AZAMAT MUKHAMEDZHANOV

Recovering from the financial and economic crisis, the Kazakh authorities are going to develop the country’s regions. Nursultan Nazarbayev, President of Kazakhstan, spoke about that in his Annual Address to the Kazakh people in 2010.

AZAMAT MUKHAMEDZHANOV

For Kazakhstan the year 2010 started not only with festivities in honour of its OSCE presidency, but also with the necessity to solve serious diplomatic issues.

YAROSLAV ROMANCHUK

The documents establishing the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia were signed on November 27, 2009 in Minsk by Aliaksandr Lukashenka, Nursultan Nazarbayev and Dmitry Medvedev.

ANDREY GROZIN

Medvedev’s visit to Kazakhstan was fruitful. Some said it would be a reconnaissance and ceremonial visit. But as a matter of fact, a lot of practical issues were addressed, certain agreements were reached.

GULNUR RAKHMATULINA

On April 22-23, 2008 President of Uzbekistan Islom Karimov was on an official visit to Kazakhstan, which is of great importance to the development of the mutually beneficial cooperation of the two countries.

ARKADY DUBNOV

Studying in Western universities is the main target for many Kazakh students. For them learning English is not an end in itself, but a means to become part of the Western community. Those failing to learn English, will study in Russia.

STANISLAV PRITCHIN

Central Asia becomes of more and more importance to Kazakhstan’s foreign policy. There are some objective reasons for that. In many respects, Kazakhstan is the region’s leader and seeks to keep this status by stepping up political and, above all, economic cooperation with its neighbors.

GULNUR RAKHMATULINA

The fact that Kazakhstan is stepping up economic cooperation with the Central Asian countries by no means signifies that Russia’s interests in the region are being infringed upon.

NIKOLAI KUZMIN

Kazakhstan does not set its oil and gas policy alone. In this respect its independence is very relative. Astana believes that it is necessary to take account of the interests of consumers and transit countries.

ELENA YATSENKO

The “Nur Otan” party headed by President Nursultan Nazarbayev swept the early parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan with the outcome of 88.5 percent of the votes. This  victory shows that the majority of the Kazakhs pin their hopes on Nazarbayev as their national leader.

ANTON MOROZOV

There are several reasons for the “Nur Otan” party’s sweeping victory in the parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan.

ANDREY GROZIN

“Nur Otan” party’s success means people’s desire to maintain the existing regime. In fact, the elections turned out the referendum on the President’s policy.

ADZHAR KURTOV

The political reform in Kazakhstan has created favorable conditions for the multi-party system. The law has been improved, it is true, but everyday practice shows that the reform will change nothing. In the dissolved Parliament the pro-presidential Nur Otan party had the constitutional majority. I am sure this party will retain the constitutional majority after the elections.

DMITRY VERKHOTUROV

The agreement on strategic oil and gas cooperation signed by Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan during the two-day visit of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to Kazakhstan continues development of the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline project.

ANDREY GROZIN

The parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan will not give any surprises. The political opposition is unlikely to achieve a breakthrough. So any realistic analysis should be focused on how many votes three dominating parties will get.

TIMUR POLJANNIKOV

Is the case against Aliyev connected with the reforms of the Kazakh Constitution? At first sight, it may seem to be so.

ANDREY GROZIN

From now on President Nazarbayev will have a free hand in maneuvering within the elites. He is interested in maintaining the existing peace among the elites.

NIKOLAI KUZMIN

Energy security is the major topic of the negotiations between the Russian and Kazakh Presidents during Vladimir Putin’s visit to Kazakhstan. There is a number of important points here.

TIMUR POLJANNIKOV

Many analysts consider the agreement on the development of the joint nuclear centre on the uranium enrichment to be the “only positive result” of the recent Putin-Nazarbayev meeting (March 19, 2007).

STANISLAV PRITCHIN

The new political year in Kazakhstan began with dismissal of the Danial Akhmetov’s Cabinet on January 8. Later on, it turned out that the replacement of the prime minister was the beginning of the large-scale reshuffle initiated by president Nursultan Nazarbayev.

