said, Kazakhstan has made remarkable success in developing its... MORE

On November 16 the Senate (upper) chamber of Kazakhstan's parliament held a round-table debate that focused on the problems of terrorism and protecting human rights in conflict situations. Most of the participants said that Kazakhstan should wield a strong national ideology rather than military muscle... MORE

The National Security Committee (KNB) has announced a major coup in its anti-terrorist operations. In a televised interview, the first deputy director of the National Security Committee, Vladimir Bozhko, disclosed that the security services have uprooted a network of al-Qaeda terrorist operatives in Kazakhstan. He... MORE

During the last week of October, about 400 local workers employed by Punj Lloyd Kazakhstan to construct a $40 million sulfur and gas-separating facility for TengizChevroil went on strike to protest their miserable wages. Workers complained that the Indian executives of the company had cut... MORE

Appearing on national television recently, Deputy Interior Minister Anatoly Vyborov stated that over the last ten months, the amount of drugs seized in Kazakhstan from traffickers increased by 25%, compared to the same period for last year. Police also detained over 4,000 drug dealers. The... MORE

According to Kazakhstanskaya pravda, officials from the Committee for National Security (KNB) for South Kazakhstan blast extradited Odillkhon Mominov, a citizen of Uzbekistan, back to his homeland. Tashkent wanted Mominov "for his participation in illegal extremist religious organizations of the Wahhabite orientation." According to the... MORE

On October 28 the president of Tatarstan, Mintimir Shaimiev, met in Astana with Kazakhstan's president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, and prime minister, Danial Akhmetov. The leaders discussed ways to deepen bilateral trade and economic links. Kazakh leaders view Tatarstan as one of their most important trade partners... MORE