Nazarbayev, Tokayev and Kazakhstan’s continuing political reform journey

 Kazakhstan is a central Asian republic with a long, storied history dating back to prehistory, through the Mongol era, the Kazakh Khanate, the Russian Empire, and subsequently the Soviet Union. Thirty-one years after regaining the statehood that was lost when the Kazakh Khanate was absorbed by Russia 180 years ago, Kazakhstan

The status quo is over: Kazakhs want real change

 ABOVE: With the ongoing violence and the loyalty of some security forces being questioned, President Tokayev called in the Russian-led CTSO to restore order. As people worldwide rang in the New Year, Kazakhstan experienced an outbreak of political violence unparalleled in the country’s post-independence history. Kazakhstan is a peaceful, developed

Reforms are transforming Kazakhstan into a modern and effective state

 In 2019, Kazakhstan’s new President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev committed to bring the country to a path of political and economic reforms, enhancing dialogue between the state and its people and implementing a series of significant political and social reforms. A year and a half later, and despite the COVID-19 pandemic Tokayev

Summit of Cooperation Council of Turkish Speaking States

 Above: Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev participates in the Summit of Cooperation of Turkish Speaking States. On March 31, 2021 Kazakhstan partook in an informal summit of the Cooperation Council of Turkish Speaking States. The meeting occurred online due Covid-19 and the inability to host an in-person conference. The council, founded in 2009, is

Kazakhstan — the continued long march to liberal democracy

 Above: President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev (centre) celebrates the 25th anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution of Kazakhstan, August 2020. It has been nearly two years since the first president of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, resigned from his office and transferred power to Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, chair of the Senate and

EXPO-2017: Life after the exhibition

 Photo credit: Irena@EXPO2017 via flickr Two years ago, a new center of cultural life and leisure appeared in the capital of Kazakhstan - the Astana EXPO-2017 exhibition complex. The exhibition attracted significant flows of tourists and citizens - they loved the atmosphere of innovation and knowledge, the festive mood and

The Republic of Kazakhstan 2019 election: Not our democracy but a democracy all the same

 People in the Western world really don’t know what repression is. It’s evident in our discourse on political issues when the words dictator and tyrant are used as low-brow insults directed at countries without much thought to the meaning these words carry. Few understand what real repression is, nor can

100 Steps for Kazakhstan

 President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev and WTO Director-General Roberto Azevêdo at the ceremony of the signing of the Protocol on the Accession of Kazakhstan to the WTO in Geneva on July 27, 2015. In May 2015, President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev announced one hundred concrete steps to further reform the country’s