TIMUR POLJANNIKOV

Tashkent’s move towards Astana is made under the necessity: rapture with the USA after Andijon events forced President Karimov once again to turn to Russia and its strongest ally in Central Asia Kazakhstan.

ASKAR NURSHA

On June 16, 2006 Kazakhstan signed the intergovernmental agreement with Azerbaijan and joined the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Project.

ANDREY GROZIN

The conflict within the ruling elite groups in Kazakhstan is caused by system-related processes rather than by conjuncture factors.

DOSYM SATPAEV

Assassination of Altynbek Sarsenbayev, the Kazakh opposition leader, has utterly shocked both the opposition and the political and business elite of Kazakhstan.

DANIYAR ASHIMBAYEV

Our sociologic centre has made two surveys of the public opinion with regard to the forthcoming elections. The situation is as follows: about 80 percent of the voters are expected to go to the polling stations; 77-85 percent of the voters will support Nursultan Nazarbayev.

DOSYM SATPAYEV, VIKTOR KOVTUNOVSKY

"Most forecasts on Nazarbayev’s ‘clear-cut victory’ are made on the initiative of the President’s environs. In reality, Nazarbayev is afraid of the elections. The repressions against the political opposition speak for that", said Viktor Kovtunovsky.

ALEXEI MAKARKIN

The lower house of the Kazakh parliament (Majlis) has set the date for the next presidential election, which is to take place on December 4. Elections in the post-Soviet republics have tended to coincide with the phenomenon of "color revolutions". For Kazakhstan, however, such a prospect seems unlikely. It is not so much the question of a 9-percent economic growth registered in the first six months of this year (economic growth in Ukraine under Viktor Yanukovich government was as high), or the charisma of Nursultan Nazarbayev, who, as opposed to, say, Eduard Shevardnadze, has not exhausted his political potential. The main point is that there are no grounds for a revolution in Kazakhstan.

The ill-informed Brit might think that the only thing that Kazakhstan and Britain have in common is Borat, the comedy Kazakh invented by British comedian Sacha Baron-Cohen. But actually, the connection is strong and getting stronger. Never mind the jokes – British businesspeople are making serious money in the oil-rich central Asian republic.

This month, President Nazarbayev undertakes his first state visit to the US for five years. As he stands on the White House lawn shaking President George Bush’s hand, he may well reflect that his reign, in its seventeenth year, has been a success.

Kazakhstan, currently chairing the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), by extricating the former Kyrgyz President, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, from internal exile in Jalalabad has highlighted opaque features of the crisis.

Kazakhstan has launched its 2010 chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe with ambitious pledges to bridge divides between East and West and to play a key role in promoting tolerance and conflict resolution.

Russia wants to turn a newly minted Customs Union with Belarus and Kazakhstan into its major vehicle for post-Soviet economic integration in Central Eurasia.

On October 6 the French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Astana on a state visit and met his counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Kazakhstan's defense ministry is actively preparing to host the final stage of the Collective Operational Response Force (CORF) exercise in October.

On June 17, following the CSTO and SCO summits, Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev sacked the country's first civilian Defense Minister Daniyal Akhmetov.

On May 21 Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev characterized the country's forthcoming chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) as a vital part of its interest in pursuing integration with Europe.

During their face-to-face talks Islam Karimov and Nursultan Nazarbayev shared their views on the current state and prospects of mutual relations and discussed the international and regional problems of mutual interest.

Analysts and opposition politicians say the high-stakes information war only scratches the surface in revealing the corruption they say is at the heart of the oil-rich country's political system.

Aliev’s accusation is the latest and most scathing one to date in a flurry of recent public feuding between him and authorities.

Amid accusations of an unfair election campaign, opposition leaders in Kazakhstan cast doubt on the government’s good faith in promoting a fair media environment.

Until recently Kazakhstan's ambassador to Austria, Rakhat Aliev, is awaiting possible extradition to his home country to face charges of abduction and, possibly, illegal business activities.

The size of Kazakhstan’s oil and gas reserves alone make Kazakhstan’s national oil company, Kazmunaigaz (KMG), a worthy topic of study for anyone interested in the NOC’s development.

Current consolidation of the pro-government forces will move the Kazakh opposition still further to the periphery of political life.